Meet the Band
The band Comprises Philip John on Keys, Piano and Vocals, Sange Wangchuk on Drums, Gautam David on Saxophone, Amrith Raghunathan on Guitars and Vocals, HanumanKind on Vocals and Soorya Praveen on Bass and Synth.
Till. Apes features a myriad of genres within their sound and composition, such as RnB, Soul and hip hop. In delivering a quartet of rhythm, harmony, strong melody and danceability, the core sound of Till Apes emerges. The only thing the Apes care about truly is making people move.
The band came together in the year 2018. With ideas to compose and arrange music that we’d like to hear, all of us really hit it off musically, and that was probably the beginning of this hip-hop/neosoul idea. Amrith moved back from Australia looking to collaborate with musicians in Bangalore. That’s when most of us just starting writing some tunes. Then Gautam David joined a year later almost.
Anatomy of their genre
Confluence of hip-hop, RnB and Soul drawing large influences from genres that are driven by songwriting and storytelling. In delivering a quartet of rhythm, harmony, strong melody and danceability, emerges the core sound of Till.Apes. The only thing The Apes care about truly is making people move. Most of us have grown up listening to some form of hip-hop and that probably just had to be explored at some point but whilst committing to that we realized we could tap into a different sound altogether. All the musicians in this band listen to various different musical styles though. To talk about just one genre within the studio amongst the Apes is blasphemous. Besides that, most of the band members grew up listening to hip hop and jazz. So combining these two elements and inspirations, we were driven to this particular sound. But that doesn’t mean it won’t change for the next record.
Target Acquisition
Our music is on all major platforms so it’s definitely not hard to get your music out there in this day and age but the real struggle is getting people to actually stream your music to its entirety. Attention spans have shrunk, shorter albums seem more interesting.
Gearporn status
We recorded most of the album through a UAD apollo twin interface. Keys through the neve 88Rs channel strip. Bass through a neve 1073 preamp. For vocals, bass, trumpets and saxophone we used UAD LA2A compressors. Couple of mics we used for drum tracking were Audix i5, Beyer dynamic m88 tg, Sm57s for the snare bottom to be specific. The two DAWs we used for were ProTools and LogicPro x.
Puddles & Hurdles
It’s been the usual. No shows to promote the album we released during the lock-down. It’s understandable, which is why we’re using this time to write more material, collaborate with our favorite artists etc. And if struggles meant the struggle that comes with the musician lifestyle then, i guess it’s been the usual. It’s a risky career choice but the key is to not expect anything far fetched, and rather just focus on what you’re supposed to do, which is make music. And hopefully people like what we’re doing, and continue to support an original idea.
The Learning Curve
We’re all working on a lot of things that have potential and commercial value, it’s getting there slowly, but i don’t think the struggling will stop. It’s always going to be us trying to be a step ahead in this creative journey. It definitely does get better though. Obviously because we learn as we go, we learn things from each other, we learn to learn.
"Lift Off"
The inspiration mostly came from the title track ‘lift off’. When we wrote this we realized it could be expanded into a whole concept. Meandering through the rest of the songs we’d written. No matter what kind of music we write, the inspiration will probably always be things we understand better as a group of people. Things to talk about. Observations mostly.
Injections and Infusions
In this scenario of pandemic, I guess spending time on this project would be the most crucial thing. We’re working on schedules so all six of us get time to work on this project. The next step is to work on new music as it should be.
Psychological Rewards
I don’t think any of us regret any of these choices, we’re making music only because we want to. All of us could ideally not do music and get into other fields of occupation, but we’re just doing this because it gives us joy. The rewards are definitely creative satisfaction. Or using this stream of art to dissolve any emotional stress or sentiment. But i dont think any of us have even consciously thought about psychological rewards that come with this career.
Label League
When it comes to worldwide hip hop i guess Def Jam, Death Row these big time ones. But also the newer ones like Future Classic and Vulf. All of these are incredibly big and relevant labels. When it comes to indian labels, we have a few favs, Krunk, OAF, etc.
Competition Time
Obviously most European or american artists are way ahead of their time. We’re only starting, just beginning to understand the nuances of this foreign style.
Well, thank you once again for spending time with us, giving us valuable insight into your career. We wish you all the very best of luck in your endeavours. See you soon at a club.
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