Long Island Residency: Apollonir
DIY is definitely becoming more and more popular with new bands starting to break through. Even some bigger names are promoting the process and why not? Learning and doing everything from start to finish when creating music you’ve written has got to be a very rewarding process.
One duo from Long Island is doing just that. They are called Apollonir and they’re definitely creating some DIY Long Island magic. Compiled of two members, Lyla Cartafalsas and Zander Tesoriere, this talented twosome have partnered together to create some very unique tunes. At first listen you may hear the influence of early 2000s pop punk and then as the tracks go on you get some sensational screamo vibes. Almost has hints of The Bled and Blood Brothers. The pair started releasing music last summer, starting with their first EP “Residency”. Each track takes us on quite the journey and with the crisp sound and incredibly versatile vocals, well this EP has no skips and is quite a release for their first.
Fast forward to this year and we get a new single release “Jack” which also includes a Lo-Fi version of their track “Running Hot”.
To dive a bit deeper on this dynamic duo, Lyla was awesome enough to give us some band history, influences and of course future releases. Enjoy the interview below!
Can you give us some background on yourselves? Where you’re from, musical backgrounds and how Apollonir came to be??
Apollonir is Lyla Cartafalsa and Zander Tesoriere, two kids from Massapequa, Long Island. Personally, I have grown up playing guitar and piano and only recently picked up bass, drums, and singing especially. I met Zander in music theory class at school when he was a junior and I was a sophomore, in 2021. I knew about his band Few Faces with a mutual friend, and after talking a lot about music, we decided to try recording a song I had written in his basement studio. Zander saw potential in what would we could create and we thus took on the arduous task of being a two man DIY band.
If possible to narrow it down, who would your top 5 biggest musical influences be? Any in particular that really inspired you to start playing/writing music of your own?
Growing up, I was obsessed with Fall Out Boy and would absolutely cite them as my main influence for wanting to be a musician. I only got into “heavier” music once I met Zander, and he introduced me to Loathe, a newfound favorite and inspiration. In past years, I have also found myself influenced by SeeYouSpaceCowboy, Teenage Wrist, and Thornhill.
Now you released your debut EP, ‘Residency’, last July. And then your most recent single ‘Jack’ came out this year on St. Patrick’s Day. Can you give us some insight to your writing and recording process? Is it more DIY? And is there anyone else you worked with on the EP and most recent single?
Writing songs in completion is luckily my main hobby. It is what I do for fun, and I do it a lot. At any given time, I’m probably sitting on about 30 demos that could potentially be made into full songs. When we want to record/release something, we simply pick whichever demos are the best, since I can sometimes send Zander one for consideration every day for a week straight. Residency was actually the first five full songs in our “style” that I wrote. Everything that we have made has been written entirely by myself, performed by me and Zander, and been recorded/produced by Zander alone. All of our tracking and producing has taken place in Zander’s basement, aside from Jack’s drums, which were recorded by Zander at his college.
Can we expect to hear any new music this year from you? Any shows in the works as well?
We hope to put out lots of music this year. We do this because it is fun, no matter how long it takes, and we will work for however long to make things perfect. We do also love sharing our music, so we have been trying to figure out the most efficient ways to create music. Playing shows is a dream for us for sure, and we have been working hard to figure out how to put on a good performance of our music despite only being two people.
If you could collaborate on an album with any band or artist, who would it be and why?
I would absolutely love to collaborate with Connie Sgarbossa from SeeYouSpaceCowboy. Connie is a huge inspiration to me and absolutely rips on collaborations with If I Die First. Connie’s music has heavily influenced my desire to do dirty vocals and her band’s instrumental style is definitely conducive to what I think a good song should be.
With new music on the horizon and the drive to create and share, it seems Apollonir is duo that should definitely not be slept on. Give their tunes a listen, give them a follow and share these rad tunes they have created with anyone and everyone. Smash the follow button below to stay up to date on all things Apollonir!
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