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Apollonia’s Dan Ghenacia, Dyed Soundorom and Shonky are riding the crest of a wave at the moment. The momentum rumbling underfoot seems like it’s only going to carry on growing as the Parisian wonder trio build towards the hugely anticipated release of their debut album, “Tour, À Tour.”
Ibiza has been absolutely central to the trio’s careers so far, with their long-running residencies at DC-10 propelling them to widespread recognition. Though once the three friends starting playing together as Apollonia, they truly hit global stardom, even kicking off the Ibiza season with a highly coveted Terrace headline at Amnesia’s opening party.
Dan Ghenacia took a moment out of his hectic schedule to chat with us on the phone from his Paris office about David Guetta’s integral role in their careers, the Minneapolis Sound, and DC-10.
How long have you been coming to Ibiza? Since 2000 – the first year I played for David Guetta. This was way before all his success – he was just a promoter at the time. He was a DJ too, but not the DJ that he is today. Dyed Soundorom was a PR for Les Bain Douches, David Guetta’s club in Paris back in the day. He was a PR and David asked him to promote his night at Pacha. Dyed told him that he would do it if I could play. That was our real start. After the first party we heard about this after party called DC-10.
So we went for the first time and very quickly we became friends with Tania Vulcano and the guys from DC-10. That was the year I did my compilation for Kwality Batofar, my after party. I gave them the CD and they asked me to play once in August. Then I got invited for the closing and the same the next year. The year after that they told me, “When you are on the island, you play for us.” So the next season I just took the risk to move to Ibiza and I became a resident.
As Apollonia we did the opening of Amnesia, which we really enjoyed. We’re doing our individual gigs at Circoloco, we’re playing twice at ENTER., we’ve done one already and the next one is all night long on 18th September – it’s going really well and we’re really happy. I think it’s a really good season compared to last year, where I think there were a few less parties in the same style. The vibe is there. Last year was a transition, but this summer is already amazing.
ENTER. is mainly about techno – how did you find playing that party? Yeah, but we played the Terrace and they booked us for what we do. It’s not like being a resident where you really have to do your job. We do the job as well, but we can really express ourselves and if we want to play deeper that’s really cool.
Do you feel there’s a lot of momentum for Apollonia right now? Yeah, it’s a great time for us I have to say. We play the best festivals, the best clubs, the best slots and we have the chance to play long sessions and we can really express ourselves. On top of this we don’t really touch the music, we try to play what we like and it works. It took time to arrive at this level, but we’re really happy about it and I think people really like us for that so we’re going to carry on. It’s really cool moment for us.
As Apollonia you put a lot of emphasis on playing one record each – why? We realised that when you play long sessions and you play back-to-back, we decided to do that so we don’t lose concentration. It’s more or less the same length of time between each record so after two or three hours that really puts us in a hypnotic groove. There is almost a moment of trance – we really get it. We can play for a very long time. If we were playing two or three records each we wouldn’t be so concentrated and we wouldn’t have that hypnotising effect.
It works so well – is it down to how long you’ve played together? It works so well because we never prepare the set and we know each other really well. Back-to-back with two guys is more like an ego thing, but the three of us, we play like one artist. We are Apollonia in that moment.
Moving onto the album – tell us about the concept and how it started. We’ve been touring for almost two years as Apollonia and we’ve got the gigs, the festivals and the all the best slots without any music. So we just decided to sit down and do the same in the studio. We spent the whole winter in Berlin at Shonky’s studio. We didn’t take any gigs on Thursdays or Sundays so we had four days in a row where we were working 8 or 10 hours a day. Living together as well – we’ve been friends for many years, but we spent the whole winter waking up, going to the gym, going to the grocery store, making food together and making music together. That was a fantastic experience, my best winter so far.
What is the dynamic between the three of you when you make music? Honestly, we just sit down and maybe start with the synths or samples, it depends. We just jam. Start on a loop and Dyed adds a bass and Shonky add some synth and I’ll be on the MPC or whatever. It’s just jamming, sitting down and trying to write some beats, nothing crazy!
Are they dance floor tracks? Everything is playable, but we organised the tracks and did some mixing so that some tracks are mixed together. We did some interludes between the tracks and if you listen to the album from the beginning to the end it’s pretty cool too so domestic listening works as well.
You’ve spoken about the idea of the Minneapolis Sound – is this something that has informed the album as well? The whole thing around Prince and the Minneapolis Sound is something we really like and appreciate. We really like the idea of the white soul and black music and it’s completely our rules. Dyed is really into hip-hop, I was also into that sound, but I was also into new wave, which is really white. I think that’s what you can really hear in our music – the mix of both cultures. That has really stuck with us.
You’re doing 4 weeks in North America – do you think people there are warming to the underground sound? In America, I have to say in the last 2 years we have played a lot and we can see that the audience is growing a lot. Interest for the music is getting bigger and bigger. I have to say even if EDM is big or whatever, since the 1960s modern American music has always been really big and really good. So I think when they turn to the quality music, it’s easy for them. It’s not something that they have to discover. Most of the best artists were American so it’s more surprising that it didn’t work for the past 10 or 15 years, but I have to say that was just an exception in American music.
Why do you think this is? I think the powerful marketing is pretty heavy in America, and music that is really under the influence of marketing works pretty well. Now the trend is to go back to the underground, and underground, musically, is not necessarily only about marketing, so they’re catching the train right now.
You’ve got the rest of the world tour as well – it’s huge. We’ve been on a world tour since forever! It’s always a pleasure to have so many gigs in advance and to be able to organise and create this tour around an album and to promote the album at the same time. That was the goal. DJs are on world tours all the time, but to be able to have gigs booked almost a year in advance is something new for us. We’re very happy about it.
Will they just be your normal DJ sets? They will be really normal DJ sets, and we wanted to choose the clubs in the cities we’ve played already, the classic clubs who have always supported us – Output in New York, Rex Club in Paris, Panorama Bar in Berlin and Fabric in London. We wanted to give those clubs the opportunity to be part of this project because they have supported us for so many years. It is normal for us to do it like that.
You’re also playing all night again at DC-10 on 16th August – is there anything we can expect from that? I think it’s going to be a really intense party. We did it two years ago and last year. Last year was probably the highlight of Apollonia. A lot of people came, we had a lot of support from all the island and all our friends. On top of this a big crowd, so I think this year will be even stronger.
Is there anything about DC-10 in particular that makes it so well suited to Apollonia? Well, I’ve been a resident at DC-10 for 10 years now, and the reason why I stay there is that they have really been able to reinvent themselves over the years. If you look back in the day, at DC-10 10 years ago, it doesn’t look the same. That was much more trashy and really big open air parties, it was really crazy. Today it’s much more glamorous and I’m happy to be in that situation today – not to feel like I’m in the same club as 10 years ago. It’s something amazing and something that I really respect – I think it’s the same for Dyed and Shonky as well. I can say we feel good at home.
Apollonia play Studio 338 on 9 August, and take over DC-10 for Movement presents Apollonia on 16 August.
Listen to Pulse Radio.
