Artist: Apparition

Date: 19 October 2008

Every now and again you catch an unknown band (well unknown to us) and are mightily impressed by them and keen to find out more about them.  Apparition is one such band.  A band we caught live in action at the recent Dames Of Darkness Festival in Birmingham.  We catch up with bass player and co-founding member Dave to find out more ...
 

MM - Would you like to start by introducing the band to us and giving us a little bit of history on how the band started?

Dave - Hi I’m Dave, bass player, occasional singer and co founder of Apparition along with drummer Paul. On vocals we have Fiona Creaby Carroll, Keyboards Ian Bentley and on guitars John Yates although it is Richard Knight who we hear on all Apparition recordings so far. We played Dames of Darkness recently and employed violinist Anna Gillions and cello player Dean erm don’t know his sir name lol.

Apparition stated off as a one song side project in 1997 when myself and Paul played in a death metal band called Asphyxiator. We wanted to do something different so we did and wrote and recorded a song called ‘The Pain Lives On’ which was about the mother of Keith Bennet who’s son was murdered by the so called ‘moors murderer’s’ in the 1960’s. As it was a power balled I thought it would be good to have a female singer, especially as it was from a point of view of a woman so I asked my friend Rebecca Tibbet who was a semi pro singer to record it. We put this song at the end of our album ‘Drowned in Questions’.

 

MM - How would you best describe your music to any of our readers who are currently unfamiliar with your music? 

Dave - I would say for fans of Nightwish. 

MM - How have things changed musically with Apparition from the beginning to now? How has the band’s sound matured?

Dave - We have had many line-up changes since the beginning. When I met Jen (keyboards/vocals) in 2004 she was 15 years old and had a lot of teen angst lyrics which we put into songs we wrote together. When we Recorded ‘Drowned in Questions’ in 2005, Jen, Richard and singer Annabelle were only 17 years old and had little experience between them.

It was an odd setup because myself and Paul were and are in our thirty’s so there was a massive age gap between us and them. We all got on although we did face problems but I put that down to the age difference. Richard was never a creative riff writer for our songs so I wrote the guitar riffs. He was good at coming up with leads though. John on the other hand is good at both I believe having Fiona writing more mature lyrics there we will have better songs  

MM - Are there any bands in particular, past or present, that you guys look up to or get inspired by?

Dave - Well Fiona was in an Australian band called Shadowplay which she still admires and mentions from time to time, erm……. all the time that is lol. 

MM - Where did the bands name come from and are there any hidden meanings behind it?  Can you remember any of the other names that were considered at the time?
Dave - Not really just thought it was a good name, sounded good.

MM - The band recently appeared at the Dames of Darkness Festival, how did you come to be involved in that and did you enjoy the festival?
Dave - Last year Paul decided to invite all these female fronted bands to a venue in Stourbridge. Having thrown names around we came up with The Dames of Darkness Festival. It was just a gig but because we used the word festival it captured people’s imagination. I organised this years one all by myself due to public demand. It went well I thought, although some bands said they had sound problems. All bands got on with each other with no ego’s getting in the way and it was a pleasure to work with them all.

MM - The band released their debut album ‘Drowned in Questions’ in 2006, what feedback have you had generally from the fans and media about that album?

Dave - We had mixed reviews. I didn’t think people took into account the age of the majority of the band at the time. How can you compare a 17 year old school girl with Tarja?  Plus we had our own sound which some reviewers didn’t like. The fans liked us though and even though only 2 members still remain in the band that recorded the album it sold well at the Dames of Darkness show.
 

MM - Have you had a chance to think about how you will approach your follow up album or is it too early to say?
Dave - We are doing the finishing touches to 3 new songs which we will put on myspace as soon as. Then we will be either playing more shows or writing new songs with John and if Anna and Dean want to join in then all the better. Myself and Paul can write cool riffs and songs but it is Fiona and Ian that can add that extra bit of magic to them and make them even better.


MM - Can you tell our readers a little about some of the songs that feature on that album.  What subjects to the lyrics deal with?
Dave - Like I said earlier Jen wrote a lot of the lyrics which were about teen love and relationships. I wrote the lyrics to ‘Defenders of Your Faith’ which was about 9/11.

MM - Is the whole song writing process covered by one individual or do you generally all have inputs in to the material?

Dave - We all have inputs although it is me who arranges all the songs and attempts to get the best out of my band when I work with them. I prefer one on one sessions.

 

MM - When writing a new song do you usually start with a lyric, a riff, what works creatively for you?

Dave - The song 'Salvation' which we have done a video for was written after Fiona had given me some lyrics on the day we met. I came up with the music in about 2 minutes. I thought the lyrics were very hymn like and you will be able to hear that influence when you hear the song. 

MM - Is there a song written by someone else that you love and wish you'd been the one to write?

Dave - Probably ‘Sweet Child o' Mine’ by Guns n' Roses. 

MM - Does the band have any live dates lined up? If so how can our readers find out more about these?

Dave - We have no live dates so far. Nobody asks us. They either think we are shit or too good to play with them lol. 

MM - Are there any particular places that you guys would want to tour or anyone you would like to tour with?

Dave - I would love to play in The Czech Republic. I played a mini festival there last June with a Czech band called Hematitt who I was filling in on bass. We got a great reception and although it was the bands first ever show we were mobbed for autographs when we went into town a few days later. 

MM - How has the internet helped spread the word about the band and do you feel downloading is harming the scene or helping to keep it alive?
Dave - Overall it is good because I have made many friends. I think mostly if people download something for free and they really respect the band they will pay for an album at some point. 

MM - What are your long term aims for the band and what do you personally hope to achieve?

Dave - I know I will never make a living from it so I would prefer any profits made to go to good causes like I did with Dames of Darkness.

 

MM - Can you remember the very first time you performed live in front of an audience, how old were you, where was it and how did it feel?

Dave - As Apparition we did one of those Chicago Rock café competitions before we gigged properly. We had to play one song only. We had to sound check without Annabelle because she hadn’t arrived yet. I was going to the railway station to meet her and she phoned me to tell me she had got on the wrong train!!!! She arrived 2 hours late but just in time to go on stage. 

MM - We have seen a lot of changes in the music world, but looking forward what changes would you like to see over the years to come?
Dave - I live in my own little world so I feel if changes are needed I will be the one to do them. I have little interest in what others are doing. 

MM - Finally are there any words you’d like to pass on to all our readers out there or anything that we might have missed that you’d like to mention? 
Dave - Our myspace site www.myspace.com/apparitionworld and website www.apparition-theband.com are very out of date. So when the new songs mentioned are done both sites will be revamped.

Thanks for reading.

MM - We'd like to thank Dave for taking the time out to chat with us today and look forward to seeing the band out on the road some time.

 

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