Interview Upbringing: The History of Apple Pie

London look back on their early days - plus hear a brand new track, ‘Jamais Vu’.

28th August 2014

The History Of Apple Pie are streaming ‘Jamais Vu’, a French-tongued twist of a take from their forthcoming second album ‘Feel Something’.

The follow-up to debut ‘Out of View’ is out 29th September on Marshall Teller Records. A quickfire return from the 2013 first work, it features guest contributions from Joshua Hayward of The Horrors (engineering alongside the band’s Jerome Watson). Stephanie Min leads the group through a waltzing, fuzz-doused routine in this latest track, which is premiering on DIY. Take every glistening, eye-opening take the band have delivered so far and amplify it several notches - this is the sound of The History of Apple Pie in their rudest form yet.

The track’s streaming below, alongside a special new Upbringing feature where the band flick through their past to pick out crucial moments from their musical early days. From dodgy shows to eureka moments, guitarist Jerome Watson provides the answers.

What’s the first gig you ever went to?
I think it was something really lame like a school ‘Battle of the Bands’. I have a vague memory that it might have been Engerica at The Twist in Colchester, but I’m sure I went to things before that. I remember the first ‘big’ show I went to was Muse at The Brighton Centre on the Absolution tour, which isn’t really that less lame than Battle of the Bands, I guess.

Growing up, was a personal attachment for music important to you?
My parents exposed me to all sorts of music when I was little. I was about 7 years old when Britpop kicked off so that was really the first genre of music I got into on my own. I used to pretty much have Great Escape and Different Class on repeat at that age and still kind of do. Music is always really important in your teenage years and I was totally one of those kids who locked themselves in their bedroom and listened to records. Music can really help you through the terror of secondary school.

What happened in your first ever gig?
Well Steph and our old bassist had never been in a band before so it was a pretty big deal for them. We played at New Slang in Kingston in The Hippodrome, which is decked out like a giant pinball machine. It’s pretty wild. We were super nervous and not very tight at all, but it was exciting because it was the start of something new and the first time the songs had moved from the bedroom to the stage.

"Anybody in a band from abroad always says how brutal the UK hype machine is."

What’s the best gig you’ve played so far?
Being a big Blur fan, I was pretty excited to support Graham Coxon at HMV Forum in 2012, but I think one we all really enjoyed Best Kept Secret Festival in the Netherlands. The line-up was awesome, we were on just before Melody’s Echo Chamber and we got to check out Wavves and Swans as well. It was a really super fun show - but the best thing about the show had nothing to do with actually playing.

The festival site was a safari park/holiday camp on a lake. We somehow managed to sneak into the closed part of it and have the whole thing to ourselves. There were these land pedalo things and a bunch of other rides, and a weird sort of bouncy skate park thing with scooters. There was a rope bridge over the lake which James decided to shake while I was on and I fell in the lake. I was too wasted on cocktails to really care!

What’s the weirdest tour experience you’ve had?
We had a guy in the audience have a seizure during our second to last song, that was pretty bad. He just collapsed straight onto a concrete floor and smacked his head. We had to stop the gig and it took about an hour for an ambulance to turn up for him. I think It was the day after ‘m b v’ came out and we’d stayed up all night with Rhys and Josh Horrors drinking and listening to it. It was ultimate day-after nightmare, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so freaked out in my life.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given as a band?
This month I have been recording an album with Jay Watson (of GUM, POND, Tame Impala) and we’ve done a lot of amateur philosophising as you do when you’re stuck in a windowless room every day for 8 hours and the thing he said that stuck with me was to ‘just keep doing stuff’. He’d done 4 or 5 POND records before anybody outside of Australia had heard them. It’s all about just being as productive as you can as often as you can.

Another thing that anybody in a band from abroad always says is how brutal the UK hype machine is. How everything rests on your first record so harshly, and you get a lot of exposure in a short space of time, and loads of really good bands crumble under the pressure or get passed over for the latest new thing. That’s kind of messed up and I’ve always been told to try and ignore it or rise above it. You can’t really get on with the first bit of advice until you’ve got over this point and try to get passed what people write or think good or bad and just get on with making music how you want to make it.

Tags: The History Of Apple Pie, Upbringing, Features