Apollo 440- To The Future

After eight years out of the dance music game, Apollo 440 returned last Monday with their fifth studio album.  The band, in its various forms, have always brought a futuristic, post-modern slant to electronic music and this album, The Future's What It Used To Be, is no different.  Taking their inspirations from philosophy, dubstep and reworks of some old classics, we thought it was about time we caught up with Howard from the band to see why 2012 is the year they made their comeback.

Pulse: You’re currently promoting your latest full-length album, “The Future’s What It Used To Be” and your first in some 8 years. What have you guys been up to since the last album and is this a comeback release or did you never disband?  Apollo 440: Is it really that long? Well time flies when you're having fun. We always operated within our own time and space continuum a bit like Dr Who, kind of like techno dub rock timelords. Apollo Control has never stopped really. Constant 440 research & development, learning new gear, producing new bands and old rock legends alike, writing film scores and developing the live set to peak festival headline capabilities.

The album is mixture of flavours from dubstep and drum&bass to breakbeat and indie rock, there’s even a rework of a house music anthem in C+C Factory’s “A deeper love”. Please tell us a bit about this new album?  Each time we came back after playing really top shows we were inspired to write. Then we would go out and work new songs live before finishing them, so the good vibes from anyone who saw our shows recently are in this album.

“The Future’s What It Used To Be” sees long-time collaborator Ewan MacFarlane appear as lead vocals for the album. Is Ewan now the main front man for the band?  Ewan sings on most of the tracks but he runs about everywhere on stage too much to be called a front man!

There’s a track on the album called “Love is Evil” featuring a thought-provoking sample from Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek. How did the idea of introducing Slavoj’s narrative into the song come about?  Like Slavoj I believe that only love can save us from the void. However the original chorus was too optimistic, so Zijek provides a lemon twist.

Has the philosophy behind the band changed much from your early years?  Our first single and the album title track contain a line which declares that we are only interested in one thing, to get to the future. We never thought it would take so long, but we are still interested.

Are you influenced by any of the new artists emerging in the scene today and is there anyone really catching your attention right now?  The Dubstep scene is giving us really proper new sounds, really astonishing. Not much to see "live" though.

The band has had various line-up changes over the years but what would you say the each individual members of the group today bring to the band?  The core has always remained the same but the working method constantly changes and roles shift about. The sum must be greater than the parts. Sometimes we can't even figure quite how tracks occur ourselves.

Do you still speak with any of the former members of the band (James Gardner, Mary Byker, Paul Kodish)?  Nobody ever really leaves Apollo 440 - a bit like the mafia.  Jim is a music professor and still sends us exclusive synth material from his labcin New Zealand. Mary is on our new album - he tours sometimes with PWEI and lives in Rio. Kodish was poached by Pendulum, fried them off and has been playing with our old mate DJ Fresh.

What’s been the most memorable Apollo 440 moment to date, be it a gig or an album or whatever? For me, our Ukrainian adventures are hard to beat.

The band's remix work is just as impressive with your back catalogue bolstering some iconic artists from U2 to Puff Daddy (or P Diddy as he’s known today) and Led Zeppelin’s legendary guitarist Jimmy Page. Are there any dream artists you’d like to work with? Any future collaborations you can tell us about?  One fantastic but sometimes overlooked remix is our version of Ennio Morricone's "The Man With The Harmonica."

We’ve read that 2012 will see the arrival of the Apollo 440 Sound System, a stripped down DJ only version of the band. When can fans expect to see this alternative incarnation of the band on the road?
Coming to mash up a party near you real soon. You must demand it, write to your MP, the President, the Mayor....

And finally looking to the future, what else have the band got coming up in 2012?  Just let me check my Mayan calendar.....

Apollo 440- The Future's What It Used To Be is out now

Listen to Apollo 440 on Pulse Radio