AMJ.com: Music

Growing up, AMJ was a little out of step with his contemporaries. He listened to classical music when those around him listened to rock, disco when everyone fell out of favour with it, and country when the world was caught up in New Wave. But when he discovered pop in 1984, its influence on him was unmistakable. He wrote his first song that year at the age of 14, and has written over 200 since. In 1988 he started recording his material and so far has at least 60 tracks committed to cassette, CD, or computer. Here are three of them - and their accompanying videos!

AMJ's book Extra Extra!: Memoirs from a Piece of Human Furniture was released in 2005. To help promote it, he wrote a pop tie-in with Leo Marchildon. But, having wanted to make a video since the '80s, AMJ couldn't resist the opportunity to recreate the world of extra work on camera. The resulting video for Extra Extra! brings the text of his book to life with fun, colour, and a myriad of AMJ reinventions! Extra Extra! was also released as a CD maxi-single, complete with remixes. It's sold as a package with a DVD of the video that features the "making of"! It can be found in the Store!
Having spent more than a dozen years in a big city (in this case, Los Angeles), AMJ had grown tired of the noise and smog. Out of this weariness came Fall Down to Earth, an expression of the desire to get back to something simpler and quieter. In 2007, as preparations were being made to relocate to Prince Edward Island to develop the musical The Nine Lives of L.M. Montgomery (see Theatre), AMJ decided to shoot a crude video for Fall Down to Earth using only a digital camera, contrasting the grittiness of North Hollywood and surrounding areas with the greenness of his favourite campground north of Pasadena. It was both a way of showing what he wanted to get away from and an homage to the L.A. he wanted to capture on film before he left it.
But AMJ's latest video creation is his most spectacular yet. Intrigued by the notion that the '80s jams he grew up on are now considered "retro", this concept found its way into song in the form of Generation X (In Full Effect), which captures the trippy sounds of the late '80s. This summer, AMJ released its video - a smorgasbord of fun and familiar '80s images that all Gen X-ers will be able to indentify. Yet AMJ invites all young adults who groove on this "retro" to join him on the dance floor! Now available: the hot maxi-single featuring AMJ's own mixes (including an old school 12" extended mix) and also the reworkings of Gruppe 9 5 and Prince Edward Island's electronica wizard NRJX. It's 42 minutes of music you won't find anywhere else and it's waiting for you in the Store! Coming 9/19/11: The Generation X video single, a DVD that includes a commentary and a making-of featurette. Stay tuned for more GenX goodness!

This fall, AMJ plans to return to work on a genre-spanning concept album that he hopes to record this winter and release in mid-2012. More details to come as they develop!