“Sure it can get pretty lonely sometimes … nobody is immune to that, no matter where your life takes you or whichever walk of life that you come from” says Amy Meyer, rather emphatically and with a steely look in her eyes, “I got my buddies alongside me for most of my days and I’m blessed to have the achievements that I have, but I’m not immune to loneliness, believe me, I get it … I get it a whole lot” she brushes her hair out of her eyes before thinking for a moment, “I have to distract myself whenever I’m starting to feel those old familiar loner tendencies, because it doesn’t end well when I don’t manage to distract myself.” she gives a light smile and continues once more, “My mind sometimes races to images that don’t have any semblance to my own reality, images of where I could be … I’m haunted by my own decisions sometimes but that’s just the way that it is for me, it’s the way that it’s been for the longest time I can remember.” I question whether she has ever considered therapy and she half-heartedly laughs off that suggestion, “No, not quite yet.” she pauses and looks out of the window before glancing back over to me, “You know … I probably should … I think I’d maybe be a little worried about what I discover from it though. I’m quite screwed up on the inside, I could maybe benefit from therapy but I think that the thought of it would just terrify me.” she then laughs out rather loudly, “I’m so damaged!”

Her home is relatively low-key for the lead singer of arguably the biggest rock band in recent memory, that’s not to say that there aren’t any rock and roll indulgences from the flame-haired frontwoman, a rather large Steinway piano is located in the open area lounge just off of the glass balcony doors, “Naturally I don’t believe that I deserve any of this, I’ve grown more comfortable with it as time has passed and I have come to the conclusion that although what I do doesn’t really matter … or at least alongside other more important jobs, I still work hard to achieve what I’ve managed to achieve.” she closes her eyes briefly as she muses the fruits of her labours, “I’m not saying that what I do is enough to warrant the kind of … umm, wealth” she scrunches her forehead slightly at the word wealth, clearly uneasy with it, “But I’m not gonna hand the pay checks and the royalties back to where they came from. I’m aware of the position of power and influence that it can have and I’ve been part of charity foundations for the past three years now and I think that’s important. I’m not gonna come out and make some giant PR statement by handing over a $5 million cheque to a charity to attempt to create a good image of myself, what I do remains relatively low-key, whether that’s volunteering at a crisis hotline or a soup kitchen or donating money to a number of charities, I’m always willing to help, it’s just I don’t want to become a red-headed ‘Bono’” she smiles a little before resting moving around the cushions on the sofa.
This of course doesn’t mean that she doesn’t go crazy from time to time when it comes to shopping, “I have my own little indulgences, that piano over there was one of them, in fact this whole apartment was really, since I got bored of Las Vegas and decided to move out here to New York City, I have started to spend my money a little more freely, I recently just bought a black and red Megelli Sports Motorcycle, it’s down at a garage about eight minutes from here, my first motorcycle. It’s so incredible, like seriously.” she laughs, “You know? I’m pretty sure that I’ve fallen more in love with that motorcycle than I ever have for a guy, I think that says a lot about me … Oh well”

She leaves the room briefly to take a phone call, as I gaze around the lounge area I’m struck by how relatively simple the whole setup is here, with the exception of the Steinway piano that’s set off beautifully by the New York City skyline and the platinum records (Crossroads, Live From Field Trip Festival and their self-titled debut) and the diamond record (Cradle To The Grave) as well as the awards that dominate the mahogany shelving unit alongside quite a collection of books. Other than that it’s a relatively basic apartment, a coffee table, a sofa with a throw rug draped over the back of it, a recliner chair and only a 32 inch widescreen TV, there’s also countless photographs of family and friends scattered around the walls.
It’s not long before Amy returns to the room and slumps down in the recliner chair with a big smile on her face, “The guys are coming out here for rehearsals next week, we saw each other once over the holidays recently, I’m so stoked!” I ask whether she feels a little upset that they didn’t move out to New York City with her when she decided to move earlier last summer, “Nah, I mean in an ideal world they’d be here but you know what? … we’re on the road and in the studio so much together throughout the year that these short one or two week breaks are really the only time we don’t see each other on a daily basis. I think last year there were maybe eleven days in total where I never once saw any of the guys.” I question whether they maybe feel a little dwarfed by the attention that the lead singer gets, “I don’t think so, it’s not like I demand to be the center of attention. I mean, really if you’ve met those guys then you know that they’re not all that interested in the big lavish celebrity lifestyle, they don’t really care about the attention. Maybe Adam does a little, I’m always telling Nathan, Jason and Justin to write a blog on our website or something because it’s always myself and Adam, they’re all ace though, because at the very heart of who they are is just a straight-up desire to play the music.”

Gazing around the relatively large but homely room, you notice that there are photographs of Amy and her band mates, Amy and her family and Amy and her friends, but there does appears to be a lack of Amy and a boyfriend, I think carefully before mentioning the subject that can sometimes be a touchy matter to the rich and famous, but I pluck up the courage to put forward the question of a relationship, “It’s difficult to find the time for real love in this industry, It’s no problem because I turn twenty-years old in the summer, so really there’s plenty of time for that in the future, but for now it’s all about the music and that’s where I expect my focus to lie in the near future.” she thinks for a moment, “I believe that someday I can learn to fall in love, like properly fall in love but right now that’s something that I don’t feel able to do. I like to have a certain amount of control in my own life and with that comes a need to have full control over my emotional state of mind.”
She ponders the question for a deep couple of moments before continuing, “It’s a familiar pattern that when you get involved too deeply with someone then their feelings and actions end up having a huge effect on your own happiness. I don’t mean for this to come across as some loner confession but honestly I’m happier when I’m on my own. I’m not saying that that couldn’t change at some point but I know that if I’m having a rough day then it’s not because of someone else and therefore I’m able to change the trajectory of that state of mind and find a way to turn the tide sort of speak. It’s like finding some sort of silver lining in whatever sort of problem that you may encounter and I’m only responsible for myself, and right now I prefer it that way, there’s no real sadness in my life and i hope that doesn’t change.”

And I’m sure like me, you’re thinking about what former loves may have to say about Amy Meyer as a girlfriend, “I’m sure they’ll probably say that I’m a very emotionally stunted sort of person. I was never the type to express my emotions freely and openly and a lot of the time people would have to sort of work to find out how I’m feeling and such. It’s a bizarre thing for me, I like independence but I’m sure it’s not all that good for relationships but I don’t care about what people feel about me on that state of things. I’m a closed off when it comes to love. I was never one to say “I Love You” too easily, I see friends starting relationships and within days they’re express how much they love each other and talking about the future, it’s no wonder that their relationships crash and burn. But there’s no use in trying to get them to understand that what they’re doing is moronic. You give it all away so soon and then you’ll have nothing left to give, you’re basically setting up your own demise as a couple but people are extremely impatient when it comes to love.”
And is Amy’s life the sort that has random guys appearing in and out of her bedroom each morning, “God no! I’m still relatively inexperienced” she laughs out loudly, “I dated twice before I got into the music industry, then I dated Callum for a short while and that was pretty rough, after that I decided to avoid any forms of human emotion” she laughs a little more softly this time, indicating that there’s an element of seriousness to that last statement, “And there’s been one other person since then but I ran as soon as things started to get real … yet again!” I ask if this is something that she’d like to change, “It’s what I do, if things get real then I get scared and then I run away or hide myself away for days and weeks if I can, obviously it’s a lot more difficult to do that when you’re onstage most nights.”
Does she ever go out on dates?, “People never ask.” she laughs, “I think they know that it would be a mistake.”

Relationships are clearly a tricky subject with the lead singer of Riot!, which takes us into the realm of band relationships and in particular her relationships with Justin and Adam, “Adam is the one that I turn to, if I’m getting stressed out about something then he’s able to calm me down right away, he just makes everything seem simple and he’s always able to make me laugh because something insanely stupid will happen every day whenever he’s around, it could be a moment of complete social awkwardness or an off the-cuff comment that just reduces me to a ball of giggling tears. Musically he’s getting better every single time I see him play and it’s starting to manifest itself pretty quickly as he’s getting all kinds of offers to take on outside ventures away from the band and a whole lot of female attention with it too which he finds rather surprising.” she laughs and turns slightly more serious when she begins to talk about Justin, “I remember Justin being my first real friend from a very early age, obviously as you get older you change, it happens to everybody in some large or small way. But my relationship with Justin has always been strong at the core, the seams just sort of tear away from time to time, I’ll always have a love and fondness for Justin but it may not always be obvious.”
Intrigued by the contrast between the way she talks about the two guitarists I push further on her relationship with Justin, “It’s complicated really, he knows me better than anybody does. But it’s not always a good thing because he knows how to push my buttons and set me off. We’ve fought a lot over the last three years, a large part of that comes down to pressure. It’s a rocky relationship at times but he’s still a large part of my life. There’s been times when I thought we wouldn’t make it through and our friendship would end or that he’d leave the band but we managed to pull through and right now our relationship is on quite solid ground which is a good thing.”

And are there any close relationships between Amy and other musicians?, “It’s kind of difficult for me to form close friendships in the music industry, the amount of free time that I get is often quite limited. Obviously when you’re on large tours with other people like the No Venues Tour, you get to be around fellow musicians from time to time but even then it’s quite limited. There’s bands and musicians that I really enjoy and that I know on some level but generally with the exception of a few it’s mostly just as a fan rather than a friend. There’s people like Lily and James Urie and his little sister Maddie and Billie who I’d call friends. But the majority of my closest friends are people from back home, people that I’ve known for the longest time and the band of course.” she folds brings her knees up towards her chests and wraps her arms around them as she’s sat on the recliner chair, “When you take on massive commitments to your work then things like friendships and relationships tend to fall away from time to time. Obviously right now, for me, the focus is on the band and attempting to go as far as we can possibly go with it, of course we have our first worldwide headlining tour starting in a week or two and that’s the majority of our year planned out, we hope to do a few festivals again because they’re always pretty special to us.”

She smiles as she thinks about what the next few months have in store for the band, “I always love being on tour, at first we kinda roughed it. Sleeping in vans and getting our parents to take us to shows outside of town but now it’s like this massive scale thing where expectations are huge and the crowds are too. You know that no matter what is going on in your world, you could be in the middle of a massive crisis but when you step out onstage all of that has to be left behind for two or three hours every single night. There really is no time to think about your own little worries sometimes and that’s definitely a great thing, performing live is almost like a therapy, it makes you just enjoy the moment and it’s the adrenaline rush that really pulls you through, there’s never any moments in a live performance when I’ve got to think “what’s the next line of this song?” because it just comes natural and I dunno if that will change over the years as we add to our repertoire but it still amazes me how when I’m onstage I’m not at all in control of what I do, It’s the only time that I’m not in control of myself.”

And the band are all just about to break into their twenties, the Mullen brothers reach that age in February while Jason reaches that age in April and both Amy and Adam become twenty years old in the summer, which makes you wonder how far they’ll have reached within the next ten years of their career, already four number #1 records to their name and four number #1 singles, a fanbase that seems to just constantly grow as the months pass by, so what is in store for the long term future of the band? “We made it clear to each other early on that this will be a lifelong thing, once we were signed we made a promise that the next few years will be nothing but dedication and effort to making it as big as we could possibly become and I think we’ve almost achieved that. We are immensely proud of what we’ve done so far and we want to continue to build upon that for as long as possible. That will mean massive amounts of new material, a fourth studio record to be released this year may be a long shot what with the touring commitments throughout the year but we’ll always find a way to put out new material. We’ll hope to release another one or two singles from our latest record but I think this year is very much about the tour.” and is there any worry that they may fall behind in an ever-evolving industry, “We aren’t arrogant enough to assume that we demand a place in the music industry, I think we’ve proven that we work just as hard if not even harder that our contemporaries but we don’t expect anything, yes we still have another release under North Hill Records so that gives us the knowledge that there will at the very least be another record or E.P.
But after that? It’s up to fate and destiny. We have ideas and plans of where we’d ideally like to go. We’d like to be in a position to have absolute security in our own careers. When you’re signed to a label then a large part of whether you make it or not is down to the label and thankfully we’re signed to a wonderful label that gives us as much freedom as we could possibly want, it’s great to know that your bosses trust your own instincts and decisions.”

And does Amy see the band staying with the label further than their current deal, “If an offer comes our way then that’s a great thing for us. But sometimes it’s good to change things up a little. As a band we like the thought of owning our own little independent label and that’s something that we’ve spoken about in quite serious terms, the thought of signing bands that we want to listen to is a big dream of mine and there could be something in that in the very near future. But as far as the band goes, I’d like to think that we could always find a home at a major record label. But I don’t know what the future holds, I think North Hill Records is an incredible label and it’s ethos to its artists have been ideal for us.”
But would the band be willing to listen to offers from other labels, “I think you’ve gotta have an open mind about it. If another label wanted to speak to us about a future with them then it’s something that we would do, as of right now we’re free to talk to other labels, with one release left from North Hill it means that we have to plan for our future in some way, we aren’t actively seeking out contact with other labels because there is plenty of time to figure out the future but at some point then that would be something that we’d have to think about.”

It’s certainly a future that appears to be bright for Amy Meyer and her band of brothers.