THE FRONT ROW

Hot on the heels of recent release By The River, Leeds Indie quintet Apollo Junction are back with a new song History. Despite the evidence in the above photo these boys certainly don’t let the grass grow beneath their feet.

Apollo Junction are becoming known for their up-beat, anthemic, feel good tunes, songs like On The Ropes and Light Up The Sky, but History finds the band in a more reflective, contemplative frame of mind as they appear to examine their journey thus far. History is not just the study of the past, it’s about looking back to see where you’ve come from, examining where you are at, and plotting a path to the future.

The band are very much self-made. They manage themselves, promote themselves, and put physical releases out on their own Shed Load record label. They’ve put in a great deal of effort to successfully nurture a fanbase. Among their many enterprises Apollo Junction have taken their fans to a gig at the highest pub/venue in the country; played to them in a haunted house; and most remarkably for a band they even managed to organise a piss-up in a brewery. History feels like a song examining the bands journey and relationship with those fans.

The song starts slowly with a plaintive, thoughtful steel-string acoustic guitar riff, before all the other instruments dramatically pile in, in the manner of Coldplay‘s Yellow. Singer Jamie Williamson then opens up with the line ‘History, the space between you and me’ immediately establishing a connection between the band and the listener. This relationship is lyrically cemented as Williamson exclaims ‘On your own, you can’t face it alone. On your own, you can’t make it alone’. To seal the deal, and demonstrate that the connection is symbiotic, these line are transformed in a later verse as the singer expresses ‘On my own. I can’t face on on my own. On my own I can’t make it alone’.

History undergoes an emotional uplift during the song’s rousing middle section – created by an increase in volume, and the introduction of a theatrical string section – perhaps demonstrating that the band are in a good place in the present. The song resolves itself by reverting to the wistful opening guitar riff as the band gaze into the uncertain future with hopeful anticipation. History has come full circle.

The song itself already has a bit of History as it had a physical release as part a sold-out double A-side 7″ single with the aforementioned By The River. It’s available from April 7th in digital format from your outlet of choice.

‘History is who we are and why we are the way we are’ – David McCullough, US historian. Is right David.

Ian Dunphy.