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| Apollo—Live in December 2014 |
The four members of Apollo each have an extensive background in music—"at least 10 years" each, they said, from "playing standup bass for jazz groups, to smashing your face in with a microphone to some vicious punk." Some former bands the members have been a part of include Deepest Gray, His Boy Elroy, Forever a Prodigy, and Shadow of Creation. Their common ground, they said, is heavy music: "That's where each of us has the most experience composing and performing."
Guitarist Tanner Martin and drummer Patrick Rowell have known each other longest—in fact, Martin grew up watching Rowell play drums for a local progressive metal band. They wound up in a room together with their instruments in February 2013, found they had similar musical interests, and thus Apollo began. "Our first album was started right then and there," they said, "with just the two of them." A local Craigslist ad brought in "monstrous" vocalist Kenny Schneck—"Dear god, enough said," they laughed. "If you know who he is then you know exactly what we mean." Bassist Michael Sanders "and his mystic bass powers" joined the lineup through Craigslist shortly thereafter, and the band was fully formed.
The band name "Apollo" was chosen then, for a few different reasons. "For one, I mean it just sounds cool," they joked. "Really though, hearing that word just invoked a very ominous feeling in us, like the presence of something greater was near." (Martin warned us here that "you guys are gonna think we're crazy before this is done.") The name also references the Greek god, "who was the ruler of music, plagues, poetry... so it felt relevant." They also appreciated the length of the name: "it's short and sweet, and very easy to remember after you see us play or hang out with us."
Apollo as a band tends towards the technical death metal side of the genre, though each member's influences vary widely, as there is a ten-year age gap between the members' ages. They listed GG Allin, The Murder Junkies, System of a Down, Death, Meshuggah, Cattle Decapitation, and The Faceless as just a sample. "We feel like we do a pretty good job of incorporating influences into our composition," they said, "but still balance [the] natural feeling that writing material needs in order to sound real."
The songwriting process itself varies considerably, though, and often happens by accident. "We let the inspiration come to us instead of trying to actively search it," they said. "Writing in this way is how we keep the music authentic and full of honest, translated emotions." The song lyrics, on the other hand, are written very deliberately. In fact, Apollo mentioned that their writing efforts were probably "the most involved, solemn, and effortful part of the music." They went on to expand on that: "The inspirations are drawn greatly from death-philosophy, metaphysics, and the questions/problems of existence in general and the way we handle it. When you play technical death metal, you are kind of given a choice between writing about things literally dying, or digging a little deeper into what it means to die, or to even be alive. Both are controversial, of course, and we have a balance for each of them, but we typically write more about the latter because it is something that we've all thought a lot about throughout our independent experiences on this planet."
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| Apollo—Primus Victima |
Apollo has one track out for streaming at the moment, "Damnatio Memoriae," which was in fact the first song the band ever wrote. It was off Apollo's first album, Primus Victima, which they mentioned was "never released and only played for a short time." Apollo now has plans to hit the studio around March or April of 2015 with James Gillham (Black Earth Records, Invert the Idols) to record their new EP Ritual. "Since we haven't released any recordings of the new material besides rough live videos," they added, "we're extremely excited about putting out some music so fans can finally have something to hold on to and show to others."
Already some new songs from have been debuted live at Apollo's most recent shows, and with the band's attitude towards shows, that's no surprise. "We live for shows," they said. "Definitely expect to see a show, not just a band playing music." They called performing live "the strongest intoxication to all of [them]," and it shows when they play. "Our shows are a very involved and genuine experience," they told us. "We love sharing our ideas and our work with others, and seeing their reactions; whether good or bad. Most of the time we're very erratic and sort of violent with ourselves when performing, which gives a really good incentive for our fans to do the same."
I asked, then, what their favorite show story was. They laughed and mentioned that they hoped the answer wouldn't drive people away from future shows. Last summer, Apollo played at a church that had been known to host heavier bands in the past. "Something we haven't really mentioned yet," they added, "is that there are some LaVeyan Satanism influences within the band—i.e. Kenny." A little drinking "may or may not" have been involved, and the band began to speak their minds a little more than intended. "Turns out you probably shouldn't scream things like 'Hail Satan' into the microphone at a church," Kenny laughed. "Who knew?!"
They went on to say that another important show for them was at Grant's Lounge in Macon. They told me, "something that's really important in metal, in our opinion, is the idea that metal is about opposition, meditated chaos, and finding your place in a completely fucked up world; but also being who you are and having a good-ass time doing it." At Grant's they "took things to the edge again," as they phrased it, leading to some yelling at fans and bar-goers, and even some turmoil within the band itself. "But it's terrible nights like that one that bring you so much closer together as a group," they added. "Finding your limits and understanding when to cross them, and when not to."
Fans can expect to see even more shows from Apollo in 2015: they're scheduled to play a mini-tour with Dog Head and Altar of Flesh in January, and are slated to perform at Black Earth Records' Albany Metal Fest in February. They'll be playing 5-6 songs from the upcoming album Ritual at these shows, and are hoping to get the full-album version out on Halloween. "The material is coming along really well," they said. "We all agree that we're at the cutting edge of our writing, which is a point that takes a lot of time and effort to reach as a band. After working our asses off for almost 2 years now, things are really starting to pay off and we're making a lot of progress really quickly."
I asked if they had any final words they had to share, and they said this:
"Big, big, big, shout outs to our brothers and sisters in Invert the Idols, Dog Head, Dead Hand, The Riggs, Dragon Sleeper, World Demise (WE LOVE YOU, EVAN), X-Ray Vision, Dire, and anyone else who's worked with us or shared the stage with us. We love you all and couldn't be more humbled by your good character, motivation, and willingness to welcome us with open arms. Thanks to all the fans who have and will come throw the fuck down at our shows; it means more than you can imagine to see you all going completely nuts and being so supportive of our dysfunctional, broken family. And of course, thank you so much for the interview, guys. Stay heavy!"
Apollo is made up of Kenny Schneck on lead vocals, Patrick Rowell on drums, Tanner Martin on guitars and backup vocals, and Michael Sanders on bass. Apollo can be found elsewhere on the web at these locations:
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