I’ve been friends with Amy Taylor since 2015, when we met through a mutual friend who lived in the share house next door to her. I was around 23, and Taylor – front woman of Amyl and The Sniffers – would have been 18 or 19 working at the local Coles in St Kilda. I was an aspiring photographer, doing my own little shoots whenever I could, and Taylor was often around. We would hang out in the sun, bond over music and shared many laughs, we still are always laughing. I was always impressed by her energy and an attitude that was so effortlessly cool – a quality you can’t learn. I respect Taylor for being an incredibly driven individual, completely and unashamedly herself.

I’ve always felt at home with her, which is unique in a friendship where we might only see each other two or three times a year. For me, I know that’s something special. There’s an understanding there. I met Taylor in Melbourne earlier this year to jump in front of my camera once more before Amyl and The Sniffers embarked on their much-anticipated world tour, playing at Coachella and supporting Green Day. More recently, we caught up on Zoom while she had a stop in Italy.

Amy, how are you, how’s Italy?

I’m good, just grabbing a little coffee. Right now, I’m in a place called Cesena. We drove overnight and I woke up in an industrial estate.

Last night, did you play with Green Day?

Yeah, it was fun. It was very hot. We saw them and I thought “this is the sickest shit ever.” I had an epiphany, you know? I felt like this dude, this little legend Billy Joe, he’s like me. He’s just a little legend. He’s like 50 and just looks fresh.

How has the tour bus been?

The tour bus is pretty sick, to be honest. We wake up in backlots, it’s a fun change from a hotel. We’re so lucky to have stuff like [the bus], it’s crazy. Every day we’re driving for seven hours, for months on end. I’m sure everyone has done a version of it, but it’s just a real slog. Musicians complain that touring really takes a toll, which I understand because it’s done the same to me, but you get to play music for a living. Tour can be weird and isolating, but it can be a cruisy job in a lot of ways too. It’s complicated.

I guess you’re still figuring that balance out.

I think you’ll always be figuring it out along the way. Yeah, and I really want that. I want to constantly be challenged.

That’s because you’re a Capricorn [both laugh]. Did you ever feel like there was one particular moment where you felt the band had become something global?

Growing up, it’s not like I read music magazines. I had no concept of the industry. I would just go to local shows. For me, when we got played on community radio I was like, “holy shit, we made it.” With the trajectory of Amyl, there’s always been stuff I wasn’t prepared for. I guess that’s why the pandemic was good in retrospect; it kind of forced me to get my bearings, to figure out what I actually wanted. On this tour we are doing now, we’ve sold out shows of rooms of over 1,000 or 2,000 people. That’s amazing. It really feels different, there’s even people coming out bringing us gifts.

I’ve seen you share fan letters online. That must be quite heart-warming, to feel like you’ve touched people with something you love to do.

Definitely, it makes me feel like what I do is important to people. Sometimes I wonder if what I’m doing is kind of irrelevant or pointless, so it’s nice to get messages from young girls, women, or whoever just saying, “this music has really helped me.” It’s like okay, that’s dope, what I’m doing isn’t just pointless.

“When I was younger, I didn’t understand the world, I didn’t know diddly squat. I still don’t know diddly squat, but I’m hungry to learn about everything.”

That’s beautiful. I was thinking about how much fun we had doing these photos together. How do you find being in front of the camera? Is it similar to when you perform on stage, or do you feel different?

Well first off, I love working with you because I feel super comfortable, I like catching up with you. You’re instantly like boom, you know what you want. But yes, I feel different to how I do on stage. I like being in front of the camera most of the time, but again, with you I can enjoy myself, whereas sometimes I feel like a bit of a court jester. Some people might put out a photo of me where I’m doing something and I think, that’s not me. But you know me, and you know the vulnerable Amy, not just the performer Amy. I did one of my first ever photoshoots with you in 2016. That was the first styled photoshoot I had ever done, you introduced me to that world.

I looked at those photos yesterday and I thought about how beautiful they are. There’s a naivety in the images, in a way that shows me how much I’d grown in those six years. And then I thought, you have too.

We’re lucky to look back at that. That growth is a testament to our ability to learn, and our drive. You might look at those photos and think, “I wouldn’t do this, this and this now,” and if I look at those photos, I might be thinking about that point in my career, when I was just playing opening slots for 20 minutes for whoever, you know? I feel like a completely different person in a lot of ways, but I’m the same person, at the core. Six years ago, I was 19, I was a fresh little thing – and I’m still a fresh little thing.

You’re still a fresh chicken. We’re still Amy and Ellen. Is there anything Amy today might share with Amy six years ago?

What would you say to Ellen six years ago?

Not to take things so seriously. There were moments in my career where I could have taken things less personally. It’s hard as a creative, you’re putting so much of yourself out into the universe, but that’s what I mean when I tell my younger self to be a little more relaxed.

I know what you mean. I think I would say to myself, “start reading books bitch, start reading now!” I didn’t read much before, and over the last two years I have absolutely been gobbling them down. The best thing that’s ever happened to me is finding my love of reading. When I was younger, I didn’t understand the world, I didn’t know diddly squat. I still don’t know diddly squat, but I’m hungry to learn about everything. It’s fun. If I was going to say anything else to myself, I would say, “I’m not going to give you any advice, you just have to wait and see.”

“I think I would say to myself, ‘start reading books bitch, start reading now!’ I didn’t read much before, and over the last two years I have absolutely been gobbling them down.”

I like that.

It’s like that Kenny Rogers song, [The Gambler], “there’ll be time enough for countin’ when the dealin’s done.” Sometimes, you just have to experience things and when it’s done you can reflect on it. You’ve gotta wait for hindsight. I think sometimes a lack of control can be a good thing. If I over analyse the present moment, then I’m not actually in the present moment, and then there will be nothing to analyse later, except for how much I was analysing it!

I could go down the route of asking how it is to be a woman in music, but I imagine that’s something you’re asked often.

It’s not asked as much as you would think. It is tough, I can feel isolated from female company [on tour]. I have to actively push to have the support band be gender diverse and to make sure there is someone in the crew that’s not a male. Just to understand little things. The other day, after the last three weeks of touring Europe and the UK, I heard from a couple of people that there were dudes groping people in the audience. That really upsets me. That’s why it’s important to say something, telling the boys in the band when they ask, “what can we do?” I say, “you can say something on stage, you can stand up for us so we’re not carrying it all by ourselves.” And it’s so crazy, even having this conversation in 2022. It’s really disappointing. What’s it like in photography?

I never thought too much about it. I like to think of myself as ‘Ellen the Photographer,’ not necessarily a female photographer. Once I was asked, “oh you’re a photographer, how do you feel being a female in a male-dominated industry?” and I was a bit taken aback by that comment because it was something I hadn’t deeply considered. I just want to just be recognised as equal to my male counterparts.

Yep, fucken oath. That’s cool because you want yourself to be seen as ‘Ellen, Photographer’ not ‘Ellen, Female Photographer.’ That really says what I’m thinking.