If only my high school friendships were so cool (or meaningful). Then again, I couldn’t even play an instrument at the time.
Yet, Elephant 6 started that way. A group of high school and college friends making music together over the years, maintaining ties and seeing what could happen if they pursued their musical dreams formed an indie pop/rock dream collective in the early ’90s - giving way to bands like Elf Power, Apples in Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, Of Montreal and several others.
So now, the Apples in Stereo keep moving forward, 15 years later. Their latest release, Electronic Projects for Musicians, is a “tidying up” of sorts for the now six-piece - a collection of rarities and b-sides. But don’t expect the Apples to close up shop anytime soon as they are headed to the studio to add the next studio LP to an already impressive discography.
Stereo Subversion recently caught the band on the phone to discuss what this rarities project means (not what we thought), where the band’s career has taken them (not where they thought) and starting a new controvery on The Colbert Report.
SSv: So the latest project that you’re touring for, Electronic Projects for Musicians, is this rarities release. Normally when that happens, it’s the end of a chapter for the band, but it seems that your last album was really that turning point album into a new era of Apples in Stereo.
Eric Allen: In a way, doing the Electronic Projects for Musicians is the end of a chapter in the sense that it’s tidying up all these strange tracks that have been floating around - one side of a 7?, bonus singles, just stuff like that. They’re good songs but they’re lost. It’s a good way to get these out there to people that wouldn’t have heard them if they didn’t didn’t buy the vinyl of Tone Soul Evolution. But I know what you mean. That usually signals, ‘This is the last thing this band is going to do.’ It probably would have been more appropriate to have released it before New Magnetic Wonder but…
SSv: Are you touring mainly behind the new project?
Allen: I don’t know if we’ve even decided. I know we’re gonna work up five songs or so off of Electronic Projects. Some of the songs we used to play but that was years ago. We have new members now who have never even heard them until this album came out. So we’re still going to do some stuff off Magnetic Wonder.
SSv: Can you take me back to that time - five years between albums and then you come forth with New Magnetic Wonder - do you remember the statement you wanted to make and, now that there’s a bit of time since the release
Allen: We started writing and prepping it almost two years before then. With every Apples album, we usually have a good idea of what we want it to be - that’s Robert’s [Schneider] specialty. He has that kind of vision. But with this one, he just said, ‘You know what? We’ve got a bunch of songs, so let’s just see where it goes.’ There was no grand scheme when we went into recording. As it progressed, then it became apparent what we wanted to do. We wanted to have lump tracks between songs. We wanted to make it a double album. But none of that was pre-planned. It was kind of organic as the songs and recording came about.
It was a new approach for us and I think it was great. I always find that when you’re sure of something beforehand and once you’re actually doing it, it’s always different. Nothing ever turns out that way. So it was nice to not resist or force it into any corner it shouldn’t belong in.
SSv: I wanted to talk to you about the band’s career and longevity for a second. From the Elephant Six collective to being 15 years in, that’s quite an accomplishment for a band in today’s market. Do you think about these things at all?
Allen: It’s definitely different now. Like you said, music scene changes and we get older and there’s different bands out there. Everything is really changing all the time. At the same time, I feel really proud of what we’ve done and what we’re doing now. And we’re also still the same people, the same group of friends that still has the same ideas about what we want to do. At this point, there’s no reason for us to stop doing it. I really feel lucky that Apples has been around for 15 years now - not many bands can say that.
SSv: Do you feel you’re carrying a torch of sorts?
Allen: Only for the band. It’s nice to represent something to other bands. There are always the bands that come before you that represent something huge, but I think we’re just carrying the torch for ourselves, for the Apples. Anything else we can support is great, but I don’t know. I would love to say in some altruistic way, like ‘we’re doing this because most music out there sucks’ but we’re really just having fun and doing it the way that we like it.
And it’s always been that way with the Apples from the beginning. There were times we could have signed to major record labels, but we wouldn’t have felt comfortable with some of the things they’ve asked us to do. As long as we’re always happy with what we’re doing with the music, regardless of finding success or not, we should be proud of it and still want to listen to that record without cringing. [Laughs]
SSv: Fifteen years in one band - that’s quite the privilege and opportunity.
Allen: I’ve never done anything in my life for that long. [Laughs] I’ve lived in Denver a bit longer than that, but yeah, never done anything for that long.
SSv: You said earlier that you still have the same ideas for the band as when you started…
Allen: We’ve always been into psychedelic rock music and pop music and garage rock music and funk and soul and stuff like that. So in a sense, that’s never changed. Granted we listen to all kinds of different music and I’m sure of that integrates itself different ways over the years, but the core of what the band is, and what it started out as, was a band that draws off the Kinks, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Velvet Underground. We still do that even if we’re not listening to those albums the way we used to. They’re still a part of our DNA.
SSv: Some ideas that haven’t worked? Some things that were mistaken about?
Allen: Well, I don’t know if you’ve heard the album Velocity of Sound, but that was the album that we wanted to do that would sound just like we sound live. Up to that point, we were a four-piece band and our shows were pretty ramshackled and we would play everything three times as fast and we sounded like the Ramones. But our albums were never like that. They were these elaborate studio constructs and there’s a disconnect between the record and live band, but we decided to do this record like the way we sound live. Some people hate that record and, for others, it’s their favorite. It’s not a failure or anything - it actually succeeded in what we wanted to do - but then when it came around to this new album, it was more toward the older Apples stuff.
SSv: So what is happening now? What’s coming up in terms of studio stuff?
Allen: We’ve got a bunch of new songs. We spent a week in Lexington rehearsing for tour but also just working on new songs so hopefully in the fall, we can start recording a new album. I have no idea on time at all; things can move at a glacial pace with the Apples. The distance is such a challenge. Two members are in Lexington, Kentucky. Two are in Denver. Bill Doss lives in Athens, GA and our drummer, John Dufilho, lives in Dallas. So when you’re so scattered, things don’t move in such a quick linear fashion. It would be great to start recording in the fall, but who knows.
SSv: You added three new musicians just two years ago, right?
Allen: [Laughs] Yeah. Actually Bill Doss started playing with us back when Hilarie [Sidney] was playing with us, who was our original drummer. She quit before we finished New Magnetic Wonder. So we added a new drummer in John Dufilho, who played in a band called I Love Math and The Deathray Davies. And also John Ferguson has been singing and playing keyboards and percussion. He joined after New Magnetic Wonder came out, so he’s been playing for a year and a half.
SSv: How did that affect the chemistry?
Allen: It’s really kind of remarkable that everything really clicked instantly. I think part of it was that even though I had never met John Ferguson, he was a friend of Robert’s and Robert knows us all well enough to know that this is a good guy that we’ll get along with. That’s 50% of the battle of the band. Half is musical, but the other half is personalities. If you don’t get along, you’re doomed.
SSv: So when you look back over the last 15 years, if you chose one of probably many defining Apples moments…
Allen: Just over the last year I can think of several. Getting to play in Central Park opening for Television, the ’70s band. We went to Taiwan this year and played a festival. On this tour, we’re playing Pitchfork Music Festival, which will be incredible. Then at the end of this year, we’re playing the Colbert Report.
SSv: You guys have done that before, right?
Allen: Well, Robert has done it before, but this will be full band.
SSv: You guys big Colbert fans?
Allen: Oh yeah. Absolutely.
SSv: It just seems a funny show to allow you to play a full song.
Allen: Yeah, it’s cool that he’s starting to allow real music on the show. It is a weird show to play on. I mean, it’s a fake right-wing news journalist talk show. [Laughs]
SSv: Maybe you can start a Decemberists level of controversy there - maybe challenge him to a bass guitar duel.
Allen: [Laughs] Possibly.