Neu The History Of Apple Pie

The History Of Apple Pie are a London five-piece. Having only been around mere months, the group are now prepping themselves for the release of their debut single ‘You’re So Cool’ via Roundtable Records. We caught up with Steph and Jerome to discuss TLC, their favourite fillings & ‘Terror Twilight’.

Who are you and what’s your role in the band?
We are Steph and Jerome, we are vocals and lead guitar, respectively.

Yuck are apparently big fans of your music. Whose music are you a fan of?
Jerome: I like anything poppy that has weird guitars or noise in it, Blur, Pavement, Sonic Youth, Radiohead etc…Failing pop sensibilities, a loud guitar is a good guitar. It seems a bit like bands don’t mean as much as they did in Blur’s day, it’d be nice to see that change. Around London I really like S.C.U.M, Electricity In Our Homes and Flats, all great.
Steph: Yeah, we’re fans of Lightning Bolt, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and TV On The Radio, too. I’m keen on quite a broad range of music. At the moment listening again to a lot of Xiu Xiu, Aesop Rock’s ‘Jumper Cables’ on repeat and a band called Harlem who write some real good lyrics. Love the old female hip hop groups like JJ Fad, II Tru, TLC… I think the first 7’ I inherited from my sisters was ‘Let’s Talk About Sex’ - it had this great Lichtenstein-style cover artwork.

How did you go about getting your material noticed?
J: We originally made the songs out of boredom at home, something to counter the sometimes claustrophobic vibe of our basement flat. We weren’t really sure whether to go for it or not, but we got some emails from a few different people after putting them up on the Internet and thought we should probably take it a bit more seriously. That’s when we got the other guys in.

How did you all meet/get together as a band?
J: Steph and I have been together (as a couple) for years, and we got the other guys in via a mixture of Gumtree and through friends of friends. We’ve had to teach Kelly the bass from scratch, but she’s come along great and has developed her own style. James and Aslam have played in a band together before this one and were really keen to join. We click really well and just had our first ‘mini-tour’ up North together, which was a good experience.
S: This is my first band and my first time being on stage. Same applies to Kelly, I think. It’s been a whirlwind 6 months. I used to freak out at the thought of ever singing in front of a bunch of people, and it’s taken me a little while to get used to taking on the role as front person but I finally let go around a month ago at one of our shows - I think it was White Heat - in front of all of our friends, which I guess you could argue are the scariest shows. I had a total blast. I think we’ve all finally reached the point where we actually feel like we’re confident and are enjoying the performing now.

Obviously apples are a given but what other pie fillings are a hit with you?
J: I had a bowl of custard the other day (the cupboards were pretty grim) and it made me think how much I hate custard filled things, that weird cold-custard-come-jam stuff, it’s disgusting. I’m pretty into McDonald’s Apple Pie and Mince Pies, they’re good. I think my favourite would be a savoury one, Steak & Ale, can’t go wrong with that.
S: Totally not into apple pie! I don’t mind cherry pie, but I don’t think I’ve actually tried it? I like cherries more than I do pies…unless it’s chicken and mushroom from the fish and chip shop. I’m more of a cheesecake person.

Are there any concepts/topics that you like to revisit when writing music?
S: Well, Jerome loves writing noisy guitar parts. And I guess we’re into double tracking vocals and creating interesting harmonies. We’ve got this song, ‘Before You Reach The End’, initially in the demo recording the lead vox and harmonies I recorded sounded in tune and spot on - but then when we adapted it to live, because Kelly’s voice is different to mine - her voice gave the harmony parts a bit of character. Live, the vocals are almost like in tune with the song and each other, but totally not in tune with the song and each other and that’s pretty fucking cool. It works! Lyrically, I just write about however a song makes me feel. Put myself in some hypothetical situation that I rarely ever find myself in and write some sickeningly soppy lyrics that, when combined with the song, I guess actually turn out to suit it quite well.

The last twelve months have seen a fair few band revivals. If you could bring any band back, who would it be and why?
J: Add N to (X), there’s so many bands around at the minute that sound a little bit like them, but I think it’s hard to match their synth mastery - would love to see them.

Are you working on an album?
J: Not yet, just concentrating on getting the first single out, then worrying about an album, got lots of songs demo’d though!
S: Yeah, the release of the single is pretty exciting for all of us. I don’t think any of us have ever released anything so it’s going to be a great feeling when it’s finally out there.

If you could have any producer in the world to work with, who would you chose to produce your debut?
J: Probably Nigel Godrich, he did all of Radiohead’s records from ‘OK Computer’ onwards as well as Pavement’s ‘Terror Twilight’. He seems really good at creating cohesion across and album and just bringing all the element together properly.
S: Yeah, him or Dave Sitek could work well.

What’s next on the cards for you?
J: We’ve got a limited edition single coming out on Roundtable Records on 27th June called ‘You’re So Cool’ with the b-side ‘Some Kind’. There’s also an accompanying video that we shot in Jaywick in Essex.

Where can people see you this summer?
J: We’ve got our single launch at Madame JoJo’s for White Heat on 28th June and then we’re doing Indietracks, Field Day, Radfest and SWN festival.
S: We’re excited to play the festivals. We just played our first one as a band a couple of weekends ago - Friends Of Mine Festival. There was torrential rain and hail just before we were meant to play, and then the skies finally parted so we could get on with it. Was a great day.