{"id":285099,"date":"2026-07-02T18:26:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T18:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/285099\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T18:26:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T18:26:45","slug":"alex-amen-is-a-rock-climbing-free-spirit-making-high-fidelity-albums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/285099\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Amen Is a Rock-Climbing Free Spirit Making High Fidelity Albums"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\tlex Amen<\/a> knows a good documentary when he sees one. \u201cI can watch a great movie and it can shape the way that I see the world,\u201d the 26-year-old singer-songwriter says. \u201cBut a good documentary will change my life.\u201d He means that literally. Several years ago, while in his first semester at Chapman University in Orange, California, Amen watched Long Strange Trip<\/a>, the 2017 Grateful Dead doc that spans four hours. \u201cIt struck such a chord in me,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s like, the ultimate sales pitch for anybody who wants to be in a band. I called my parents, literally the next week, and said \u2018I\u2019m dropping out of school.\u2019 And I bought a van.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHis Dead awakening is just one of the many turning points in Amen\u2019s journey, from a stint in a historic commune in Anaheim to several years on a remote island in Washington\u2019s Puget Sound. It all leads to the release of his fantastic debut, Sun of Amen, out now via ATO Records. It\u2019s a travelogue of sorts, featuring 10 tracks of stunning acoustic folk, best heard while walking around in nature \u2014 sublime summer listening at its finest. But getting here wasn\u2019t easy, and Amen doesn\u2019t hesitate when asked about the theme of the album. \u201cIt\u2019s heartbreak across the country,\u201d he says. \u201cI really struggled with, \u2018How do I get these heartbreak songs away from each other so it\u2019s not this giant bummer?\u2019 Towards the end of the record, you\u2019re like, \u2018All right, come on, get over it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a late May afternoon in Brooklyn, and Amen is sitting at a booth at Montague Diner, slowly eating a turkey club sandwich. He\u2019s got sideburns and a mustache, and his blue flannel shirt is unbuttoned at the chest. He orders a half-calf cold brew. \u201cI don\u2019t really drink caffeine at all,\u201d he explains. \u201cBut there\u2019s this new Michael Pollan book [A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness] and he raves about caffeine in it. So I\u2019m easing my way back in.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tAlex Amen in Brooklyn, New York, May 2026<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGriffin Lotz for Rolling Stone<\/p>\n

\n\tAmen moved to the city six months ago. That van he bought, and lived out of while rock climbing in Yosemite (more on that later) isn\u2019t needed here, nor is the sailboat he bought and repaired in Washington (we\u2019ll get to that, too). He tends to bike around the city, and he\u2019s surprised by how much he likes his new home. \u201cI had a stick up my ass about the East Coast until I came out here,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I realized, this is way better. It was the first time I really felt like I really belonged to a place, which was a strange thing, because I was not expecting that at all.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tThe title Sun of Amen isn\u2019t a playful nod to Harry Nilsson\u2019s 1972 album Son of Schmilsson, but the record has drawn comparisons to the singer-songwriter decade, both visually and sonically. The blissful opener \u201cDiamonds\u201d kicks off with a wave of acoustic guitar and lap steel that sets the tone for the rest of the album: \u201cI\u2019ve seen early mornings rising\/Where the mountains shine like diamonds in the sky.\u201d His voice is warm and familiar in the best way \u2014 a young artist clearly influenced by the past, particularly Harvest-era Neil Young, yet he\u2019s carving out his own way forward.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmen is used to being asked about the nostalgic aspect of his music; he almost expects it. \u201cI don\u2019t intentionally try to make records sound old, because I\u2019m born in like, the wrong generation,\u201d he says. \u201cI just don\u2019t think the modern ear sounds as good. It\u2019s not about trying to sound old, it\u2019s just trying to sound good. If you listen to Harvest or Joni Mitchell\u2019s Blue, or a lot of Stevie Wonder stuff, it\u2019s unbelievably high fidelity. So I made it about as clean and hi-fi as I could.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSun of Amen was partially recorded at the historic Valentine Recording Studios in Los Angeles, using stellar vintage gear that sometimes required a lot of patience \u2014 like when the tape machine caught on fire. \u201cThe great thing about Valentine is that it\u2019s like a museum,\u201d Amen says. \u201cBut it\u2019s also what\u2019s shit about it, because sometimes there\u2019s no workaround with an issue, or an issue takes like five hours. So it\u2019s a push and a pull and you just have to lean into it. You just have to accept that when you\u2019re there. And a part of it\u2019s nice because we live in a world where everything is so perfect all the time and I think the digital age has really rubbed a lot of the rough edges off of things. It\u2019s those rough edges that feel organic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\tThat analog spect even extends to the vinyl itself, with a cover that features Amen surrounded by nature, with the sun shining through the trees. He says it was pressed by hand, at the one plant in the United States that still does it. \u201cIt has that feeling to it, the type of paper they use and stuff that doesn\u2019t feel plasticky,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of modern records I think feel kind of cheap or something. When you pick up an Allman Brothers record or something, it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, why is this so nice?\u2019 It\u2019s just higher quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe West Coast looms over Sun of Amen like a hazy hangover. Take the highlight \u201cCalifornia Blues,\u201d which has a euphoric melody that sits in stark contrast with the lyrics. \u201cIt\u2019s awful sunny, but watch out honey\/This type of place can make you worn,\u201d he sings, sounding like a true New Yorker. \u201cCabin By the Sea\u201d is equally upbeat, about Amen\u2019s years spent on the Washington island of Vashon. He landed there after the Anaheim commune, where he spent nearly a year immersing himself in the counterculture that persisted well after the Sixties, and starting his first band, American Slang. \u201cWashington made me who I am now, but it almost killed me,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t say that to be dramatic. I think I really was dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAmen moved there with his then-girlfriend in the early days of Covid, and stayed there for nearly four years. \u201cThere was a lot of beauty and a lot of love, but a lot of darkness,\u201d he says. \u201cNeil Young\u2019s \u201cJourney Through the Past<\/a>\u201d couldn\u2019t be more on the [nose] for what I had experienced in Washington, and the person I was with. Their father died and had this very intense childhood dealing with other tragedies. And I loved this person very deeply, and they couldn\u2019t let go of where they came from.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAmen ended up spending most of his time alone, practicing guitar for several hours a day. \u201cI would go like weeks without really talking to anybody,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was like an interesting look at life, and a lot of time in silence. It was almost like a meditation or something, a weird trance.\u201d He also took up sailing at this time, restoring a boat with the help of a carpenter and taking it out to Canada. \u201cI got into it to fill my time, and then I realized that I actually enjoyed it,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a total niche way of life, just like climbing, just like music.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAmen fell into rock climbing at an early age. Growing up in Sugar Land, Texas, a town outside Houston he compares to \u201cthe Edward Scissorhands neighborhood,\u201d he knew he needed something more. \u201cYou go to college and come back and have a corporate job,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I just couldn\u2019t see myself doing that at all.\u201d He saw an ad for climbing, and his world burst wide open. \u201cTo me, a lot of what people stress so hard for and work so hard for is so damn meaningless,\u201d he says. \u201cSo it\u2019s like, why not just lean into it and make your own meaning? Like literally climbing a rock and living out of a car and letting your hair grow long.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tClimbing is what led Amen to attend school in California, where he initially wanted to make rock climbing films (another documentary that changed his life: 2014\u2019s Valley Uprising). The album centerpiece \u201cHer Spirit Wanders\u201d is about female hikers that inspired him in Yosemite, where he spent several springs and summers. \u201cI came across a lot of people who were attracted to that same thing that I was in nature and in climbing,\u201d he says. \u201cI was just in awe of their dedication to their passions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tAlex Amen in Brooklyn, New York, May 2026<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGriffin Lotz for Rolling Stone<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Amen soon realized he didn\u2019t want to climb professionally. \u201cIt was going to ruin the purity of it,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I also realized, \u2018I\u2019m a lot better at music than I am at climbing.\u2019\u201d He began playing piano at age 4, then picked up the guitar as a teenager, inspired by Young, Nirvana, and indie rock \u2014 namely Mac DeMarco. \u201cThrough Mac, I realized you could be relevant in your own time with an instrument and have a unique approach,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter Washington, Amen recorded the 2025 EP The Zorthian Tapes, cut at the Altadena artist colony of the same name. He was signed to ATO in early 2026, just as he moved to Brooklyn. Like his friend and collaborator Haylie Davis<\/a>, he finds the music scene more vibrant than on the West Coast. \u201cI\u2019ve been on a PR campaign to get everybody out here,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot better of a place right now to be musically for a lot of reasons.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHe already has a new album in the can, which he says is a lot lighter than Sun of Amen. But he has no ambitions of being a mainstream star. \u201cI don\u2019t care about being on a stage with screaming people and millions of phones and trying to go out to eat afterwards and getting heckled,\u201d he says. \u201cIf I can just coast and play cool ballrooms and my friends are in my band, and we can save a little bit of money, pay our rent, and eventually buy a little house somewhere, that\u2019s good for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lex Amen knows a good documentary when he sees one. \u201cI can watch a great movie and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[109308,98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-285099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-alex-amen","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}