Rhett: guitar, lead vocals
Raven: bass guitar
Josh: drums, percussion
Influences
Apia is an eclectic mix of ideas, sounds, and grooves drawn from too many bands to count. This is largely because each of the three musicians had their most formative musical experiences just prior to creating this band. Their long friendship combined with their extended musical separation from each other allowed for unique influences to develop on all sides. For certain, each player brings a lot of different things to the experience...
Rhett's influences: Everything has a strong influence of John Mayer. I was floored by something in every album. Whether it is songwriting or musicianship he is always on point. Other influences come from all over. Stevie Ray Vaughan, Victor Wooten, Robert Cray, Warren Haynes, etc... The biggest influences on me musically are the musicians that I have grown up under, the "locals". As of late both of the guys in the band have been major influences and inspirations for me. The musical freedom in APIA allows us each to stretch one another so we can move forward as a whole, and that to me is the most rewarding thing of all...
Raven's influences: My bass playing is influenced most by Justin Chancellor and Paul D'Amour. Chancellor's more melodic, conceptual approach to the bass and D'Amour's bass-meets-rhythm guitar ideas really impressed me at both initial and continued listens. I strive to learn from each of their unique examples. Similarly, I find myself drawn to forward-thinking players such as Marcus Miller, Geddy Lee, and Chris Squire. When it comes to writing and overall expression, I would like to say that I draw the most out of some of my favorite artists, such as Days of the New, Tool, Miles Davis, Tori Amos, Rush and Tricky, among many others. In writing song lyrics, I think more like a poet, not a songwriter, and so my influences here often come from literature. But I would be a liar to deny the influence that certain lyricists, such as Maynard James Keenan and Tori Amos, have had over me.
Josh's influences: Carter Beauford has had the strongest impact on my drumming and overall perspective of the role of percussion in music. His unique style and versatility will never be matched, but I really appreciate his approach and the fact that everything he does is made his own creation by his commitment and pure expression. Another more recent influence is Neal Peart, of Rush, whose vast wealth of musical ability is the envy of nearly every drummer, or musician in general, who has had the pleasure of watching or listening to him play; there is always something to be learned from Neal. I borrow most of the jazz influence in my playing from Tony Williams. I love to incorporate his style of fusion drumming in a lot of our music (to the extent of my current ability). Tony was always true to whatever he needed to express while never straying from the thick groove that seemed to flow through his veins. Others include: Mike Portnoy, Steve Gadd, Stewart Copeland, Danny Carey, and Chad Sexton.
Some of Apia's collective and individual influences may not seem obvious on first or second listens. We like it this way. But when someone says without any prompting that they can hear a certain sound in our music, when they seem to have really penetrated our vision without any help, that is one of the ultimate feelings of pleasure and success. To be heard, to be understood.
Sounds Like
It's really rather all over the place. We borrow things from blues, rock, jazz, funk, psychedelic, you name it. However, comparisons to Dave Matthews are (for the most part) very unwelcome.
Apia comes from the Latin word "apian", which means to be of or similar to bees. Like how the word simian relates a likeness to a monkey.
Why bees? It's a reference to the relationship a hive of domesticated honeybees--several thousand cooperative individuals--have with their hive and their beekeeper, for whom they wind up producing honey. Music, we think, should be the same.
We are all fed culture from the outset of our infancy to the very last of our days. Human culture in particular, as we try to perceive it, is vast, complex, and at its best expansive and enriching. In that culture is nutritive to the soul and must also be produced by what is intended to receive it (intraspecies), it is much like bee's honey. Analogous to the bee larvae and honey, human infants are fed rich culture on which they grow--culture produced by the human collective, the hive, through a superior intangible guiding force, or the hivemind. As humans, like bees, reach adulthood, their role becomes not only to receive culture, but to produce it. This is why music is so important. It is arguably the single greatest cultural transmitter in our human ancestry.
Musicians--like bees--must toil effortlessly to produce a beautiful product, a sort of "honey", simply because it is what they are meant to do. The "honey" then serves the world by enriching human culture and experience, a guardian force that was so kind as to have indirectly produced it by cultivating the musicians in their infancy. This cultural "mother" that all musicians have is the beekeeper to their bee...
But basically, we are a bunch of evil Marxists. So evil that we've opened a CafePress account. Please, if you enjoy our music, feel free to check out our merchandise.
"It's a very exciting time in music. The record business as we know it is over. We have to find new ways to get the music out there. You can't just have some A&R guy saying, "You've got too many kinds of music on this record--we can't figure out how to sell it." Those days are over, thank God! If they can't categorize you, you're probably doing something right. Make the kind of music you want to make--you can do anything you want, so long as you love it."
Steve Jordan
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Well since you disabled HTML code... I can't post my 3D GIF of a Mesoamerican trepanation...jerks
But Hey-pia... how y'all doing on this side of the Mississippi (an allowed (and preferred joke) because you played in Louisville according to the unofficial website of you guys' gigography)?
Oh well things down here are good. Get me that new album so I can play on thy radio show. I have one now, you know.
P.S. Check my order of operations on that parenthetical hoopla I left 2 paragraphs up. Thanks
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