The Apples in Stereo are an American indie rock band associated with Elephant 6 Collective. The band is largely the project of lead vocalist/guitarist/producer Robert Schneider, who writes the majority of the band's music and lyrics.[1] Currently, The Apples in Stereo also includes longstanding members John Hill (rhythm guitar) and Eric Allen (bass), as well as more recent members John Dufilho (drums), John Ferguson (keyboards), and Ben Phelan (keyboards/guitar/trumpet).
The band is also well known for their appearance in a The Powerpuff Girls music video performing the song "Signal in the Sky (Let's Go)". It aired immediately after the show's seventh episode of season 4, "Superfriends", which was based on the song's lyrics.[2] The band has appeared widely in television and film, including performances on The Colbert Report, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Last Call with Carson Daly, guest hosting on MTV, song placements in numerous television shows, commercials and motion pictures, the performance of the single "Energy" by the contestants on American Idol, and a song recorded for children's show Yo Gabba Gabba.
Band history
1991–1993: The Apples
In late 1991, Robert Schneider met Jim McIntyre on a commuter bus in Denver, Colorado.[3] Schneider had recently moved to Colorado from Ruston, Louisiana, and often initiated conversations with McIntyre. When Schneider asked McIntyre what his music interests were, McIntyre named his two favorite bands: The Beatles and The Beach Boys — two bands which Schneider was particularly fond of. Realizing that they shared many musical interests, McIntyre introduced Schneider to Hilarie Sidney. McIntyre already had a band called Von Hemmling in which McIntyre played bass and Sidney played drums. With Schneider, they discussed the idea of starting a band and perhaps a recording label. Schneider later met Chris Parfitt, who at the time was also already in a band (which Schneider unsuccessfully auditioned for on bass).[3] Schneider and Parfitt also became friends, however, and toyed with the idea of having a rock band similar to The Velvet Underground or Black Sabbath, with production qualities similar to that of The Beatles and The Beach Boys.[3]
The earliest incarnation of the band began to form in 1992 upon Schneider's return to Denver, first between Schneider and Parfitt, both of whom played guitar. The two recruited McIntyre and Sidney during the autumn of that year, practicing material through the winter. Their first few live shows took place the following January, many of which were with the band Felt Pilotes.[3] From February to April 1993, the band recorded their debut 7-inch EP, Tidal Wave, and released it in June as the first record ever to bear the Elephant 6 logo.
1994–1995: Hypnotic Suggestion and Fun Trick Noisemaker
Several conflicts would lead Parfitt to leave the band in early 1994.[3][5]John Hill, a former bandmate of McIntyre's, would join the band as a rhythm guitarist while Schneider began to grow more comfortable playing lead guitar. It was also at this time that Schneider began to take stronger creative control of the band, shifting its sound from its stronger rock qualities to a spacier pop sound.[3] The band started work on a debut album, but it instead became Hypnotic Suggestion, a second EP. However, after SpinART Records offered to buy the band an 8-track in return for an album, new plans for an LP arose.[3]
In mid-1994, after Hypnotic Suggestion, McIntyre would be the second to leave the band, due to a number of personal distresses as well as stylistic changes that arose with Parfitt's departure.[6] Having great difficulty finding a new permanent bassist, the band would rotate a number of frequent bass contributors, including Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Kurt Heasley of The Lilys, Kyle Jones, Joel Richardson, and Joel Evans. Jim McIntyre would also occasionally guest on bass. This continued to be the makeup of the band as they toured the country in late 1994, recording the first half of their new album in Glendora, California. In early 1995, the band finished the album, Fun Trick Noisemaker, at Kyle Jones's house (the birthplace of Schneider's Pet Sounds Studio).
Now with an LP to support, the band began touring again. Eric Allen, whom the band had previously auditioned as a guitarist after the departure of Chris Parfitt, joined the band as a much welcomed permanent bassist.[3] Late 1995, Schneider relocated Pet Sounds Studio to Jim McIntyre's house. McIntyre continued to be involved in the recording and engineering of the band's albums until the mid-2000s.
A significantly different band from the original 1992 four-piece, the official name of the band gradually became "the Apples in Stereo", with the "in stereo" usually somewhat under-emphasized, whether in lower-case or in parentheses. Schneider described this in an interview: "It's very clearcut, actually: we're The Apples, the music's in stereo. It's not actually the band name – it's a step back from it, a band name once removed. We're The Apples, in stereo. Kind of like a TV show, 'in stereo!' That always seemed to be a really big deal, that it was in stereo."[7] McIntyre later remarked, "It's cool the name changed cause the Apples and the Apples in Stereo were really two different entities."[6]
1996–2005: Tone Soul Evolution to Velocity of Sound
The band continued touring through 1996, playing in Japan for the first time. Several early recording sessions were held at Pet Sounds for the band's second album, Tone Soul Evolution, but the members were dissatisfied with the quality of the recordings. The majority of the album's songs were re-recorded at Studio .45 in Hartford, Connecticut before the album's release.[3] In 1998, Chris McDuffie joined the band, playing various instruments including organs, synthesizers and assorted percussion. He would leave the band before Velocity of Sound was released in 2002.
Several more albums were released by the band through the years, including the psychedelic "concept EP",[8]Her Wallpaper Reverie, The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone and Velocity of Sound; both of the latter of which were progressively aimed at capturing the live sound of the band, which continued to tighten as they continued to perform hundreds of live shows (about 100 a year).[9] In particular, the 2002 album Velocity of Sound rejects most of the psych-pop production sensibilities that would come to be associated with the band, instead featuring stripped-down production and sparse, rock instrumentation.
The band members would also continue to pursue careers in side bands and solo projects, with Schneider producing several albums for Elephant 6 artists. Schneider and drummer Hilarie Sidney were married for a time, with a son Max born in 2000.[9] They have since been divorced.
The band went on a brief hiatus during 2004 as Schneider released the debut album from a new band called Ulysses and Sidney released the debut album from her new band The High Water Marks; both were released on Eenie Meenie Records. In 2005, the Apples in Stereo contributed "Liza Jane" to the Eenie Meenie compilation, Dimension Mix. It was also around this time that news began to circulate among various websites concerning the band's next studio album.
2006–2008: New Magnetic Wonder and evolving lineup
The group performing in Washington, D.C. in October 2006
In December 2006, Robert Schneider appeared on the popular television show The Colbert Report singing the song "Stephen Stephen" recorded by the Apples in Stereo to glorify the show's host Stephen Colbert, to kick off a guitar solo contest between Colbert and Chris Funk of The Decemberists.
In 2008, spinART Records went out of business. Rights for all major releases by the Apples in Stereo on the label were subsequently acquired by One Little Indian Records, and have since reverted to the band. In a recent interview, Schneider noted that the band's EPs have yet to have been re-released, but will likely be collected for another compilation. Such a compilation would probably include the re-releases of Look Away + 4, Let's Go! and a number of non-album songs released alongside New Magnetic Wonder.
On August 4, 2008, the band appeared again on The Colbert Report. They performed their song Can You Feel It? to promote the release of the Japanese picture disc.[12]
In early 2008, their song "Same Old Drag" won in The 7th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Pop/Rock Song.[13] The same year Apples in Stereo were nominated for Independent Music Awards Pop/Rock Album of the Year. The band members also joined the 9th annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians' careers.[14]
2009–2011: #1 Hits Explosion and Travellers in Space and Time
The group performing at the Blue Note in March 2007.
In early 2009, Robert appeared on ABC News's segment called "amplified" and gave some short performances of songs from New Magnetic Wonder and a song from his project "Robert Bobbert and the bubble machine" and he described the album as sounding like early 1970s R&B as it would sound played by aliens and emanating from an alien spaceship.He also confirmed that the band was recording their new album at Trout Recording in Brooklyn, New York. In interviews in Billboard magazine and other press outlets,[17]
In April 2009, the single "Energy" from New Magnetic Wonder was performed by the contestants on the television show American Idol and also appears in the AGL Energy commercial in Australia.
The result was the band's seventh album Travellers in Space and Time, released on April 20, 2010, on Simian Records. Described by Schneider as a "retro-futuristic" concept album intended as a time capsule for listeners of the future, Travellers has drawn comparisons to the style of Electric Light Orchestra. The record is the first Apples in Stereo album without Hilarie Sidney, making Schneider the last founding member remaining in the group, although John Hill joined before "in stereo" was added to the name.[18] The band was invited by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he curated in March 2012 in Minehead, England.[19]
Schneider announced in May 2012 that the Apples in Stereo had begun work on a new album, described as being "a very, very different sort of album."
In recent years, Schneider has explored a number of experimental music projects, such as the Teletron mind-controlled synthesizer and Non-Pythagorean scale of his own invention.
2012–present: Death of Bill Doss, hiatus and future
The death of Bill Doss, the band's keyboardist as well as the co-founder of fellow Elephant 6 band the Olivia Tremor Control, was announced on July 31, 2012. The cause of death was an aneurysm.[20] Schneider released a statement saying, "I am heartbroken by the loss of my life-long friend, collaborator and band-mate. My world will never be the same without the wonderful, funny, supremely creative Bill Doss."[21]
The band went into hiatus in the fall of 2012, after Doss' death and Schneider's acceptance into the PhD program in Mathematics at Emory University.[22] In 2013, Phish started covering the Apples in Stereo song "Energy."[23]
In early 2017, Schneider hinted at a new album called The Bicycle Day. He stated on Facebook that "Apples are working on a concept record called The Bicycle Day but it is too deep of a task to finish while I'm in graduate school... it isn't a pop record though ... (Air-Sea Dolphin and my band Spaceflyte with John Ferguson are the new pop projects though)". On August 10, 2017, the Apples played their first show since 2012 as a headlining act at the Athens Popfest music festival in Athens, Georgia with Marshmallow Coast, Antlered Auntlord, and Waxahatchee as prior performers.[22]
In 2018, Schneider received a PhD in mathematics from Emory. In 2021, Schneider became a mathematics lecturer at University of Georgia.[24] As of 2022, Schneider is Assistant Professor, Mathematical Sciences at Michigan Technological University. [25]
Band members
Current members
Robert Schneider - guitar, French horn, lead vocals (1992–present)
The Elephant 6 Recording Company is a loosely defined musical collective from the United States. Notable bands associated with the collective include The Apples in Stereo, Beulah, Circulatory System, Elf Power, The Minders, Neutral Milk Hotel, of Montreal, and The Olivia Tremor Control. Although bands in Elephant 6 explore many different genres, they have a shared interest in psychedelic pop of the 1960s, with particular influence from bands such as the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and the Zombies. Their music sometimes features intentionally low fidelity production and experimental recording techniques.
Jeffrey Nye Mangum is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who gained prominence as the founder, songwriter, vocalist and guitarist of Neutral Milk Hotel, as well for his co-founding of The Elephant 6 Recording Company. Mangum is characterized for his complex, lyrically dense songwriting, exemplified on the critically lauded album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, as well as for his public image as a recluse associated with his extended periods of musical inactivity and minimal press interaction. An article published in Slate described Mangum as the "Salinger of Indie Rock." In 2023, Jeff Mangum received a Grammy award nomination for "Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package".
The Olivia Tremor Control is an American psychedelic band from Athens, Georgia. The band's main line-up consists of Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss, Eric Harris, John Fernandes, and Peter Erchick. The Olivia Tremor Control's music combines indie rock and neo-psychedelia, taking influence from psychedelic pop bands of the 1960s, such as the Beach Boys and the Beatles.
Velocity of Sound is the fifth studio album by The Apples in Stereo, released in October 2002. The American release has an orange album cover, while the European version is green and the Japanese version is blue. The bonus track is also different for each version.
Fun Trick Noisemaker is the debut studio album by the Apples in Stereo. It was recorded in a house in Los Angeles, in Robert Schneider's portable Pet Sounds Studio. It was released in 1995 via SpinART.
Robert Peter Schneider is an American musician and mathematician. He is the lead singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer of rock/pop band the Apples in Stereo and has produced and performed on albums by Neutral Milk Hotel, the Olivia Tremor Control and a number of other psychedelic and indie rock bands. Schneider co-founded The Elephant 6 Recording Company in 1992. He received a PhD in mathematics from Emory University in 2018. As of September 2022, he is an Assistant Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Michigan Technological University.
Tone Soul Evolution is the second album from The Apples in Stereo. It was recorded from February to June and released in September 1997.
Her Wallpaper Reverie is the third album from The Apples in Stereo.
The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone (2000) is the fourth album from The Apples in Stereo. It received generally good reviews as a showcase for the band's experimental/psychedelic pop.
Bill Doss was an American rock musician. He co-founded The Elephant 6 Recording Company in Athens, Georgia and was a key member of The Olivia Tremor Control. Following the band's breakup, he led The Sunshine Fix and later became a member of The Apples in Stereo. Doss was married to freelance photographer Amy Hairston Doss, whom he met while both were attending Louisiana Tech University.
Hilarie Sidney is an American musician best known as the longtime drummer for The Apples in Stereo. She was previously married to Robert Schneider, the band's frontman and Elephant 6 co-founder. Their divorce was announced in 2004. She was half of the now-defunct Elephant 6 duo Secret Square and, with her now-husband Per Ole Bratset, she is a major creative talent behind The High Water Marks.
Science Faire is a compilation album by indie pop Elephant 6 group The Apples in Stereo. The album consists of two EPs and various singles that were released from 1993 to 1995, leading up to the production of Fun Trick Noisemaker. All of the selections were recorded the summers of 1993 and 1994 and appear on the compilation in the order they were recorded.
New Magnetic Wonder is the sixth studio album from the Apples in Stereo. The album was produced by Robert Schneider with additional production and mixing by Bryce Goggin and was recorded in four separate states. The album was released on February 6, 2007 via a co-venture between the actor Elijah Wood's Simian Records, Yep Roc Records and Elephant 6.
Sound Effects is a 2001 compilation album by indie pop Elephant Six group The Apples in Stereo. The album was originally released in the United Kingdom and Japan as an introduction to the band that spans music from 1992 to 2000. It features remastered songs from other albums as well as exclusive radio mixes and acoustic outtakes.
John Hill is an American guitarist best recognized as a member of The Apples in Stereo and Dressy Bessy.
Chris Parfitt is an American guitarist who was one of the founding members of the Elephant 6 indie pop band The Apples in Stereo. Before his 1993 departure, he co-wrote the songs "Tidal Wave" and "Not the Same" with Robert Schneider and his performances appear on the band's original self-titled EP Apples.
Tidal Wave 7" is the debut release by The Apples. The EP, released in 1993, was the first official release under the Elephant 6 Recording Co. label.
Hypnotic Suggestion EP is the second EP by The Apples in Stereo. The record was released in 1994.
Electronic Projects for Musicians is a b-sides and rarities compilation album by the indie rock band The Apples in Stereo. It was released April 1, 2008 under the Simian Records, Yep Roc Records, and Elephant 6 labels. It can be seen as a companion to Science Faire, a 1996 compilation that collects recordings from the band released prior to their first album.
#1 Hits Explosion is a greatest hits compilation album by The Apples in Stereo. It was released on September 1, 2009 by Yep Roc Records. The album culls songs from various LPs and EPs released by the band between 1995 and 2007.
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