Talking to Apples in stereo frontman Robert Schneider is something like sitting around the kitchen table with a few friends and a six-pack while knocking out the screenplay for a new episode of Seinfeld. With Schneider at the controls of this magic-bus ride, he pulls the topics he likes out of thin air like some deranged conjurer, instantly discards and modifies them, apologizes for going off the tracks, backs the engine up to the starting point, begins talking about something entirely different, then excuses himself to take brief notes on some future project while humming a melody that’s just popped into his head. He’s also one of a handful of great songwriters to emerge over the past 20 years, a psych/pop genius whose knack for addictive melodies and memorable lyrics is perfectly obvious on Travellers In Space And Time (Simian/Yep Roc). Schneider will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Q&A with him.
Schneider: Smile is the most beautiful music I have ever heard. Brian Wilson is my musical hero. The Beach Boys are my favorite band, ever since I was a little kid. Bootlegs of the magical collaboration between Brian and the genius Van Dyke Parks directly inspired us forming the Apples and also the whole Elephant 6 Collective—the number-one inspiration probably. For me and my friends, the Beach Boys was our religion in our early 20s. And I had the lucky chance to hear the test pressing of the modern, finished Smile on vinyl before it was released. I was mixing with Mark Linett, who engineered the record, soon after it was completed. It was the closest thing I have ever felt to a religious experience, hearing these unheard melodies and arrangements woven together so perfectly, like no other record ever. I got to hang out with Van Dyke Parks in Australia last year; he and I were keynote speakers at a music conference in Brisbane. He is the smartest, hippest, most charming person I have ever met. His Song Cycle was the first CD I ever purchased. I only owned vinyl before then, but it was hard to find on vinyl. I bought my first CD player just to listen to it.
