Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Amanda became the lead singer of a band called HAMMAK there, along with drummer Anton Fig (Letterman Show) in the early 70's. She was credited for increasing the popularity and sales of Neil Young in South Africa by covering one of his hit songs at that time "Don't Let it bring you Down". After making her way to New York City by the late 70's, she formed another band with Anton Fig, Keith Lentin (SA guitarist), Holly Knight (American Hall of Fame songwriter) and Jimmy Lowell (USA Bass player) called Spider. They spent a couple of years in New York City playing the local clubs, she jammed with the likes of Link Wray, Paul Butterfield, Chris Spedding, to name a few, enjoying the very alive NYC music scene of the late 70's and early 80's, earning the respect as one of the better singers of her generation. Eventually Spider got signed with Michael Chapman's label Dreamland Records in 1980. The most memorable song to come out of the Spider recordings was "Better Be Good to Me", sung by Amanda originally and covered by Tina Turner who went on to get the grammy for best vocal performance of the year 1984. Spider changed members in 1985, to include rock producer Beau Hill, changed their name to Shanghai, and released a record on Chrysalis Records. In 1986 Amanda moved on to do mainly studio work, writing & recording with Anton Fig in their first home recording set up and Gene Simmons (Kiss) managed Amanda during this time. This ended when Anton went on to join the Letterman Band and Amanda had her second child in NYC. A CD of these first, early home studio recordings Amanda and Anton did, called "Blue.Fig", was released online in 2010. In 1992 Noel Redding (from Jimi Hendrix) asked Amanda to join his band "Redding, Willing and Mabel" in NYC. They spent time together writing, rehearsing and then Noel passed away suddenly. They were good friends and this seemed to be a tipping point for Amanda. The rock and roll lifestyle became more and more difficult for Amanda to navigate and understand, she found herself trying to fit into an 'image' that lacked authenticity, meaning, Soul. Becoming a star and making money in music was never Amanda's no 1 priority, she is a rule breaker, soul seeker, spirit singer at Heart... and the corporate structure of the record business at that time didn't fit the way she saw herself, nor the artist she wanted to become. So, she found herself retreating into the studio more, where she stayed for 20 years, writing, singing, recording, improving her photography, studying as a healer and graduating from the Institute of CoreEnergetics in NYC. She is a certified counsellor/healer and holds healing workshops and private sessions out of her home in Los Angeles. As a multi media artist and spirit rock singer/seeker, Amanda has come full circle, combining all of this into something uniquely her own. A Shamanic dance. "I have moulded a life for myself on my own terms. The main Intention of my art is to bring individual freedom, fun, healing shamanic dance/trance into my own life first and then into the mainstream of music. We don't need anymore rock stars, what we need is more Soul. For our own lives first and then to bring it into the lives of others ... to share". AB