Amos Lee didn't exist before he started performing as a singer and songwriter. Oh, he was a person. He taught second grade. He just wasn't named Amos Lee. The kids and the teachers would just absolutely mangled my name every day, like my last name. I went to this open mic after work, after school one day, and I was like, you know what, dude, honestly tonight, I don't want to have my name. I went to this open mic after work, after school one day, and I was like, you know what,

dude, honestly tonight, I don't want to have my name mangled. I'm just going to put the easiest

name you cannot fuck up on this list. Because I didn't, I was just going to an open mic. Like,

I didn't think anything of it because I'd never really played out before. This was probably the first open mic I ever did.

And that was, like, people lost their shit.

And I went back the next week and I was like, oh, fuck.

Like, I didn't still at that point did not think I was going to be a professional musician.

I was a school teacher. I was not 100% sold that I was going to be a professional musician. I was a school teacher.

I was not 100% sold that I was going to do that my whole life, but I definitely wasn't

thinking like, oh, I'm definitely going to do this music thing.

Like, it wasn't even on the table for me.

It's DePreshmode. I'm John Moe. I'm glad you're here. Amos Lee has put out seven albums dating back to 2005. He's drawn comparisons to artists like John Prime, who inspired Amos to get into music in the first place and later became his friend and mentor.

In this interview on this episode, I talk about how I've experienced Amos Lee's music in the past as kind of chill and acoustic.

I believe I use the word pleasant.

And listen, and you can hear him kind of bristle at that description.

Gets a bit awkward, actually.

For me, I kind of wish I hadn't characterized his music as such.

It's awkward because for the person writing those songs and feeling what's in those lyrics and feeling those moods,

it's often been something much deeper and more

troubling that's going on, something not pleasant at all. Amos Lee has a new album coming out

early next year called Dreamland, and it's a bit of a turn inward. Amos has been dealing with

depression and anxiety most of his life.

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