Indiana garage trio Apache Dropout just released their latest album, Heavy Window, via Magnetic South Recordings this Tuesday. The album’s much darker than their last record, Bubblegum Graveyard which was released in 2012 on Chicago’s Trouble In Mind. We’ve been enjoying the hell out of the LP, so we reached out to the band’s Seth Mahern and Sonny Alexandre to ask them about how Heavy Window came together.
The new album seems to be a lot darker than its predecessor. Is that intentional?
Seth Mahern: Certainly. We were trying to create something both more heavy and tense. More along the lines of our self-titled record.
Sonny Alexandre: Heavy Window was definitely a reaction to Bubblegum Graveyard — that album was seen as our “pop record”, even though it was macabre in its way, and contained a lotta gritty lo-fi heaviness. With the new album, I really wanted to make a straight ahead ripper, something more about resurrecting Ron Asheton than Archie and Jughead.
The tunes for Heavy Window were never meant to be a syrupy jaunt beneath marshmallow skies, and what I ended up writing was actually a kind of exhibition of my darkside. The record is presented as a piece of occult paranoia, with its Saul Bass-style Psycho-vibes and glow-in-the-dark monster movie chic, but it’s actually about my life. How dark is that?
Was it sort of an outgrowth of the slightly more psychedelic folk songs on Bubblegumn Graveyard, like “Hey Valentine”? I mean, I was almost expecting this to be full on Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Sonny: We tried to leave the folky stuff alone for this one. Only one song on the record has acoustic guitar, and it’s more of a Keith Richards-style thing. We did try to make the record as psychedelic as possible, that’s why we went stereo. Mono sounds better; stereo sounds headier. 100% of the songs on Heavy Window were written under the influence. Death to false psych!
In addition to being darker, it’s a little heavier — still bubblegum, but definitely a lot more low-end. What precipitated that?
Seth: I think alot of that has to do with this being our first record that was mixed in stereo. Panning the guitars gave the bass a little more sonic space.
Sonny: We recorded Bubblegum Graveyard so fast that we forgot to, like, jam on it, y’know? That record needed a lot more space, a lot more room for us to just play our guitars really loud. We took a long, frustrating time making this record, so we had a little more perspective on it. We thought, “Hey let’s do what we do best and play our guitars really loud.”
Both Bubblegum Graveyard and Heavy Window have artwork that mirrors the lyrical content — Graveyard looking like a twisted Archie-meets-EC comic, with Window reading like the back pages to the same book. How important is the design to Apache Dropout’s records?
Seth: Design is certainly really important to the band’s over-all aesthetic. We’re really keen on ’50s and ’60s commercial design.
Equally important to your sound seems to be the audio design. It’s very lo-fi, but not to the point where it distorts the hooks and lyrics. What’s the recording process like for an Apache Dropout record?
Seth: We’ve recorded almost everything we’ve ever released at the Magnetic South studio. Its all analog and alot of the process is based on late ’50s and early ’60s recording techniques.
From where did you source all of the amazing audio samples on Heavy Window?
Seth: We’re all big record and VHS collectors. They came from our personal collections.
What led you to release this on Magnetic South, after your last LP on Trouble In Mind?
Seth: Magnetic South finally had enough money in the coffers to pay for the pressing.
It looks like there are scattered dates to promote Heavy Window, but are there any plans for a tour, or does the label take up too much time?
Seth: We’re doing a month long US tour. Gonna see the Atlantic and the Pacific. We’ll be in Lawrence on October 15.
You can find all of the dates for Apache Dropout’s upcoming tour at their Facebook page, and buy Heavy Window from Magnetic South Recordings.