Lots of changes since Amen Dunes first appeared on our radars with the release of Dia back in 2009 bringing listeners on an unconscious emotional journey for nearly a decade. The journey began for us when New York based Damon McMahon came up with the name Amen Dunes walking down 8th street one day.

Throughout his career, Amen Dunes has constantly changed .Crafted over three years, the new album Freedom is a euphoric breakthrough making an undeniably sexy turn for the fifth studio album. To create Freedom, Damon has surrounded himself with a formidable group of collaborators and longtime friends. In addition to members of the band, including Parker Kindred (Antony & the Johnsons, Jeff Buckley) on drums, add Chris Coady (Beach House) as producer and Delicate Steve on guitars. Thanks to the help of the underground musician Romain Panoram, who finds an important and subtle place on the album that looks at the electronic influences of the youth of Damon.

At first, Freedom is a reflection on becoming an adult, on childhood friends who end up in prison, or worse; male identity, his father, and his mother, who was diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of the recording. The characters that populate the album are a mix of reality and fantasy.

I’ve read that back in the day you used to have an electronic music background, per say. Could you elaborate?

In the 90s I went to raves and clubs in NYC. I never went to rock or punk shows.

Believe, to me, has a more “Americana” registry, it’s mellow and has even an astral quality to it. What inspired you this time?

All my songs at their core are traditional American songs but Believe is more than most. I spent over a year working out the lyrics and chords alone. It was inspired by many, many things, but at the core it’s about mortality and the death and life of my mother.

There is a mention of masculine identity. Can you tell us a bit more of how masculinity and its nuances come to play in Freedom?

Almost every song explores expectations of masculinity either projected or imposed.

Each portrait is a representation of you, of masculinity and your past. And speaking of masculinity how did Miki Dora – famous surfer – inspire you to explore this theme?

I just stumbled upon him one day and boom, he was exactly what I had been exploring and what had been going on inside me.

Finally, you’re touring around the U.S. and abroad starting at the end of this month (and you have already sold out shows!). Any expectations?

Never any expectations…

Listen to the song below:

Interview by Carolina de Medeiros Cosme, shot on 35mm in Paris by Alejandro Gata Lara, Freedom is now out on Sacred Bones