Single: Clone City
Artist: Calling Apollo
Released Date: 18 March 2016

 

Calling Apollo, a band from Cardiff, Wales released their most wanted new single “Clone City” in March. It is of quality craft, and this talented band is the one you will hear a lot more this summer. Following the release of the single, we had a chance to interview the band recently. We talked about the single and their forthcoming EP, which you can find far below on this page.

“Clone City” showcases their impeccable song-writing abilities. It is crafted with the elements of progressive rock, ambiance sound, edgy indie vibe with energy, aggressive yet sentimental. This is a tune which moves you physically (foot-tapping, slight head-banging and dancing) and psychologically.

 

Calling Apollo released their first 5 track EP “Hunter|Gatherer” in May 2015. Even though the quintet has experiences in previous bands, this EP is probably one of the most outstanding musical arts by independent bands. BBC Radio Wales and Andrew Shay of the late Kids In Glass Houses, now resident presenter on Nation Radio Wales are already big fans of the band, and gave tracks from their 2015 EP release ‘Hunter|Gatherer’ (Signal & The Noise Records) a countless amount of airtime and unwavering support.
You can listen to the EP “Hunter|Gatherer” here;

 

With our short notice, Christian Neale, the front-man of Calling Apollo kindly spent some time of his busy schedule to be interviewed by us. Here it is;

Hello, Calling Apollo! First of all, could you introduce yourselves?

Hello, of course. Calling Apollo are Christian Neale, that’s me on vocals, Kevin Williams – Guitar, Dan Hughes – Guitar, Luke Walters – Bass and Zak Woolf – Drums.

How did you all meet up and become a band?

None of us had met before we started Calling Apollo. We had all taken a break from music following our previous bands all self-destructing/running out of steam, but all by chance we found each other online through music forums looking out for new band members. It was a bit like internet dating at first, we encountered some, let’s say “interesting” people, but we all found each other and hit it off from the get-go. True love!

Yes, that internet band dating site is useful tool isn’t it!
Well, Calling Apollo is such a cool name for a band. How did you decide on Calling Apollo as your band name?

Thanks, we like it. Sadly there is no deep and interesting meaning behind the name other than that we all seem to share a particular love for science and space. So the name eventually came from quite a-lot of variations that were pitched between band members. Luckily I manage to land the golden combination, haha.

Still, it sounds cool! Who are your influences? Does everyone listen to similar music or musicians?

Everybody has their own unique taste in the band, which is why I think our style seems to inspire quite a few contrasting comparisons. There is a wide variety of influences between us from At the Drive-in, Circa Survive, Deftones, Foo fighters, Thrice, Come Back Kid to The Cure, The Doors, ELO, David Bowie… too many to list really.

Probably it helps you to create your original sound! How do you go about writing your songs? 

Each song is different, but the good thing is that we all know each other as musicians. Sometimes Kev will send us all a demo which we then contribute to, and then take into the practice room. For example, our guitarist Dan is very good at creating sonic, ambient guitar tones, so if we need something like that, we can suggest it to him and then all of a sudden it’s done. Lately we have been writing new songs organically by just jamming out some random melodies live and seeing where it goes. We record these sessions, and sometimes we can pick out an entire song if we are really lucky.

You have released the single “Clone City”. It’s great to know that your music video for the song has been receiving great responses. How do you describe this song?

It has been doing great and seeing something you worked hard on make it onto Radio/TV is a great feeling if nothing else. “Clone City” is a simple song. Lyrically it’s fundamentally about being the Sheppard, not the sheep and as a band, we hope to think we won’t get pigeonholed to a specific genre. I suppose society influenced it, the lyrics are based on that feeling of being another voiceless product of society and the realisation that you are part of the problem if you don’t stand up and be counted for. As a song it’s pretty catchy and we like catchy, haha.

Okay, that’s interesting. And catchy is good, haha! I hear that “Clone City” is from your forthcoming EP. Could you tell us about your new EP?

Yes it is. It’s taken from our forthcoming EP ‘The Great Depression: Act I”, which is part of a split EP with “ACT II” following shortly after. ‘Act I’ will be available on most formats from mid July onwards. We decided pretty early on to go with a running concept for this release and with so much going on in the world financially and politically we thought it was quite interesting how recent events mirror a-lot histories mistakes and we kind of wanted to produce those past and present contrasts musically. Whether we achieve that I guess is up to you haha, but it’s been fun trying to get there.

It sounds appealing! I can’t wait for what you guys bring to us. Will it be released digitally?

Yes, via the usually formats – Spotify, iTunes, Amazon and BandCamp plus many many more.

Great. Do you have a special show planned for the EP release?

We have been talking about a possible release show but there are not too many details to mention of just yet.

You must be very excited! 

We can’t wait. It’s always an exciting time in the run up to a new release and this is no exception. We hope everyone digs what we have been trying to do.

I hope so too, your music is too good to be missed. Is there anything else you would like to say?

If you haven’t already, then feel free to check out our first release HUNTER|GATHERER via BandCamp/Spotify/iTunes and our debut music video ‘Monsters’ which you can stream on our YouTube channel. And as always check out our Facebook page for all the latest news and random outbursts from the Apollo camp, thanks.

Oh yes! You show us such a beautiful music with HUNTER|GATHERER. And I am very excited about your next EP release, and can’t wait to listen to it! 

Thanks, we will be sure to keep you updated with the release.

Yes, please do! Thank you for your time!

“Clone City” is also available for free streaming via SoundCloud.

 

To find out more about Calling Apollo, visit their sites using the links below;
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CallingApollo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CallingApollo  @CallingApollo
BandCamp: https://callingapollo.bandcamp.com/
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/calling-apollo/id975685635
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/callingapollo
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpK7T_VfZxIZ8b0ji2772uQ