Silver Apples – Silver Apples

I didn’t discover Silver Apples until I moved to London. They say people don’t just knock on your door and make friends – but my friend Horton did exactly that. He came to tune my TV! It turned out we had loads of friends in common, and he put me onto Silver Apples. I heard that they were going to play at Terrastock Festival in Rhode Island, which had an amazing line-up. So, I just booked a flight, and I went. I didn’t know where I was staying! I don’t think I’d have the guts to do that now! When I was there, I met all the Elephant 6 people, including Neutral Milk Hotel. Silver Apples were amazing.

I decided I wanted to get a tour together with Azusa Plane, Silver Apples and Windy & Carl. In all my spare time from Ché I was making long-distance phone calls all over Europe, and somehow I got a tour together. Unfortunately, Jason from Azusa Plane couldn’t get the time off work, so the tour was just Silver Apples and Windy & Carl. I suggested they make a tour single, and it became Rocket Girl 1 in 1997. It wasn’t distributed, so I gave the singles to the band to sell on tour. I never took commission, never took an agent’s fee and I never took money for the 7 inches.

If you mention Silver Apples to any krautrock band, they’d know them. But I don’t know how many people in the US to this day have heard of them. They’re a very underrated band. Sadly, Simeon’s left us now, but he’s left some amazing music behind.