Published:
February 28, 2015
The exciting rumour about a new album from the legendary band Silver Apples has been recently confirmed. Pioneer musician and co-founder of the American band (cited as ''the gods of space rock''), Simeon Coxe, spoke to The Quietus about the new album, which will contain 11 tracks and is co-produced with English musician Graham Sutton.
Founded in New York in the mid-1960s by Simeon Coxe and drummer Danny Taylor, the group Silver Apples were one of the first to develop a unique fusion of electronica with traditional rock song structures. The group had its own rough times, even from the early years. First, they disbanded in 1970, followed by a mid-90s reunion. Disaster struck in 1998, when Simeon suffered a car accident while in the tour bus. Even more disaster came when Danny Taylor sadly passed away in 2005. But Simeon didn't give up, as he continues to play solo, as Silver Apples. And this is just a very little part of the truncated and harsh history of the band.
For the new album, Coxe has teamed up with Graham Sutton, best known for his contribution to the seminal post-rock band Bark Psychosis, as well as being a producer for alternative rock bands since the late 1990s and even do drum and bass as Boymerang. Recently, Graham has produced the album Field Of Reeds for the British indie rock/art rock band These New Puritans.
''One of the songs on the new record is my answer, 40 years later, to the song 'Program' on the first record, where I sample the radio. This time I sample the TV set and I've got everything from Judge Judy to commercials of one kind or another, but it's the same approach to the song, Simeon Coxe states.
Things didn't really worked as Simeon initially planned, as the whole concept was not just to have an album full of songs, but to have a video that told a story. It was going to involve actors, animation, all together a lot more effort involved, but financially it didn't worked out, as 'the economy went south'.
''A lot of the songs on the new record are based on the story that was told in the opera. It's anti-vampires on earth. They have the same problems as vampires but they're vegetarians. They don't drink blood - they think that the blood drinkers' breath stinks - and they are a race that are invisible to the normal person's eye. But, they see each other and they float around and they're involved in a society. The song 'We Don't Have Much Time Left For Dawn' refers to the sun coming up [when] they have to get back to their coffins. 'I Am So Missing You' is about them looking at people who are still alive and missing that experience. 'The Mist' is all about them walking into a village that a group of soldiers has terrorised, walking through the mist and discovering the bodies and dead animals. It's not stuff that I just conjured up and said, "Yay, this is for Silver Apples." It was all part of that story'', Simeon concludes.
Although a full track list is not yet announced, you may experience a glimpse of how the new album may sound, on the right. For more in-depth, watch THUMP's short documentary film.
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*Read full story on The Quietus
**photo: Silver Apples first concert, New York, 1968