Amy Obenski - An Emptiness to Fill (2016)

With a stark and honest intensity, Amy Obenski’s rich, crystalline voice cuts through the noise of every day life. She’s a California native. Raised in San Diego and now based in San Francisco, the sound of the far west is unmistakably infused into her words and sound. She’s toured the U.S. and France and even got her song “Carousel” onto the TV Show, Grey’s Anatomy.

Her newest project is using a looper with which she plays solo but can double up on her own music to create the sound of a full band plus a small choir. This exploration is captured in her sixth album, An Emptiness to Fill, releasing April 26th, 2016.

In 2014 Amy recorded her previous album, entitled Restless. It was a collaboration between her and a trio of French musicians named The Carbone Band. Between 2011 and 2013 Amy travelled to France three times to play and tour with them which eventually led to the recording of Restless and a month long Artist in Residence at La Maison des Arts in Saint Herblain. The music was a collision of Amy’s free “California girl” sound and the French’s deep passion and intensity.

Amy’s musical history stretches back to age five, when she began singing in her school choir. She took up piano at age six and has been studying music ever since. She finally picked up the guitar when she began songwriting at twenty-two.

In Santa Cruz, California, she supported local organizations through a series of benefit concerts called Take Back Your Forest. Collectively they raised six thousand dollars for the Sempervirens Fund, an organization that purchases and protects redwood forest in the Santa Cruz Mountains. She continues to support these types of organizations as much as possible. In 2012, her Carbon Conscious Tour raised awareness about the burning of rainforest in South America and the affects on climate change.