Rick Davies plays guitars, basses, and composes for Amoeba. Davies met Rich in 1979 after returning to the United States from a stretch in England and Spain where he played with artists such as Alejandro Arzumanian and the Myxy Rabbits (until their final show at the 1979 Stonehenge festival). Davies was also a founding member of the psychedelic brain-damage band, Psycho Hamster and the Killer Donuts with Paul Ross (The Treatment) and Steve Housego.
Davies went to work at Sequential Circuits, where he developed his synth programming chops and met Robert Rich through DJ Rick Huber. Throughout the 80's Davies collaborated with Rich in several bands, including Quote Unquote and Urdu (with bassist Andrew McGowan) in which Davies doubled on synths, vocals and processed "things." In between their projects, Davies played with the Calm with drummer Sean Kirkpatrick (who later joined Swell) and with art-rock ensemble, The Telling. In the late 80's Davies was also the editor at Music Technology and Home & Studio Recording magazines.
Davies' musical influences include John Martyn, Fred Frith, Derek Bailey, Crowded House, XTC, Gong, Robert Wyatt, Companyia Electrica Dharma, and the Beatles.