Apella | Interview

"I had to pull in favours - I have no money."

This is one of many moments of stark honesty from Dara Quilty as he discusses his new musical venture, Apella. The video for single We Met At A Party was cast on a budget, to say the least.

"One of the judges was my grandmother. The other two judges were my uncle Paul Woodford and my godfather.

"They were great - my gran loves being involved. I'm very close to her."

We Met At A Party sees Dara and drummer bandmate Ronan Nolan adopting different genres as they desperately seek approval from a panel of judges - a concept which didn't exactly fly with Quilty's nearest and dearest.

"My friends, who break my balls about everything that I do creatively got on to me and went, 'eh, your video has nothing do with the song!'" he laughs, "The song is called We Met At A Party. What are we going to do? Shoot a party video with beer pong? Come on!"

"It's a concept that I came up with because we're a new band", he explains, "I didn't want to do something that screamed, 'oh look how cool we are'. I wanted to do something fun. The concept of us introducing ourselves to the music industry and finding our identity ... It's so important now how you look and how you dress."

Quilty hasn't exactly been in the frame of Irish music for a couple of years, having moved into broadcasting, working with Spin 1038 and 98fm. Prior to that, he got his start with indie-pop outfit Fox Avenue, in which he toured with the likes of Scouting For Girls.

He hasn't been resting on his laurels - far from it. Apella has been a long time coming for Quilty.

"That's the interesting thing", he says when quizzed about his downtime, "I've spent two years behind studio doors. I was in the old band [Fox Avenue] and our weakness was songs.

"The focus on this was songs. I had to hype myself up to be a singer because I didn't want to rely on someone else."

It's been difficult for Quilty, careering back into the spotlight as a musician. But, there's a lot left for him to accomplish, it seems.

"When the video came out, people were congratulating me ... For what?" he laughs, seemingly a little incredulously, "People need to see stuff. They need to see stuff flashing before their eyes. The thing is, I recorded We Met At A Party two years ago."

Quilty admits he had to go back-to-basics with Apella, teaching himself how to use Pro-Tools. Another thing he's been practising? Patience.

"When I get an idea, I get obsessed with it", he says, "I wanted to have an album under my belt before I released anything. So many people pushed me to release an EP last year, but I wanted to wait until the project had substance.

"There's something triumphant about an album. I've never written and recorded an entire album. That was the goal."

Said album is slated for release early next year, with three more singles preceding its release, as well as a headline slot at Whelan's.

Stylistically, he's a little vague on the album's direction. While We Met At A Party could only be classified as pop punk, he's wary to pin that label to the rest of the upcoming material.

"The style of the production was based on that", he says, "But the rest of the album can be described as contemporary pop music. Yes, some of the songs have a lot of synthesiser on them, but there are live drums and live guitars. The next release is actually more of a ballad."

His regrets regarding Fox Avenue are few and far between - he recognises that although they may have not been the most serious band with the greatest musical output, it's given him the platform to do what he can with Apella.

The band are forging their own path though - they recently supported Twenty One Pilots at their sold out Irish dates, and while "nobody knew who the fuck they were" initially, by the end, they had the whole crowd on side.

"That's when I knew I needed more stuff", he digresses, "Flyers, merchandise ... Kids want everything nowadays. They want more stuff. People hear We Met At Party and they go, 'brilliant, we watched your video, what else you got?' It takes you three minutes to listen to a song, but you know in 30 seconds whether you like it or not."

For Dara, Apella isn't a business investment it's a conviction. Apella is entirely self-funded, and he is now "entirely broke". 

"It'd be the last thing I'd invest money in. I don't know. I'm just completely and utterly obsessed with it and I don't know why."

Apella play Upstairs at Whelan's on October 22nd. Tickets are €10 and are on sale now.