Interview with Sweet Apple vocalist/guitarist John Petkovic | By Thomas Pizzola
Once again, the indie rock dream team of J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr.; John Petkovic of Cobra Verde and formerly of Death Of Samantha; Tim Parnin, also of Cobra Verde; and Dave Sweetapple of Witch have come together and gifted the world with another Sweet Apple album. The new record, entitled Sing the Night in Sorrow, was released July 28 on Tee Pee Records. It follows the critically acclaimed The Golden Age of Glitter from 2014 and sees the band in fine form, delivering more of their patented catchy hard rock, flavored with touches of power pop and glam rock.
Unlike other bands who get together to record, Sweet Apple are spread out all over the U.S. Plus, they all have other projects to keep them very busy. But instead of bemoaning these factors, they use it to their advantage. “We had all talked about doing a project together long before we ever did the first album [in 2010], but it just seemed like a far-off proposition due to the distance between us,” Petkovic says. “But things have changed a lot since then, because we’ve come to embrace the distance between us and have realized that the band can actually do things together, like shows or videos or recording. And as a result, it’s made the music more expansive and diverse, because we don’t all have to be in the room at the same time to record or work out songs. I think the new album reflects that more than our first album, Love & Desperation. Coming to terms with the distance and the fact that we can’t be together all the time has ironically helped make the music more interesting. We don’t all have these rigid assigned parts and roles.”
This philosophy affected how they recorded Sing the Night in Sorrow. “It’s funny, but I was initially dreading recording the album, because I was thinking of how we could do it as a traditional band,” Petkovic says, “but I came to embrace the distance and letting songs dictate how we would do it—with us doing more band-oriented songs together at J.’s place and doing some other songs in Pasadena at a studio that Tim’s brother runs. Then, we filled things in back in Cleveland, then back to Massachusetts, Pasadena, and Vermont. Some people would find it too crazy, but I came to enjoy it. I think the album came out sounding more varied and interesting. The distance literally put some distance between us and the music, and the breaks would give us a chance to add different layers and ideas that we might not have otherwise.”
In addition, the new album features several key guest stars in Robert Pollard of Guided By Voices; Doug Gillard, also of Guided By Voices and formerly of Death Of Samantha; Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees fame; and Rachel Haden from The Haden Triplets. Black Mountain and Obliterations guitarist Stephen McBean will join the band on upcoming live dates. “We’ve come to see Sweet Apple as more of a shape-shifting project, where there aren’t assigned roles,” Petkovic says. “Mark Lanegan is a longtime friend, and I played with Bob Pollard in Guided By Voices—and I’ve been with Doug Gillard in a bunch of bands.”
Petkovic also can’t stop singing the praises of Haden, who joins him for several stunning guest vocal turns on the new album. “Man, I love her voice; it’s very pure and evocative,” he says. “There’s a joyful quality about it, but it also connotes some kind of melancholic longing. She’s such an underrated singer and musician and grasps words and themes and interprets them so well with her voice.”
When it came time to write the lyrics for Sing the Night in Sorrow, Petkovic had very specific themes in mind—and very interesting methods for coming up with them. “I always come up with ideas for songs while doing mundane things in isolation: driving a car on a long ride, shooting hoops in an empty gym, mowing a lawn,” he says. “I rarely listen to music when I drive. I like the drone of a car—or the echo of a ball on an empty basketball court or the hum or a lawnmower. All the songs on the album were written while doing these things, and I think they all have an observational tone, from someone looking from afar, in isolation. Looking on in solitude gives a chance to see things clearly at times, but it can also distort what you see and think, because the focus is more singular and intense and even myopic. A lot of the themes of the record started as singular observation: seeing abandonment and desolation in left-for-dead urban landscapes of places like Cleveland or these forgotten small towns of New England. I’ve done the drive from Cleveland to New England so many times, and the signs are more pronounced every time I do it.”
“There are some other themes, which are reflected in the title, Sing the Night in Sorrow,” he continues. “The ‘night’—and the darkness it brings—is associated with danger, but I find ‘daylight’ scarier. Unfortunately, that’s the way the world is going; there’s a light on everything we do, beginning with our phones and running all the way through gadgets and social media and the ability to be found and tracked down at every turn.”
“There’s also the idea that all elements of our lives are open to illumination, and there is less and less night to hide behind,” he muses. “Lately, I’ve been thinking that the end of the world will come not with some cataclysmic crash, but with some slow-moving apocalypse where we are left with a dull light shining on us.”
Though humanity’s fate may be sealed, Sweet Apple’s future is still quite up in the air. “Honestly, I don’t know,” Petkovic says of the band’s future, “but we’ll probably do another album soon.”
Purchase Sing The Night In Sorrow here: Physical | Digital
