Amy Marie; photo credit: Andrew Diggs
Known professionally only by her first and middle name, Cape Cod based lead vocalist Amy Marie is having the time of her life. Amy Marie has been fronting the Cape’s hugely popular party band Just Like That for six years. The opera trained singer who began taking piano lessons at age five has also branched out into blues with a second outfit she calls Amy Marie and the Soul Stealers. Yet, it’s been no bed of roses, no pleasure cruise. This singer has been through life experiences that many others would not have survived. Music has been one of her outlets for real pain she has had to live through
Amy Marie’s party band, Just Like That, is just something she does for fun, offering a variety of popular music that does not necessarily focus on one genre. “Most of the music is just there to make people happy and dance,” she said. “I love to entertain. I love to get people moving and feeling good. That’s why I like playing with that band. There’s a lot of energy.”
Originally from Connecticut, Amy Marie moved to the Cape in 2013. As a youth in her home state, she sang in youth chorals, choirs, then turned to opera in high school and college. “My coach at the University of New Haven,” Amy Marie said, “saw potential in me to sing classical music.” Opera, though, was not in her future.
“I can’t really act that well,” she said. “I’m not very good at it. People have told me that I can. I’m not really comfortable doing it. So, I never really performed in full operas. I did more like recitals and performed at different concerts where I would sing arias and such. But, I wasn’t really comfortable acting on stage, getting out of my own self.”
Amy Marie did perform in a couple of musicals yet never felt natural. “I felt like I have enough personality on my own. I don’t need to be taking on anybody else’s,” she quipped. “I feel like I don’t have a lot of room for taking on someone else’ personality. I can’t really not put my own stamp on things. To act, you really have to take on a character.”
Yet, her operatic training did translate into making her a powerhouse in more beat driven music. Aside from her leap into Just Like That, Amy Marie had also begun The Amy-Paul Project, a duo she formed with a Cape Cod musician. “He really got me into writing my own music, and getting mr more into jazz, and getting more into blues.”
Amy Marie; photo credit: Eric Fraser
Her paired down Amy Paul duo was formed shortly after she had joined Just Like That and lasted until she and her duo partner began a romantic relationship which did not end well. The duo did educate Amy Marie about other genres that worked for her and got her to think like a songwriter.
“Because I was so classically trained, unfortunately, songwriting was not my forte, at least I didn’t think it was my forte. I didn’t’ think I could do it. With him, when I started getting out of my shell of music, it really helped me start to develop my own style of songwriting. I appreciate him still for pulling that out of me.”
Songwriting became an important outlet for Amy Marie, naturally, as she had lived a life of struggle for several years.
“The ones that write the best stories and the best lyrics are the ones who have the good stories, the ones who have the shit. If you think about Amy Whinehouse. She went through absolute hell. A lot of her lyrics are really emotionally driven by the experiences she had. The public, they relate to a lot of it. It might not be what you’re actually writing about but they relate to stuff, real life stuff.”
Morbid obesity and an abusive relationship are only two of many things the singer has had to deal with. She is one who has gone through a radical weight loss program. Today, she is a fitness trainer and manages a gym on the Cape.
“I’ve been through things that most people don’t actually survive,” she said. “I consider myself really lucky, and I’m just super grateful for all the opportunities I have to do what I do. To have survived and be able to tell people I’ve survived. It all ties in with everything I do with my life, with music, the gym, and just trying to lead by example.”
As a young mother, having her son when she was 20, she went through six years of an abusive relationship. She was miserable, battling depression, and hating everything about herself. She could not make good decisions because of self loathing.
“There was self destructive behavior that ultimately caused me to lose everything I had, my home, my worldly possessions, everything. I lost everything. I consider that the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Amy Marie; photo credit Eric Fraser
When she lost everything, she had to make a choice, either to sit there and cry about it, or, she could work through the emotions and let go of the life she thought she was resigned to.
“By losing everything the only way you can build yourself up and gain the respect of those around you is to look deep inside of you and say ‘Well, what do I have to give?’ Those innate talents and those innate things that make you who are are ultimately what you have to give to the world,” she said.
During 18 months of soul searching and of rebuilding herself, she found her voice again. She weighed, at the time, over 250 pounds. She had zero control of most things in her life, but she could control the quality and quantity of the food she could put in her mouth and how she moved her body.
“That became an obsession for me because there was nothing I could control,” she said. “I got nothing else to do so I may as well try to lose some weight. Then, it snowballed. I started exercising and exercise really makes you feel good. Those feel good feelings started to multiply. People around me noticed I was getting happier. The first 75 pounds came off with just controlling what I put in my mouth, portion control.”
From there, she started singing again, and people complimented her on her voice. She joined a church choir and regained confidence in her vocal work. “You find joy in the little things and one of the things you could find joy in is singing,” Amy Marie said.
Amy Marie; photo credit; Valerie Sullivan
She soon went back to school, finished her degree, learned how to manage a business, manage staff. An accomplished piano player, Amy Marie uses her keyboards at home to write songs. While she does not play out with a piano, it’s an important tool in her compositions.
“Ultimately, I just love to entertain,” she said. “I love dancing, and I love singing, and I love performing and owning a crowd. Sitting behind a piano, I feel I don’t get to do that as much.”
Amy Marie’s other band, Amy And The Soul Stealers, was formed with her acoustic duo partner of three years, Richard Elliot-Grunes. After meeting at church, they formed the duo to play blues, and Amy Marie benefited by his fatherly patience.
“He and I decided to put a band together, just adding a bass player, Art Brisbane and a drummer Rikki Bates. We play funk and soul and a couple of my original songs. It’s just a lot of fun. We don’t play as much as Just Like That plays. We do more outdoor summer concerts on the Cape, and we’ll play once or twice a month. I absolutely adore those guys. I would absolutely say that is my band. I call all the shots in that one.”
Amy Marie’s genre influences for her Soul Stealers include greats like Etta James, Amy Whinehouse, Joss Stone, Janis Joplin within the genres. Vocally, Amy Marie is inspired by Ann Wilson, Barbara Streisand, Amy Lee, and Lizzie Hale. “And there’s a few vocalists who are local to me and I go ’That’s what I want to sound like,” she said.
Amy Marie does not like to define her own original songs into any particular genres, only describing it as jazzy, bluesy. She writes a lot of lyrics because she has a lot of deep feelings she is still getting off her chest. Much of her original material was written with her partner in her Amy-Paul duo. Her ex partner was an accomplished jazz guitarist. “A lot of the chords are very jazz-based. It’s got big grooves. They’re very groovy,” she said. The Soul Stealers will eventually play out more and start working on a recording.
Amy Marie fronting Just Like That
When Amy Marie sings with Just Like That, the singer role there becomes an alter ego for her. She has quite a vocal range and can deliver male driven songs. She was hired to sing for Just Like That the same day she attended an audition at its drummer Janie MacAuslan’s house.
“It is the greatest high ever. It is incredible being on stage with them. I loved singing with them. It’s a party band. It’s about getting people moving. It’s evolved over the couple of years we’ve been together. I do love the alter ego. It’s a very sexy, sexy show. I love wearing my mini skirts, and I love wearing my big heel boots. It’s a show.”
Since moving to the Cape, Amy Marie has purchased a home for her an her son. She put three months of renovation into her new place which stands a mile from the beach.
“To think that not even ten years ago, I wanted to die,” she said. “I thought my life was over. I thought there was no coming back from where I was. I thought that was it. That that was going to define me, the bad decisions I made were going to define me. The truth of the mater is, you define you.
Amy And The Soul Stealers
There isn’t anything a human being can’t accomplish if they put their mind and soul into it and say: You’re not going to say I an what you say I am. I’m going to prove you and everybody wrong. It’s not what you do. It’s what you do afterwards.”
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