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: Looking at optical illusions and 3D images is like Sgt. Pepper for my eyes. It just makes my mind feel good, looking into spaces that don’t really exist. Jimi Eichner, who drew the artwork for our new album, creates illusions of perspective in these cool architectural drawings, like an art-deco M. C. Escher. Also, my son Max creates detailed drawings of gem-like “impossible shapes” that are beautiful and geometrical; he says they are in dimensions like pi and imaginary numbers.
Video after the jump.
