When you picture the music of down-home cookin', bands hailing from Louisiana and other states below the Mason Dixon line may come to mind. Think again. This New Jersey foursome will have you sopping up their tracks like butter on a biscuit and licking your fingers for more. They have a bluesy, Southern Rock sound, blended with a tinge of gritty, rockabilly folk, and threaded with snatches of rock. How's that for a maelstrom of noise?

Oh, and they do a wicked mean rendition of Neil Young's The Harvest. Yes, the whole album.

The debut album, Everything Between the Moon and the Sun, produced by Ian Larkin, is an auditory treat and showcases the Amboys' ability to change gears and sound with precision and perfection without coming off as overly produced or manufactured. There is a depth and soul to the album seldom accomplished in a debut work. Wonderfully simple lyrics give way to easy-picking rhythm you can tap a beat to and tracks that will have you sipping shots 'til the sun comes up.

The Amboys' have a knack for making music that is touchable, digestible, and addictive. Comprised of C.M. Smith- Singer/lead guitar, Kyle Waugh- rhythm guitar, Manny Castanon- bass, Connor Effenberger- drums, the guys have a sort of self deprecating humor, which is absolutely perfect for their easy, laid-back playing style.

Pleasant, charming, and oozing self-confidence that doesn't quite reach cocky, the band members I interviewed are the type of guys you want to hang out with, bust up a few jaws with, and maybe introduce to your sister. Connor is the affable media hound and keeper of the secrets, (a dirty job but someone has to do it), drumming the group into the psyche's of music reviewers everywhere, and of course, there is a perfectionist in the bunch-- a self-admitted Jim Morrison throw-back, but I'll let you discover which one it is.

Great things are in the works for The Amboys. They have a natural magic and charisma that usually takes a band a lifetime to achieve. They are slowly creeping up on the radar, armed with all the passion, fire, and determination needed to carve out their niche. All signs point to major success.

Bottom line, the Amboys give good ear-candy. Give them a taste. We did. antiMusic went behind the scenes to get a First Look at the Amboys.

aM: You guys sound like you have a lot of Southern Rock influences. Talk a little bit about your sound.

C.M.- When I brought everyone together I had a specific sound in mind. My influences were more country folk. Wilco, Ryan Adams, Gram Parsons and Old 97s. That somehow got mixed up and something weirder and cooler came out. NJ is seeing an emergence of country folky stuff. Were on the edge of it all.

aM: Who are your biggest influencers?

Connor-I listen to a lot of different stuff. Anything from the four tops to animal collective. I try to bring all of that our in my drumming as much as possible.

Kyle- Recently my influences have come from a plethora of musicians, Lucero came into my life about 5 years ago and since I've found them they made me want to play our style of music. Our drummer Connor introduced Man Man to me, and they have made me realize there are so many different options to play around with while making music. 1950's music really influenced me as well with the way they wrote and how simple but powerful their songs were, I could go on for hours about all my influencers but I will wrap it up by saying, my influences come from many different musicians and styles of music, thanks to all my friends and my band mates constantly giving me new music to check out.

aM: You said you met on Craigslist. Talk more about this experience, auditioning each other, et cetera.

Connor- All of my friends were in college, so I needed to find some people to jam with. I looked on craigslist and chris had put out an ad to start a band with a roots rock, wilco, son volt kind of feel. I got into sky blue sky that summer, so it sounded like cool idea.

Kyle- I was the last to join the band; it was pretty scary for me. I had never played guitar for a band before and had only been playing for a couple years at that point, when I showed up the first I person I met was Chris and when he and I started talking he eased my mind. It was a little surreal at the same time cause over the course of playing at one practice with them, they asked me to join.

Cm- Everyone answered my add on craigslist. We worked with a few weird ones before we solidified the line up.

aM: You guys have a really tight sound for only playing together for 2 1/2 years. What do you think helps contribute to that?

Connor- We're not opposed to practicing at all. We enjoy playing with each other and hearing the songs evolve.

Kyle-I think that our drive for playing music we love and love playing together is what contributes to our tightness of sound. I really enjoy playing with these guys and listening to how great of musicians they all are really drives me to step up my game to be on the same level as all of them. We put a lot of time and effort into what we do and we tend to not play a song out live till as a band we all say its ready, we might give a sneak peep to people of the unfinished song but then we might not play it again till we decide its finished.

Cm- I always love hearing that we sounded tight. But I always
feel we could have done better. Weird Jim Morrison perfectionist side
of me. Practice doesn't hurt.

aM: What makes your band work? Any personality conflicts?

Connor- Not at all! We're all buds. Playing together has never felt like work. Any conflicts have been handled face to face. If there's a problem, we talk about it. Wasn't it passive aggressivism(hmm?) that destroyed Rome?

Kyle- Our band works cause no one tries to over power anyone else, we all treat each other as equals and respect each others points of views, although we might not all agree every time we can always come up with a compromise to make things work. As a whole we don't really have any personality conflicts.

CM- its like a relationship. We have to work at it. It doesn't come easy. I get frustrated and don't know how to express it. So I've learned how to creatively work that out.

aM: What did you do in a past life before you started making music?

Connor- I was just listening music. I got my first drum set when I was in sixth grade. Before that I guess I was just sitting around watching pro wrestling and eating a ton of cheezedoodlies.

Kyle-I was a college student and playing music with other bands before I met up with these guys.

aM: What is your day job?

Connor- I'm in school working towards a humanities degree with a concentration in graphic arts. Sometimes I work for a computer chip company, other days I'm washing dogs at my mom's grooming studio, or I'm selling crap on the internet. I always find a way to make a few bucks.

Kyle-As of right now I am working as a wireless designer in NYC doing roof top surveys, this ended up as my career path by accident.

CM- Old timey carpenter. Eventually a real teacher when Gov. Christie resigns. Ha!

aM: What have been your successes to date?

Connor -We won Asbury Parks Top Rock Band of 09. That was pretty cool and unexpected. I remember being in a conversation with a bud while they called our name. I didn't notice what happened until Kyle and Chris came up next to me looking like he was going to puke or something, but he was just exited that we won.

Kyle-Winning the Asbury Music Awards in 2009 for Top Rock Band, and all the accomplishments we have since starting this band, becoming true friends and always helping each other out is the best success I have had with these guys. Not to count out all the traveling we have done together and all the good times playing shows.

CM- Every CD we sell to someone that actually wants to hear the music is a success story to me.

aM: Are you working with a label?

Connor- Nope. I don't think we would mind it, but there's a cool sense of accomplishment knowing that everything we have gotten done has been through our own efforts. Not to mention all the awesome people we've met along the way who have totally have hooked us up with getting shows and stuff.

aM: What's the backstory behind the name The Amboys?

CM-I had a History of NJ class in which we learned of the Duke of Perth who became the leader of The Amboys area in NJ. I thought The Amboys was simple enough to not be tied into a certain kind of music. And the streets signs aren't too bad either.

aM: What have been the biggest musical challenges you have faced along the way?

Connor- The music scene has been slackin lately. Its hard to get people to pay $10 to come to see us play at a bar where drinks are $5 and then trying to sell merch on top of that is a hassle. Something has seriously got to change.

CM- finding our crowd. Getting people to the shows.

aM: Talk about the inspiration behind your songs on the album?

CM-Girlfriends that break up with you and date old friends or guys you hate. Oh and whiskey.

aM: Who does the majority of the lyric writing?

CM- They come quite easily when you have an idea in mind. "Kid in the City" was written in one sitting. My friend Penny was trying to set me up after the big break up. She had a friend Katie. So while I looked her up on the myspace and facebook, she did the same. She reminded me of a girl I once knew. I got interested. She did not. Ha! There's a story like that behind every song on the album. Some line could seems so simple, but most likely there's a 5 to 10 minute story about it and why its there.

aM: Do you collaborate on lyrics and instrumental?

Connor- Lyrics have all been Chris' bag. As far as the music goes, Chris will come to us with a chord progression and we just elaborate from there.

Kyle-As a band Chris writes all of the songs and comes into practice with a rough idea of how the songs should go, then as a band we play around with them and make changes to make the an Amboys song. Chris writes all the lyrics but the instrumental comes down to everyone as a whole.

aM: What are your favorite tracks? Why?

Connor- I'm crazy about "Love Struck Fool." When our producer sent us some of the stuff that he and Chris were working on, I freaked out. The Rhodes and organ combo that Jeff Plate threw down sounded so spooky. Kind of like a bright black morning light song. Then the solo that Chris added in was the icing on the cake. The insane amount of reverb on it made it into one of those stand out moments on the CD.

Kyle-"Too Far (on a broken heart)" is one of my favorite songs off the album, this was one of the first songs I learned to play with the band and Chris's lyrics really hit home with me on this one. Chris's songs related to me more than people realize and I think that's why I enjoy all the tracks we have come up with.

CM- It has slowly become Vicky. It's a simple song done simply. It was just right and I still love the backups our friend Kirsten did.

aM: What tracks do you most enjoy playing live?

Connor- The Right Track is always a fun one to start out with. It gets us amped and lets the crowd know that we're coming full speed ahead. If you're not ready, get out of the way.

Kyle-I enjoy playing all of the tracks, although some of my favorites songs to play aren't on the album. Recently Chris has been writing some really good songs that I can't wait to play live, but I can wait cause I just enjoy playing music live especially with these guys.

CM- Every so often we play The Right Track with the same fire and flair as we used to. Those nights, that is my favorite.

aM: Any thoughts for a next album yet? Will it be more of the same or do you see the band trying new things?

Connor- We've got enough material to cover a few new albums. We're sort of breaking away from the country western feel.

CM- We'll be working with the same producer as the last album. Ian Larkin. Were also going to work with our friend Jeff Plate and everyone else we've met along the time. It's going to be put out as two smaller EP's rather then one long album. The first will be called "In the Woods". I wrote its theme awhile ago and felt the idea summarized the songs that will be on it. It will be on the softer side of our stuff. The second EP will cover the harder stuff.

aM: Any great stories from the road?

Connor- After going down to North Carolina last year for the WE fest we went and stayed with Kyle's Aunt Linda on her giant farm/big boy tomfoolery play place. We got to shoot guns and ride around in these things that looked like golf carts made of David Hasselhov.

aM: If you could play anywhere in the world, where would you play and why?

Connor- Have you ever seen that glass platform they built attached to edge of the grand canyon where people walk out and look a mile down to the canyon floor? That would be a pretty cool spot to play on. (Um, it's called the Sky Walk.)

aM: If you could work with any producer who would it be?

Connor- Josh Homme., the singer from Queens of the Stone Age. That dude makes some really beautiful/eerie albums. Also, if we were able to bring Brian Wilson's brain back from the 60's, he'd be a cool guy to make a record with. Him and Phil Spector were doing some insanely innovative stuff when it came to sound engineering back in the golden age of recording.

aM: You told me you know all the deepest darkest secrets of The Amboys. Can you share any for our readers?

Connor- Half of us have experimented with Nair products. I'll never tell though.

aM: Talk a little bit about Harvest. Are you all fans of Neil Young? What prompted you to put the tribute album together?

Connor- I was a lifeguard last summer at a lake that time forgot about. So I had a lot of time to myself. Harvest was on repeat for a week straight, so I called up Chris and threw the idea of covering the album top to bottom. He was down. Everyone else got into the idea after relistening to the album again.