IN PASSING: APESMA

This series of blogs is called IN PASSING, and in it I'll be interviewing bands/artists I love and trying to shed further light (in the small ways I can) on their music to give anyone who may come across this a reason to listen to them. I want to focus on smaller music that deserves more attention than it gets. All blogs in this series will include an unabridged (yet, slightly edited) interview with the artists and a small write-up from me. As always, send music, shows, suggestions for artist interviews, and anything ever that you want to talk about or see covered to [ fosterhildingmusic@gmail.com ] or DM me on Instagram.

In March of 2024, Kiva and I, alongside Dead Mothers Collective, were honored with the incredible opportunity to document a really beautiful show at Non Plus Ultra in Los Angeles, California featuring Apesma, August, Sad Gods, and Big Brown Cow. If you'd like to watch the full documentary, you can do so here. We interviewed Apesma (Sylvie) about her itchy, aching, guitar-led ballads.

Since Kiva and I both asked questions (her more than I)--her lines will be left-justified and mine will be right-justified.

photos courtesy of Apesma.

How does your approach to writing guitar pieces vary? When do you prioritize texture over melody? Is that only something you can do with a full band?

I think workshopping music with other people is the easiest way to find out what the next step in music, whatever your writing, is--because usually I'm kind of just playing guitar in my room. I can't really make music in DAWs or anything like that because I'm too distractible. I get lost in the black hole of options but instruments are immediate and the sound is kind of right there. I think, between Alex, both of us have a similar process of writing with instruments. He's been working with just making sounds and then trying to arrange them, but I haven't really gotten there yet. Mostly it's just playing an instrument and then decorating it--you know, making a bunch of sounds and then if you don't know what's next, you can stick something in there and workshop it on your own until it works. It's a lot easier to play with other people and honestly more fun if you're willing to schedule, manage personalities, and all of that.

What is a project that you've always wanted to do but haven't gotten the chance to yet? 

I have this Casio. It's a really big Casio that I bought at a pawn shop in high school and I just love playing the drum machine on it. If you stick it in front of a fuzz pedal or something it doesn't sound as goofy sometimes. So, the drum samples that were at the end of the first song tonight are just Casio drums that are kind of blown out and then resampled. My friend Maté and I, we were just jamming--I've just wanted to make a silly project with the Casio for a long time. It doesn't even have to be silly, but I just like the immediacy. I just push the button and it makes a sound and I kind of ride the wave of it. I can't program a beat or something. I've tried to do that. I don't know, I don't have the attention span for it. Maybe if I had an adderall prescription.

Why do you make music? Is it to express yourself or get a reaction from the audience? 

I think I got into it for selfish reasons--because I thought it would make me cool or something. But, also because I've always wanted to travel and see as much of the world and I kind of thought about it and, music feels like the most realistic, I mean "realistic," way of traveling and doing it meaningfully. And, meeting people and just living life fully. I'm trying to write and make music for myself more. I find that when I do that without thinking about how it's going to be perceived that it ends up... if I'm having a good time when I'm writing it, then probably someone else will have a good time when they're listening to it--or a bad time, you know, if that's the point.

What does the future look like for your solo project, Apesma, and everything else you're doing? 

For the solo, I've been thinking about putting a band together for, you know, 25 years. I mean, ideally, it'd be fun to play with a band. I think it's harder now to make bands than it used to be because you have to pay so much in rent, honestly. The financial pressure for our generation is kind of insane, and the time demand that that ends up meaning for people and the emotional labor of working five days a week or something is kind of brutal. So, especially if you're not great scheduling or organizing your life, which I'm not naturally good at, it's kind of hard to throw a band together. But, I really want to have that and play the songs and, you know, make a record. I used to think that I wanted to record it on my own, and I did that for that tape that I made a few years ago because I liked the amount of time that you would have to premeditate and tweak it. After recording the last couple of albums with Sprain, the whole like just going into a room with a well-rehearsed group and banging it out makes that whole process so much easier. And honestly, handing off all of the tedious parts like mixing stuff is so freeing. If you can afford it, you know. That's the hardest part. It's still money--money is unfortunately ruling a lot of that stuff. Same with touring. It's hard to tour if you have to fucking work all the time and your whole life has to get uprooted. I don't know, maybe it was always like that... but rent is objectively higher.

How much and in what ways do you think Sprain influenced the music you make now? 

I mean, it's totally influenced. You know, that was my life for like five years. Alex and I have totally influenced each other. We're best friends in a lot of ways. We show each other music all the time and then playing things together and finding out what feels good, it's like the natural process of discovery. It's the same thing of finding what feels good for you and eventually caring less and less about how you're going to be perceived or what other people are going to think. I mean, I'm still a very self-conscious person in a lot of ways so I kind of obsess over that, which is why I haven't played a lot of solo shows, which I'm working on. I'm in therapy. I don't know, that was my life for so long. Workshopping with that band has totally changed how I've thought about music and to what extent a "song" can be.

Thank you, Sylvie, for closing the night with beautiful sounds. Thanks, everyone, for reading.

-Foster

See Apesma with Jordan Patterson on June 9th at Club TeeGee.