French-born, Canadian-based, the talented upcoming bass-music connoisseur known as Apashe has been making big waves in the electronic music scene as of late. From working his day job as a Sound Designer in Apollo Studios, to playing live-energy sets at Montreal’s most notorious nightclub, Le Belmont, this one brings the full package. Recently, The Music Ninja had the great pleasure of speaking with Apashe, to talk about his upcoming EP which he just released previews for yesterday, Golden Empire on Kannibalen Records. The producer talks about inspiration behind the release, and how he was able to garner such a following as an artist:
TMN: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview with us today, John. For people who have never heard of you, describe the music you make in three words.
Apashe: Heavy, Epic, Trap
TMN: How did you finally come to the name ‘Apashe’ when beginning music production?
Apashe: It’s a really long story, but to keep it short: my friends used to call me ‘L’indien’, which means ‘Indian’ in French, just because I’m 1/4 Indian. However, when I started making music, I searched for a cool name that I never found so I though “f**k it, I’ll just call myself ‘Lindien’. I thought it was kind of cool until I started playing for people who did not speak French. Then I realize how terrible it sounded in other languages. At that moment, I searched for an alternative and another friend came up with ‘Apache’. We found it bada**! The only thing was that there were already a band called ‘Apache’ as well as an MC by the name of ‘UK Apache’. To make sure I could distinguish myself from the others, I just changed the ‘c’ for an ’s’.
TMN: The guys from Kannibalen Records have certainly played a big role in your career. How do you feel they’ve helped to establish you as an artist and when did you first meet them?
Apashe: I first met them three years ago when I freshly moved from Belgium to Quebec for studying. A friend ‘Lektrique’ introduced me to them. I thought it would be good to work with them a bit in order for me to meet new people and learn more about the scene in Montreal… I never would’ve thought of it leading to this. Today, I believe it might be the best thing that ever happened to me. How I feel they’ve helped me; besides, from the fact that they work really really hard to push me, I think they’ve helped me getting the “self-confidence” I needed to succeed in life. I have always been doubtful about everything I was doing. Is my music good? What am I really doing of my life? They made me realize that it doesn’t matter if what you do is good or not as long as you keep working to get where you want. If you don’t give up I don’t see why you wouldn’t progress and at a certain point getting at a good level. If I look at everything I’ve done in those three years, quite a lot wouldn’t have happened if they weren’t there. Today, we’re like a family, yet a bloody family that is really hungry and not afraid to struggle to achieve our goals. Watch out!
TMN: Who are you most influenced by and who were some of your inspirations before electronic music?
Apashe: There was no ‘before’ electronic music for me, I was born in 1992. I’ve always been into electronic music. My dad used to listen to plenty of musical genres. Classic, Jazz, Metal, as well as electronic music. I can’t remember the first time I heard a Prodigy track but I’m sure I was hearing it before I even knew what music was.
My influences (electronic music): Most of my inspiration does not come from electronic music but if it does I would say Prodigy for the energy and originality, Fat Boy Slim for the grooves, and Noisia for their tight drums, basslines and heaviness.
My influences (not electronic music): Danny Elfman who compose all the soundtracks for Tim Burton’s film has something really unique that I admire. Hans Zimmer for his Epic orchestrations in films like Inception, Batman, Gladiator etc… Then completely different, but I really like Dr Dre and the way he re-samples old funk hits to create new Hip-Hop hits.
TMN: What was your musical background like while growing up? Did you have any knowledge of organic instruments?
Apashe: My dad has played in several bands when he was younger. For him it was really important for my sisters and me to learn an instrument. So, I use to play drums and then I took some music theory classes when I was a child. However, I was too young and forgot everything. Ten years later, I had to learn everything again in university for some orchestration classes.
TMN: Your upcoming EP ‘Golden Empire’ has certainly been quite an interesting topic of discussion lately. How did the collaborations with Zitaa & Odalisk come about and where did you get the inspiration from?
Apashe: Zitaa and I work both for Apollo, the studios where I work at. It only takes a second for us to jump in a studio and try out something. I was working on ‘Golden Empire’ and though it had be cool to have her singing on it. So one day I just ask her “Hey, want to sing on something?” It took us two hours to brainstorm, write the lyrics, record and edit her voice and we were both damn happy with the result!
The other track Sand Storm, I got the same feeling as with my other track ‘No Twerk’. It’s violent and has a lot of heaviness in the lows. Therefore, it needed some high-pitched violence. I immediately thought about Odalisk who delivers exactly what the track needed, some bad a** female violence.
TMN: Thanks for the interview, John. Any new and exciting projects you think we should know about?
Apashe: After this upcoming EP, I want to take some time to finish up some secret collabs I’m working on. All I can say is there will be collabs with sick French producers as well as Hype Americans Producers. I’m also preparing a videoclip that should be ready in the early fall. Be sure to keep an eye out this Tuesday for my release on Kannibalen!
