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: “Crimson And Clover” is my favorite song, if you had to pin me down. I once had an out-of-body experience in a pizza restaurant after an Apples show on tour, listening to it on the jukebox. The song has like four different psychedelic guitar solos, one after another, the last one with all the guitars playing together. Druggy and pulsating, it has such a sense of yearning it just kills me. My favorite songs make me want to cry when I sing along. Other contenders: “Range Life” (Pavement), “Sweet Talkin’ Woman” (ELO), “Strawberry Fields Forever” (Beatles), “Darlin’” (Beach Boys) and “Eye In The Sky” (Alan Parsons Project).
