Mini interview #2 with Apollo 18

Apollo 18 (아폴로 18) Red+ album inlay
By now it should be no secret that I’m a big fan of Apollo 18. With two new releases coming up shortly – a re-recorded version of the marvelous Red out on January 14 and a new release going by Violet out on January 28 – I figured it was time for a second mini interview to learn more. Luckily Estella Records‘ Kyono agreed and it didn’t take long before the questions had been answered by the band.

The Red album was already fantastic, but somehow you’ve managed to make it even better. What were your reasons for making Red+?
I am glad that you liked it a lot.

Firstly, we already planned to re-record Red Album because we had done every single thing of Red Album at home by ourselves at that time so it was a lil bit rough.

As some might know, we did many things and a bunch of good things took place around 2009. Meanwhile, we got another good chance to be supported by KOCCA, which gave us a great chance to re-record Red Album for an international version. And we’ve eventually re-recorded it, but we didnt get enough time to prepare for this game so we think we are all sorry because we could have done much more.

What can you tell us about the Violet album? Is violet the result of mixing red and blue even for the music of Apollo 18?
Simply speaking, Violet Album is gonna be the last one from the series we planned to reveal. Well, I don’t think it’s the combination of Red and Blue but just another creature of ours. Additionally, Violet has got four new songs and we really enjoyed ourselves filling the album with pleasure.

It seems 2009 was a good year for you, winning awards and receiving positive reviews for both albums and shows. What about it do you think you will remember the most?
2009 was the year when we got so much attention, which is something we really appreciate. Regardless of whether the attention we got was positive or negative though, we are sure we got some point in many ways last year. We would just like to thank people for that.

I think that the best thing we’ve gotten till now was nothing and for the future we will get nothing for sure because what we try to do all the time on stages is just to make every single minute the best time.

You have already played in Japan, but I hear you have plans for more international exposure coming up. What can you share about this?
Yes, we have been to Japan to play a few shows there and it was a hella fun time.

We gotta mention our label, Estella Records – the side label of GMC Records, and they’re the one label in Korea that have so many connections world wide. Frankly speaking, we really haven’t been expecting too much from the Korean music scene since we signed with them. Literally we – Apollo18 and Estella Records – have been trying to focus on world markets. In the mean time, we got much sweet love from kids in Korea so we had to postpone going abroad for promotion because we have been busy with many things around here.

This year, we would like to tour and promote ourselves as much as we can in USA and Japan with the local labels there. And then I think we will rise to reach the universe from the bottom when doing the same things as we did here last year.

Thanks to the awesomeness that is Kyono, as indicated above I have already done some intensive listening to Red+. As much as I loved Red – even naming it the best release of 2009Red+ is actually better! Although I do recall being blown away by what had happened to Discharge at the first listen, I’ve listened too much to Red+ by now to be able to say what has actually changed between tracks since Red so you’ll have to trust me on this one. And it’s not just like everything old is better – there’s some new material just as good with Time in particular proving a worthy opponent of Warm in terms of repeated play.

Being as awesome as he is, Kyono also set me up with Violet yesterday which, as it turns out, offers a whole different kind of instrumental rock pieces. A bit of it does resemble what can be found on the Red album and even more of it resembles the Blue album material, but indeed Violet is another creature. The first word that came to mind when trying to describe it was “playful” but not to worry – they still sound great and they are still to be played loud!

Read the first mini interview here.

4 Comments Mini interview #2 with Apollo 18

  1. Anonymous

    I had the chance to see Apollo play last night in Seoul. They were fantastic. The last time I saw them was in October and their live set has gotten so much stronger since then. I can’t wait for their Violet CD release party gig in February!

    Reply

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