[FEATURE] VIPER PRESENTS: APASHE

Belgian producer Apashe ended 2023 with the release of his ‘Antagonist’ album featuring Busta Rhymes and EarthGang, get familiar with this VIPER interview…

What five words define your sound? 

Majestic, orchestral, electronic, epic, cinematic.

Tell me something unique about your creative process 

I guess the most unique aspect of it is that it’s done in four parts. 1) I write demo’s ‘mockups’ of songs with a beat and a simple structure. 2) I make a symphonic version of it. 3) Get music sheets done and record the symphonic orchestra. Then fourth and finally, I take those recordings and ‘remix’ them or mix them back into the original demo. It kind of creates multiple version of the same songs allowing me to choose what I like the most of it. 

Which song of yours would you like people to hear first? 

I’ve never been asked that and I’m entirely sure as I never had to think about it. I guess I really make music for myself first so I don’t really mind what first song people get to hear first. The only thing is I certainly know which songs I don’t want them to hear first and I won’t mention it as they’re probably really old and I consider them bad. 

What’s the most vulnerable you’ve allowed yourself to be when writing/making music? 

I think when you create something authentic it has to show parts of yourself and thus show some vulnerability otherwise it’s not authentic. I feel like I always do that but I don’t really feel that vulnerable anymore; I accept the reality of it. 

What’s the best/worst experience you’ve had on stage? 

I guess I have been kind of lucky, nothing horrible ever happened on stage. I surely had bad shows in my life but it was rather due to low attendance or technical issues but nothing too bad. For the best experience 

What is your favourite song to perform? 

‘Never Change’ when Ymir is on stage too with the whole brass section. 

Which artist/song/album made you want to make music? 

A mix of late 90’s artists like The Prodigy, Adam F, Danny Elfman. 

What’s the meaning behind your name? 

There is no meaning behind my name or at least not anymore. I used to think the ‘apache’ helicopter was cool and chose a similar tag. I grew up and started to feel super lame about it and needed to step away from that. Now it’s too late to change name but at least I can pretend it’s just a meaningless name… 

If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing instead? 

Would probably do something artistic like 3D design, animation, film directing, anything related to visual arts. 

What’s success to you? 

Being able to do what you love, waking up in the morning with the joy of being able to have a sustainable life filled with passion. 

What moment in your life/career forced you to change direction? 

When you grew up your goals and taste changes, you will have to adapt and change. I think they changed when I realised I wasn’t as passionate about what I was doing anymore. It was starting to fill unauthentic, I was on auto-pilot, doing what was asked of me and not what the newly evolved me truly wanted to do. I slowly switched and felt much better after. 

Where can people keep in touch with you? 

I guess the best way is my Majestic Squad group on Facebook or simply by emailing my team.