Although they’re longtime friends, the guys in Black Apple don’t always agree.
When drummer Dave Stroud told about his fondness for the Scandinavian rockers Meshuggah, his two bandmates, Rob Brenner (vocals) and Paul Nixon (guitar), sighed.
“I’m kind of alone in that,” Stroud said. “Those guys really don’t like metal.”
That push and pull between band members fuels the trio’s music, a combination of loose, overlapping vocals, scruffy guitar and ramshackle drumming. The lyrics, where discernible, either unfold like hallucinogenic flashbacks (one song was built around the concept of a cat eating a battery covered in cottage cheese) or contain elaborate in-jokes. On “Morrissey’s Favorite …” the group sings, “The sky’s so gray … this must be Morrissey’s favorite day,” referring to the former (and famously morose) Smiths singer.
The trio has been playing in its current formation for a little over a year, though Brenner and Nixon performed together in various groups for six years before forming Black Apple. With Stroud in the fold, the new lineup began bashing out tunes in its Logan Square practice space last May, writing more than 25 songs in less than 12 months.
“This is the most productive band I’ve ever been in,” Nixon said.
Most of the songs maintain a raw feel, which is somewhat surprising when you consider the band members’ musical backgrounds. Nixon, who moved to Chicago from New Jersey more than 10 years ago, started playing the piano at age 5, eventually earning his music degree from DePaul University. Stroud grew up in Nashville, where he began playing trumpet in the school band in 5th grade. As a teenager he eventually gravitated toward the drums, following in the footsteps of his father, James Stroud, a session drummer who played on a handful of chart toppers in the 1970s, including Jean Knight’s “Mr. Big Stuff.”
Only Brenner is a relative novice, having never really picked up an instrument prior to meeting Nixon — although he did have a brief moment in the spotlight while attending school in France at age 12: playing Axl Rose in a Guns N’ Roses cover band.
“I think that was the only band I was in before I moved to Chicago,” said Brenner, who was backed by a group of friends from Japan. “But I don’t think you don’t need a lot of training to be a 12-year-old Axl Rose. Especially in front of a French audience.”
