Deep dive with Apollo Junction

Written by: Brooke Eboule

Get to know our October artist of the month even better! Don't forget to check out the Apollo Junction feature in the October issue of the magazine to learn about the band's journey from formation through to their official UK charting album, released Oct 20. Read on below as Jamie Williamson (vocals), Matt Wilson (guitar), Ben Hope (bass), Jonny Thornton (drums) and Sam Potter (keys) – share more about their individual and collective music journeys.

NW: What does music mean to you? Tell me a bit about your journey to your instrument and the band.

JAMIE: Music means an incredible lot. My dad was a huge music fan. My mum loves music as well. The house was just full of the sounds of the Beatles and the Kinks and the bands that I loved growing up are still bands that mean the world to me now. Then in the ‘90s when I first got into music as a little kid and into the noughties, I remember talking about the same bands and realizing that it still mattered to him so much, even though he was a bit older. After he died, it’s still a connection between people and moments and it takes you back, doesn’t it? You zoom back to sitting in the car, listening to songs. You jump time periods and music has that power. I’m still here trying to make music that helps people connect in ways themselves.

I do play guitar. I used to play on stage but now it’s easier if I don’t cause I just move around a lot. I don’t really know how I ended up the singer. I was kind of forced into by being the best singer in the band. I’ve had to get better as the band’s got better.

BEN: Music means everything to me, personally. You can always tell a good album by how it made you feel when it came out. Music played a huge role in my life growing up. It molded my personality and gave me confidence when I needed it. It also helps you get through all your emotions. I remember the ‘90s very well and how good the music was and how young I was. It gives me great memories.

I was a guitarist originally. In 2006 the bassist of the band I was in at the time threw his bass down off the stage and quit. I just picked the bass up and the drummer said it’s the same as the guitar, just play the root note. So I thought 'oh this is fairly easy'. That’s how I ended up on bass. I actually met my wife that night as well. So everything changed then.

JONNY: Music is a massive part of my life. I come from a fairly musical family. My grandad was a jazz drummer back in the 50's and gave me my first drum kit that I still have to this day. I don’t play it live but I still have it mucking around the house. I owe it all to him, really, because I wouldn’t be here talking to you now if he didn’t give me my first drum kit. I think my parents were very annoyed. I was bashing the drums a lot during my childhood. I had a little bit of a thing for it. I was pretty good. I got some drum lessons, went off to the Royal College of Music in London and did a course in drum performance.

SAM: Music’s always been a huge part of my life right back to when I was a kid. Piano was the first instrument I learned, but first I played drums and trumpets in bands before moving to pianos and keyboards.

MATT: Music means so much to me. And I know everyone says that, but I’m not actually a very talented musician. It’s never been a natural thing. It’s always been something I’ve worked towards, because of my love of music. My earliest memories are of being in the back of my dad’s Vauxhall Cavalier, listening to the Beatles, pretending to drum along with the songs, thinking 'I’d like to do that one day'. And then one day I did.

When I was around 13 or 14 I went to go see a person called Mark Knoffler who was in a band called Dire Straits. I watched him play guitar, turned to my dad and I said “I’d love to play guitar”. He kind of was cool with it but at the same time he kind of knew my personality well enough to know that I’d have to work hard if I wanted to do it. That I’d have to pay for that guitar by doing jobs and working because that way I’d keep playing forever, if I had to pay for it. Whereas, if he gave me a freebie, I'd never do it. I started playing guitar and slowly over time I started trying to write songs and eventually kind of cracked that.

NW: You’ve lived a significant portion of your life and life experiences as a member of this band. How has that shaped you as a person?

JAMIE: We’ve grown up together. We’ve been through it together. The world has thrown everything that the world throws at you whilst we’ve been together and we’ve come out the other side still looking after each other. Still on each others’ sides. Still a united band. We turned from kids, young men into the wise old musical souls that we are now (laughing).

BEN: It’s helped me gain confidence, especially when I was a teacher. Public speaking doesn’t bother me now at all. Sometimes I'm nervous about getting up on stage, but I’ve got my brothers by my side so it's going to be ok. It’s given me some great experiences and the best thing about it is not many people get to have these experiences. Maybe one in a million. (Excuse the pun).

JONNY: I think our lives have changed so much in the 10+ years we’ve been together as a band. We are a family. We are a crazy, dysfunctional family that’s got the core family that’s the band and we’ve got the crazy relatives around the edges. The random cousin and the dodgy uncle. Away from the music, as a family, we’ve been through the highest and lowest points of each others’ lives in terms of family deaths, births of children, marriages, baptisms, loss of job, moving house. Everything that you can imagine. We’ve done that together. Life changing experiences that I think have brought us closer as a band.

SAM: It seems a long time ago since we all met and its strange to look back and see how we’ve all grown. I think the journey from playing small rooms to a couple of people and now to playing packed out festival tents really shows how things have changed.

MATT: I think it’s a strange one because it is a massive part of your life. There are members of this band I’ve known longer than I haven’t known [them]. To look back at it all and to think of the journey that we’ve been on from the tiny, tiny venues to the packed out festivals and tents and the ups and the downs and the personal sort of ups and downs. You know our real lives, we’ve sort of been there for each other on a personal level when things have been tough and it’s formed such an amazing part of our life and I know I am the band and the band is me. It’s like the air I breathe now. It’s my family, it’s everything.

NW: You guys make an incredible effort to meet and interact with your supporters. Are there any interactions that have been particularly meaningful or memorable to you?

JAMIE: There’s a person who messaged me just the other day. They’re getting a song called 'Are You Happy', which is one of our songs, tattooed on their body. We’re like, what? You want it tattooed? I’ve got 'Say a Little Prayer for You' by Burt Bacharach tattooed on my body. That’s how important that song is to me, so for someone to go 'Are You Happy' is important enough to them put on them, that’s bonkers, isn’t it? Sometimes you see moments in people’s eyes and people holding each other during songs when you’re on stage. I can’t put that into words, what that means. That’s far more important than getting in the charts. More important than anything, really. If we’re meaning so much to that person, that’s incredible.

BEN: People have said our music has connected them. It’s brought people together. A couple met at one of our gigs and got engaged at another one of our gigs. We got them on stage. I think that’s memorable. And the song 'Forever' seems to bring people together. It’s like a cupid song. It’s so easy as well, such a basic 3-chord song. But that’s all you need, isn’t it? We do get through to a lot of people and that’s the beauty of it.

SAM: We get messages all the time from supporters who tell us how our music’s influenced them. Last week a fan messaged Ben to say he was the reason he picked up Dire Straits Greatest Hits, which I thought was nice.

MATT: This lady came up to me and said… she was going through a really terrible time with her partner and I think they’d separated and she said [our song 'Born for Now'] is the song that’s got me through all this. And I think that’s pretty amazing. We also had a couple come to watch us and we played a song called 'Always Remember’ and they said that was the first thing they’d done since their child had died… and it reminded them of the better times. It was their song. That’s something that really, really stuck with me.

NW: Do you have a favourite memory or funny moment from writing or recording the new album?

JAMIE: The recording studio is always good fun. The guy who records us is hilarious and always interesting to work with. He gets the best out of us by pushing us.

BEN: All we seem to do is laugh at each other. One time Jamie wasn’t in the studio and Matt and I changed his voice to really high pitch and we put loads of autotune on it and there was one song - 'Magic' it goes “It’s the last night on EARTH” (affecting a deep, gruff tone) that kind of made us laugh.

JONNY: We recorded the music video to History in apparently one of the UK’s most haunted buildings. It was a little bit spooky actually, kind of a mansion building that had obviously become derelict in places. We came across these random sort of props that were lying around the place and we all agreed that we would scare Jamie. Ben had a mask on. Quite a horrific mask, actually. A clown mask. And he had a violin in his hands and when Jamie was doing his thing, singing into the camera, Ben did his thing and jumped out. Safe to say Jamie was very, very scared. That was a particularly funny moment for us.

SAM: The original lyrics for the track now called 'History' always make me laugh… you’ll have to ask Matt what they were.

MATT: All the silly lyrics I think is always funny. When we first start off writing songs, bouncing ideas back and forth, some lyrics sound really good in your head and then you say them out loud and you’re like, oh god. But actually I think my favourite memory of this album, there’s one song called 'Here We Are' that we wrote together in a room. I remember it really vividly because I thought it was just such a cool way to write.

NW: I know it’s like asking a parent to pick a favourite child, but is there a song from the new album that stands out to you for any reason?

JAMIE: One that means so much to me is ‘Endings’. That song was written the same week as ‘Begin’, which was our debut single [from first album, Mystery] and we shelved it. Through ressurrection, it’s come back and suddenly it’s huge. ‘History’ means a lot, too. I remember, we went to play a gig for All In [the band’s second album] and as we sound checked before the gig, these chords appeared and I started singing, not the words, but the melody. Now it’s the closing song on the album.

BEN: It’s ‘Magic’ for me. It’s quite an epic song, and I love the story and lyrics behind it. “It’s magic swirling around the room. It’s magic that brought me here to you.” It’s about meeting somebody. It was inspired by people coming to our gigs and meeting each other.

JONNY: They’re all bangers. Just a solid batch of music. ‘Endings’ is a particularly poignant song for me. It’s a really nice kind of homage to the old AJ, that takes me back to the early days of the band. And I really like ‘Breathe Out’. It’s a really cool song as well.

SAM: ‘Perfect Plan’ stands out to me as it was the first recording we put down after All In was released. It was originally planned to be an updated version of an old song, but the only thing that seems to have stayed is Matt’s guitar riff (now a synth in the chorus). I think going back to old unreleased song is something we’ll continue to do as ‘Perfect Plan’ turned into a brand new song.

MATT: ‘Here We Are’ because it was crafted by the five of us, collectively. It's my favourite song on the album because I can hear every single member’s contribution on it. That’s what’s so meaningful about that song to me.

NW: Do you have any personal superstitions or routines when preparing for a gig?

JAMIE: I listen to the songs a lot before the gig. I’m really shit about remembering words, they seem to not like sticking in my head. I listen to try and drill them in. Before we go on stage, we have to be together. We clear the dressing room out and spend a bit of time just together the five of us.

BEN: Alright, look, the band have this idea in their mind that I like to go to the toilet just before we go on stage. Semi true, to be honest. I just like that minute to myself, just to calm down. We’re actually really calm guys. I know Jonny likes to be extremely calm. Matt sometimes likes to do press ups and weights before he goes on stage.

JONNY: One of our first really big gigs out of COVID, we were playing with Kaiser Chiefs in 2021. On the morning of the driver broke down and I ended up with extra time, so I started going through my stuff again, just making sure I had everything. I thought, ‘oh, should I take a spare bass drum pedal’, cause it’s something that I ordinarily don’t do. I’d never taken a spare pedal with me to a gig up until that moment. So we arrived at the gig, set up all fine and come out to open the show. Massive crowd, absolutely huge. As I click into the first song, the chain on the bass pedal breaks. I manage to signal our sound guy and he changed over to the spare pedal while I was still playing and we went on and finished the the gig. If I didn’t have the spare pedal, that gig would have been an absolute nightmare. So my weird superstition now is to always take spares. And always routinely check before preparing for a gig.

SAM: Not really. I do try to find the most useless bags to carry my stuff around in though as it winds Jonny up. Highlights include a pillow case and an ASDA plastic bag.

MATT: I do, actually. I kind of just like to say thanks for the opportunity and that calms me down a little bit. Sometimes I get a little bit nervous which is a good thing, but then I try and remember that I’m really lucky to be there, and just thank God for the opportunity really. Be thankful that I’ve got people who love me, people in my personal life who are happy for me and then people who there to watch us. And then I crack on.

NW: Things can be pretty nutty with all the demands and responsibilities you have to balance as individuals and musicians. Are there any sacrifices you’ve had to make that have been particularly challenging? What makes it all worthwhile?

JAMIE: Any time we go away, we’re leaving other people in charge of our lives. I go away and life at home becomes harder for the people there because I’m not there doing my responsibilities, my roles. We’re very lucky that we have such supportive families around us and in our networks. We have very busy jobs as well. The average working week is about 50 hours, then there’s the band on top of it. It can be grueling. Sometimes we think we must be mad to do this, but it’s inside us. We have to do it. It’s worthwhile when people come and watch us.

BEN: I find it really hard missing my kids on a weekend. We all work, we’ve all got full time jobs and then the weekend comes and you say bye to your kids on a Friday night and you don’t see them until Sunday night sometimes and we don’t get any money for this. Sometimes you think “why am I doing this?” But obviously the idea is the band grows and grows and grows and we can all travel the world, you know, as a family. That’s the dream. But we do make pretty big sacrifices when it comes to missing out on family things as well. I’ve missed 50th birthday parties and they won’t get a 60th these people… for the band to get this, where we are, sacrifices have had to be made. Our wives and girlfriends have been brilliant to put up with us, to be honest. It’s the experiences that make it all worthwhile and just being in a band. I mean, if we weren’t in a band we’d probably just be, like, a bit lost. The five of us would be a little bit lost.

JONNY: Lots of big sacrifices. Lots of weekends away from family and friends. That is tough. It does take its toll. But we’re incredibly lucky that we all have a really supportive family and partners and friends. We’re really well supported in that regard. We’re really lucky to get to do what we do.

SAM: I like to travel, so often I’ll have to cut a trip short to play a gig, which can suck sometimes. At least now we tend to play to busier venues.

MATT: I’ve had to give up holidays, time with my family, which hurts. Generally speaking, the people in my life support me in everything I do and my family support me in everything I do, so if I have to turn around to them and say I’m away, that’s it. They always support me in that. I’m quite lucky, I guess.

NW: What’s your favourite way to unwind?

JAMIE: To unwind, I like watching films, listening to music, spending time with friends, usual stuff.

BEN: I’m trying to get into learning how to play the piano. I’m finding that’s a good way for me to unwind. To exercise is good as well. To keep fit is important. I play with my sons, a bit of FIFA with them on the PlayStation. Learning piano, listening to music myself. Obviously, watching the Walking Dead helps. Anything to do with zombies.

JONNY: Mine’s a weird one actually. After a gig, I like nothing more than sitting in silence. Obviously, I play the drums, probably the noisiest instrument on stage. I also wear in ears so I have kind of a lot of stuff in my ears as well. So yeah, after a gig I will quite happily go sit in silence and take in the moment for a little while. Just kind of come back down to earth. I think I need that as well.

SAM: Ironically, it’s listen to music, although never AJ stuff :D

MATT: I like reading and listening to music that doesn’t have guitars in it cause I play with guitars. I listen to a lot of dance music, a lot of classical music at this moment in time, which sounds really pretentious but I don’t mean it to. I just like a break from guitars. Bit of time with my family. I like going on walks.

NW: What do you like most about your life as a musician?

JAMIE: Playing songs to people. Love it.

BEN: Performing. I like performing. I like the fanbase. I think they’re so nice. I like the fact I can talk to people.”Alright Ben, how’s it going”. I don’t just have my work friends, I’ve got the friends in the band, and the fans are great as well.

JONNY: I love the fact that I’m still doing it. I was a 12-13 year old kid playing the drums and I’m still here today playing the drums. I know so many people who have given up, lost interest, forgotten how to play, I love the fact that I’m still doing it. And still able to do it at a really professional level.

SAM: Having access to proper toilets and showers at festivals.

MATT: This is quite a funny one for me because I don’t really see myself as a musician. I see myself as a guy who plays in a band with his friends. But I think what I like most is when people can kind of join us with part of the journey, or when something that I or we have created mean so much to someone. Because obviously you kind of bare your soul when you play a piece of music or a song and when they love it and enjoy it, it’s an amazing feeling.

NW: What is your highlight achievement or experience as a part of the band?

JAMIE: Selling out the Brudenell in Leeds. Selling out Manchester, Sheffield, that’s huge to us. Getting songs on the radio, getting messages about songs.

Ben: I like putting a vinyl on my wall, saying “I recorded that”. Something to show the grandkids. The experience that stands out for me is the Ireland gig. I know my grandad would have been very proud. My family are from there you see. It’s probably one of the biggest gigs we’ve ever played. It was a fantastic show. The Isle of Wight always stands out as well because they’ve given us our big break.

JONNY: There’s so many things that we’ve done as a band. On the live side, playing some of the biggest festival stages around is just incredible. Isle of Wight was amazing. The biggest achievement, when I think about it from my perspective, we’re still doing it. We’re still the same lineup. Nobody’s left the band. We’ve obviously had little arguments along the way, as you’d expect but nobody’s walked out from the band. We’re still together, still the same five guys doing what we love. It’s hard to keep that together in this day and age.

SAM: Listening to the test press of each new record is always a highlight as that’s really the first time you hear the album without picking apart all the tiny details and bits you want to change. Usually it’s a good six months after the mixing/mastering is completed so we all hear the tracks in a completely different way.

MATT: I’ve been thinking about this quite a lot recently cause somebody was asking me about it. I actually think one of the biggest achievements you can do is getting out on stage and doing it in front of anyone. Actually standing up and playing your music in front of someday. YOUR music. It’s next level. Playing a cover is big. Playing your own music is huge. And if you can do that, then you’ve kind of cracked it because you’re brave enough to do it. Because people will be horrible and they will be mean, but then people will be amazing as well. As long as you’re willing to take both and treat them kind of equally and not let it get you down, and come back out fighting and get better, you’ve cracked it.

NW: What excites you most about the future of Apollo Junction?

Jamie: Just keeping doing what we’re doing, getting bigger, more experiences, getting more people listening, and hoping that this just continues. This crazy train can’t stop now, can it?

Ben: I’d love to do Glastonbury festival or major festivals as well. What’s exciting me now is the fact we could have an official charting album. The official UK charts is massive. That would just be really exciting.

Jonny: Just the endlessness of it. There’s no end point for a band, is there? There’s no finish line. The fact that we’re talking about the next album, we’re talking about 2024 plans, touring plans, etc. That excites me because the journey is not over yet. It’s only just begun. It really excites me and I just kind of can’t wait to keep going and do the next thing.

Sam: Getting the new album out and hearing people’s honest opinions.

Matt: I think genuinely what excites me about the future with Apollo Junction is doing the thing I love with the people I love. I’ve got four brothers, four best mates and we write and play music that we love. We do it as a team. The team has never changed. The team will never change. And that’s it for me. That’s the future and wherever that takes us, as long as there’s a smile on my face and I enjoy doing it, I honestly won’t care if I’m playing to 20 people or 20,000 people because you look at so many musicians who have so many mental health problems and are so unhappy and it’s certainly not the money that’s making them unhappy and it shouldn’t be the music. They’re just not enjoying what they’re doing. Whereas, as long as I’m enjoying it I’ll be doing it and the future is gonna be me enjoying it some more.

NW: If you could recommend any one song from your previous two albums to someone who is discovering Apollo Junction for the first time, which would it be? Why?

JAMIE: Probably ‘Forever’. Go listen to ‘Forever’. That’s the song that we wanted to write. It’s hugely important to us as a band. There’s a reason we play it last at gigs pretty much every time. It’s because it means so much to us and it seems to mean so much to other people as well.

BEN: I’d probably go with ‘Two Car Family’ or ‘When We Grow Up’. It’s hard to pick one from All In cause they’re all so good. I’m gonna go with ‘Two Car Family’.

JONNY: I would maybe go with a song like ‘Sometimes’… I think it embodies Apollo Junction. There’s kind of the electronic feel in places, there’s the heavy chorus which is really good. It sounds incredible on the big speakers at gigs and stuff. So ‘Sometimes’ is a really good summary song for AJ, I would say.

SAM: I always tell people if they want to hear our music to just hit shuffle on the AJ playlist as every track has that unique “Apollo Junction” sound. And if ‘Jayne’ pops up then press shuffle again.

MATT: I think ‘Born For Now’ is a big one off the first album or ‘Begin’. I realize that’s me recommending two and I don’t care. And then ‘Porcelain’ off All In is quite a big song that sounds a lot like us. Obviously I’m biased so just stick ‘em all on and enjoy them all.

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Apollo Junction have tour stops in Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds and Cardiff to come before the end of the year. You can find the band on X, Instagram and TikTok @ApolloJunction