The indie outfit from Watford chat to us about the bands beginning, what their latest single ‘Shake The Handle’ means to them, and more!
Watford isn’t a city you associate with a blossoming new music scene, especially one that is driven by guitar music. However, Indigo Apartment are waving the flag high and proving that guitar music can exist and thrive even in the most unlikeliest of places. The band have been going since the late lockdown days of 2022 and have released multiple singles in that time. Now, they return with their most recent release ‘Shake The Handle’, an anthemic indie jam that is driven by it’s raw, heartfelt, and emotive songwriting.
After hearing the single we were eager to hear the bands story so we caught up with them to chat about their start, what the new single means to them, and much more.
Kieran: Hey everyone, thank you for taking the time to chat with us! How have you been?
Luke: Thank you for having us! We’ve been great recently. We’re still buzzing after the whole New Blood competition experience and really enjoying planning the next few months of content and shows. We recently released our first single of the year ‘Shake The Handle’ which we are extremely proud of and we are so happy with how the release has gone so far. Looking forward to playing it live again now it’s out! We have also been hard at work writing as much new music as we can. We haven’t had the chance to write for a while so it’s been really refreshing getting in a studio together and coming up with ideas – we really believe we have written some of our best music yet!
Kieran: How’s the summer going? Any highlights?
Sarah: It’s been great having us all back together again, after being spread around the country! Highlights so far would probably have to be playing our first proper full length gig since the Isle of Wight Competition the other week. It was nice to play some more songs from our back catalogue again and bring back some fan favourites I think we missed performing.
Fin: Yeah, and most importantly we’ve released our first new music in nearly a year with ‘Shake The Handle’. That’s been really fun to play live as well, not only do the fans love it but I think it’s the best representation of the band in its current state! I’m also super proud of our new merch. It looks really cool, thanks to George Camilleri, who also designed the single artwork!
Kieran: What’s life like as a band based in Watford? Any pros or cons?
Luke: I think we are very lucky to be based in Watford. Travelling to London is so easy for us – just one or two cheap trains! It’s also pretty easy to get around England from Watford, being quite central. It’s maybe an hour and a half drive to Brighton and three and a half hours to Manchester. It’s a shame the rock music scene in Watford isn’t as great as it has been, we were really sad to see The Horns close earlier this year – an iconic and historic venue that we were really hoping to play a set at.
Kieran: So, how did you all meet and when did you decide to start making and releasing music?
Monty: We started making music around 2019, but at that point it wasn’t Indigo Apartment. It was just Fin and I, and we were joined by a couple others and were known as The Signals. The current lineup of Indigo Apartment you see now has been around since mid-2022 where both Luke and Sarah enlisted as members for the release of our single ‘Gates’.
Kieran: What artists or people inspire you and how do you feel they affect your ethos and sound?
Luke: I think one thing that we take pride in is our range of influences. There is no genre or band that directly influences us as a band. Instead, we all have our own individual influences which, when combined, forms the sound that is Indigo Apartment. For example, I primarily listen to grunge and metal. This may not be directly evident in my drumming but I pay a lot of attention to the songwriting of drummers such as Craig Reynolds, Abe Cunningham and Dan Searle, to name a few, and how their drum parts fit perfectly with their music. I like to throw a fill or groove of theirs into our tracks too where I see fit.
Fin: There’s no bands or artists we look at specifically and think, ‘let’s try and emulate them’, or ‘let’s make a song in the style of X’. Ethos is definitely the right word I think; it’s guitarists and songwriters such as John Frusciante, Romeo Stodart and Robert Smith that expand my own musical vocabulary – but the way influences move into our actual music is completely unconscious and I think that’s makes us unique.
Kieran: You recently released our latest single ‘Shake The Handle’, can you talk us through this track and what it means to you?
Monty: ‘Shake The Handle’ is a song about waking up in the morning and not being able to get out of bed. It captures the moment when you’re laying there, whatever the time is, and you’re overthinking about lots of different things going on in your life. You can feel quite low and overwhelmed in those moments actually, and it’s quite hard to force yourself up and out of your bed and turn (or ‘Shake’) the door handle. You’ve got to get moving to clear these thoughts and that’s what the song is about.
Listen to ‘Shake The Handle’ here:
Fin: On top of that, compared to earlier music we’ve released it’s definitely got a grittier and more explosive edge to it, indicating the direction our music is moving in. I came up with the main chord progression during lockdown and then it was parked until more recently really. But in this song we really want people to relate to the message and feel that urge to move.
Kieran: How was this one written and recorded? Was there anything done that differed from previous releases?
Sarah: Massively different from everything so far actually. For one, this is the first song we have actually written all together in one place at the same time- I think that’s what makes it different from the other stuff. Everyone sort of added their own influences, however subtle, and during the sessions we bounced off each other really well. I think our chemistry as band from the writing is reflected very well in the song. We actually went up to Newcastle for a few days to record, Monty engineers and mixes in a studio up there so we had a sense of complete freedom.
Luke: We have spent the last few years really developing our own individual styles which, now we can come together and write as a band, has produced this very unique sound which we like to believe is the true sound of Indigo Apartment. I think “Shake The Handle” is the first fully formed product of that journey.
Kieran: Lastly, what else can we expect from you in 2024?
Fin: More music, more shows, more of everything. I don’t want to give too much away but we’ve been doing some filming as well. A big goal is to get playing more festivals and reach more fans outside of London. We’re working with some great bands and promoters currently and are excited to see what happens next!
Fin: Yes, and our next headline show is on 7 September at the Old Blue Last in London. This one is going to be huge, tickets are on sale now at our website indigoapartment.net!