Apollonia Tells the Stories Behind the Songs on Debut Album “Tour à Tour”

On the deep house and tech house tip, French trio Apollonia are stirring the underground. Shonky, Dan Ghenacia and Dyed Soundorom have been wooing crowds and going back-to-back for a couple of years with their sounds and on tour in support of their first LP out this week. “The idea was we had a lot of ideas and inspiration the last two years and we really wanted to sit down and put all those ideas and inspiration on an album,” says Ghenacia. “The thing is that we wanted all of the tracks to be playable, and also wanted the album to be like a DJ set; it’s a mirror of our DJ performance. If you start at the beginning to the end, you have some deepness, the last track could be a track we play at the end of the night.” (Be sure to listen to the songs in order the first time as it loops back around to the beginning for that full-length album experience.) Shonky anad Ghenacia take us on a tour of the tracks that make up Tour à Tour.

“Intro”

Shonky: The intro is really based on our first influence. I would say it’s San Francisco from the ‘90s and the house scene from the ‘90s of the West Coast—

Ghenacia:—The vocals and the delay.

Shonky: The sirens, the reggae vocal. It’s really the elements of San Francisco house of the ‘90s and that’s something that’s really, really important for us that we really wanted to give in this album.

“June”

Shonky: “June” is a cool first track with the vocal, something that could be also be the last track. But this is the idea of Tour à Tour, to alternate, the idea of repetition.

Ghenacia: Every track can be playable at a certain time of the night, but not only necessary at this time. Every moment, when you play one hour or six hours or whatever, every moment is different. You’re going to play deep at the beginning and then you’re going to play hard at the end, you have some where you can fly and go from deep to house, it’s this kind of journey we try to do when we’re playing. I think we wanted to do the same with the album, so “June” is proper kind of house with a vocal on the track and is really the kind of thing that we like to play.

“Mouche Tsé Tsé”

Shonky: “Mouche Tsé Tsé,” it’s the tsé tsé fly, this is the tsé tsé fly and the gimmick of the track made us think about this fly—

Ghenacia: Getting crazy close to your ear.

“Sona”

Shonky: “Sona,” the idea is from a guy in jail and it’s a reference to the prison in [the television show] Prison Break.

Ghenacia: When they’re in Panama, they’re in a prison called Sona and the vocal was from when someone is talking in the mic at the prison, and there’s a tropical vibe of the track. It’s reminds us of this prison in Central America.

“Piano”

Ghenacia: Just a piano.

“Chez Michel”

Ghenacia: The funniest thing is that Chez Michel is the first track that we did and at the time we were going to a restaurant in front of the studio called Chez Michel. We went there every day from the beginning of the album and wanted to give them a tribute so we called it “Chez Michel.” It was a way to remember it.

“Mercato”

Shonky: The idea of “Mercato” was a walk into a flea market.

“Interlude”

Shonky: The interlude was to build the album and transition, to help the story, to be a punctuation.

“Un Vrai Portugais”

Shonky: The male vocal that we are using is a vocal that we took from a Brazilian track—and we cannot understand what it is saying—it’s in Brazilian. But it sounds like it’s saying” Un Vrai Portugais,” which means “A real Portuguese.” It’s like a Brizillian trying to say something in French, which is completely random.

“Boomerang”

Shonky: This track is really loopy and the bass is really rolling and groovy.

Ghenacia: Coming straight to your face like a boomerang.

Shonky: It’s kind of hypnotic, deep and groovy.

“The Benshee”

Ghenacia: “The Benshee” once again, the vocal that we use is one Indian guy saying “The Benshee.” For us it was like every time we were listening to the track, we were singing “The Benshee, The Benshee,” so it naturally became “The Benshee.”

“El Senor Vador”

Ghenacia: “El Senor Vador” this one was—it’s hard to remember. I don’t know this one. Let’s keep this one secret. It’s a mystery!

“Haight Street”

Ghenacia: The vibe in the intro is really San Francisco, so we use Haight Street.

Get your copy of Tour à Tour now via Beatport and iTunes. Catch Apollonia at Escape All Hallow’s Eve in Southern California on November 1.