Hello beautiful people. Good morning. You're listening to 4zzz and you're now listening to Transmission. I hope you're all having a wonderful morning. My name is Hazel and my pronouns are she, her. And today in the studio I have with me Liz. Hello.

Good morning my precious people. I'm back on the air and you're gonna be hearing a little bit more of me in the coming month. My pronouns are they, them, love, it.

And with us in the studio today we have two beautiful people of Apollo. Go on and introduce yourselves.

Hi, I'm Felix. My pronouns are he, they.

Hello, I'm Adam and my pronouns are he, him.

Hello, Felix and Adam. It is so nice to have you in. For those who are not lucky enough to already know, Apollo is a meanjin based band with a multi layered project creating sort of cyberpunky metal, dark grungy music. I don't know, what do you call it? I'm. Whatever I call it, it's lovely sounding.

I think the, the term we agreed on was like synth flavoured industrial metal.

Okay, super into it.

I think at this point I'm just sort of collecting whatever bands people compare us to and then I'm like, yeah.

Yeah, I got placebo the other day someone came up and said hey, I was really getting placebo vibes and I was like.

And like early tool, like managed nails. I've just, just put it into a blender and that's kind of us.

I love it. So you're less of a genre and more a collection of ideas.

Yeah, that's a good way of putting it.

I think that is beautiful. Well, I'm excited to be talking to you both about your music, but also about diy trans music, punk music and I'm keen to hear about that. But real quick, just wanted to go over a couple things that have come up in the events and news today. So tomorrow we have the Open Doors Youth Service workshop for submitting your own lived experiences to the Gender Care Review. That's happening. So that is tomorrow. So if you are interested, it is tomorrow at 6pm to 7.30pm we'll have a link in the description of the podcast upload of this it is an online available to young people, parents, carers and community and it'll help you to navigate submitting to the gender care review which has no people with lived experience on the panel. So it's important to get your voice into it. And alongside that in news, we've recently had the Glastonbury Festival which had a collection of controversial events happening at it. But notable to us, Amil and Sniffers dedicated their performance to gay and trans people and also supported and also supported the people of Palestine. And I just. It's nice to see these big artists fully fledged, fully chest supporting these people, supporting us and supporting everyone marginalised everywhere. Because if we're not supporting each other, none of us are going to be supported.

Amplifying the voices of the trans and gender non conforming community of Meangin, Brisbane and beyond.

Transmission on 4ZZZ brings you the latest in trans community news, music and events.

Every Tuesday from 9am till 10am Join.

Our team of hosts for an hour of celebrating the unique perspectives of the trans community.

Transmission Tuesday mornings from 9am till 10am on 4ZZZ.

So I wanted to talk to you two first of all about Mythos, the EP. I had a bit of a listen and a bit of a run through of it and I just had a fantastic time. Thank you. Obviously there's a bit of a theme going with Grecian mythology and the like.

Just a little bit.

Yeah. What's motivating that? What's with this theme? Can you tell me about that?

Just a combined general interest of Greek mythology. I guess it kind of came about as a cool sort of idea for a project.

Yeah.

I think we were originally tossing up like thinking of names because we had written like a song together or something at uni and we were going to perform it together and then we were like, actually that's a cool name. And then we sort of went, hey, let's dig into this thing and dig into this idea. And we saw what was it like Holding Achilles, which was a play that was part of QuizFest like two years ago.

And they swung around and they swung around.

There was choreography.

It was beautiful.

I cried, went back and saw it the next day after the first.

Oh wow. Yeah, well, brilliant. I mean like when it comes to amazing aesthetics and things that are emotionally deep and dive and to dive into the. The well of Grecian mythology is very, very deep. So I very much approve of it. When I was listening, I had a personal favourite with Aphrodite as A drummer. I just found the really crunched out heavy drums at the start to be deeply satisfying. So why don't we just go ahead and give that a listen and we'll come back after the break.

Sam. I can't help this heart's flow I'm craving something more I'm reaching out can you hear me now? Find me a place to pull on When I don't feel anything at all I'm reaching out Nothing is now make me V and I know you're not holding out I'm waiting out into the sea but you're not rising from the sea room and I'm losing my grip completely I'm begging you, please complete me Something is wrong I got lost in the throne the push of it all and I'm not feeling the calm so I make my way out here to pray and I know you've seen me before now can you hear me now? I need a place to crawl on When I don't feel a thing at all Breathing now and I know it's enough make me a white job and I know you're not rolling out I know you're not holding out so I make my way out here to pray I know you're not holding, you're not holding out I'm reaching out can you hear me now? I need a place to go home When I don't feel a thing I don't feel a thing I'm reaching out and I'm whispering now.

Hello and welcome back to 4ZZ. You're listening to Transmission. My name is Hazel, and my pronouns are she, her. With me today, of course, is Liz.

Meow, meow. My pronouns are they, them. It's a pleasure to be here.

Beautiful and efficient. And with us today are Adam and Felix of the band Apollo. Say hi.

Hey.

That was beautiful. I love that. So we're having a talk today about DIY music making and everything like that. I take it you're the DIY music makers yourselves. Of course. So I wanted to ask, how do you make your music? You know, from the songwriting perspective to the production perspective? How does a song go from idea to stage and, you know, band camp.

Yeah, I think usually we tend to do it, I guess, sort of very much in stages, where usually either I'll send Felix, like, a riff that I that came to me in a vision or the shower.

Yep.

Or else I'll be like, hey, I have a bunch of lyric ideas, Blair. And then sometimes it's the other way around. And then usually it's just Going, okay, so we've got this idea. We think we know what emotion and what, I guess, story idea, we want to go with it. And then we kind of try and start fleshing it out from there.

Yeah. Just then taking those ideas and trying to build them into something totally together.

So it's kind of a fluid process between the two of you. There's no, like, one songwriter, one music worker. It's between the both of you.

I will say Adam probably comes up with more of the riffs and the.

Stuff like that, I think, but honestly, I think that's more so just because I tend to noodle a lot. And I'll go, oh, actually, I'm gonna keep that for later.

Yep. So you've got a surplus of little ideas just bouncing around. Yeah, I love that. It's good to have that sort of just cache of, like, little bits and bobs and tools that you can just chuck into any kind of project.

Absolutely. I think it's usually quite helpful because I'll go, hey, Felix, I've got. And just, you know, chuck it out. And then he usually goes and helps me organise it.

Yeah, I see, I see.

I do like that you're leaning on divine inspiration. Thank you for your guitar riffs. That fits into the Greek mythology thing. Also having revelations while bathing.

Oh, really? Is that a Grecian mythology?

Eureka, baby.

Of course.

Where the best ideas come from.

Yeah, I love it. Well, you need to start working with that. Perhaps living in a barrel or something like that will really help, you know, philosophise, give you better ideas, connect, you.

Know, songwriting in the communal baths.

Oh, I love it.

But, yeah, we do all our own production as well.

Totally. I would love to ask you about that. So, production. What? You know, what do you use? What does DIY producing mean?

Kind of just like whatever we've got at our disposal, I guess. I mean, we've got like a couple of. A handful of microphones between us. Some Dis and Ableton and Logic, I guess. Yeah. And, yeah, the kind of. Only thing we really outsourced for the EP that we did was the mastering. We got Mitch Hostile Architect to do the mastering for that.

Oh, very nice.

But everything else, our drummer just recorded his drums in his live room at home. We did vocals and guitar and bass in. In my little backyard studio kind of thing that we've got some amp simulators and a dream.

So it's just a little communal project, then? Hey, just whatever's around.

Yeah, whatever's around. And I think because of the very soundscapey I guess, nature of it, where there's so many different layers. It feels it's a lot easier for us to not do, like the live tracking.

Right, Right.

So we can feel that, like it's a little bit easier for us to make it on a cheaper budget, I guess.

Yeah.

There's less need for you to all be in the same space performing together. Yeah, I like that. And what's nice about that is that's robust, that's gonna. That works no matter where you are, what you're doing. Right. And I like that a lot. Do you think that. That, you know, obviously this is an advantage, right, Being able to make music with just the tools you have, not needing to invest tonnes of money, not needing to go to people who, you know, claim to be the best at what they do. What do you think that gives you, in terms of the music you make? Does that sort of change the artistry? Does that change the decisions you make making these songs?

To a certain extent, I think it does. Does it change the artistry?

I think in that way it both opens up things and then also sometimes can not close things off.

There's limitations.

Yeah, yeah, totally.

Yeah. Like when we know we're never going to get the, like that pure pop, like Dua Lipa, Taylor Swift vocal, but that's not what we want anyway.

Absolutely.

So I think there's limitations in that way. But it does also open up more in terms of creativity. And also not having to do things like book out a studio to just re record a guitar line that we're not happy with is a massive advantage. We can just kind of. We can be listening to the demo and it'll be like, hey, I'm not quite happy with how the bass sounds. And then just plug it in and redo it.

Right there, straight into it. Yeah, that's fantastic. I really like that. And I like that. That idea that those little limitations are also. They're kind of creative guidelines. Right. Like you're not going to get the cleanest of vocals, but it's helping you to achieve. To achieve an aesthetic that you were aiming for in the first place.

Yeah. A little bit of room noise and surfaces around you, just add a little bit of overdrive and it's. It's an aesthetic suddenly.

Yeah, I love that. Well, I mean, I'd love to hear some more of that. So how about we move on? Earlier you listened to Aphrodite and now we're listening to Icarus by Apollo.

Always pushing up just a tumble down Trapped by Now you Have a tea. Leaving nothing hanging around by the skin of its teeth Tears it's not what it's meant to be I'm falling apart at the se. My wings are broken and I'm desperate to please There's a mountain before me and I cannot stop climbing Now I'm falling apart at the seams My wings are broken and I'm desperate to please so watch me now as I rush and blood have I done enough? Am I out of a misery? Put out.

Sa.

But I got nothing left Ashes too Ashes oh, there's nothing more for you to see Nothing more than simple.

How many genders are there?

I don't know.

I just got here to transmission. I'm on the air today with the lovely Liz.

Meow, meow. My pronouns are they, them. It's a pleasure.

Beautiful and efficient again. And here we have Adam and Felix of the band Apollo. Say hi again. Hello.

Meow, meow.

Oh, I like it. We've got complexity this time.

Just catching on.

Love a good meow.

Yeah. Honestly, I've been meowing a lot. I have an old cat that I'm looking after right now, 19 years old, named Mia.

19, 19.

I know, and she's a beaut. But she does not like being left alone. So she meows like crazy when we get home. And I've been working on perfecting like the exact same pitch, the exact same tone. We have full conversations. It matters a lot to me.

I do that with my cat. Exactly. But someone just called him an old cat. But he's just turning six this year.

That's not even a middle aged cat.

That's what I said.

That cat still has aspirations of becoming like a sports star.

Yeah, absolutely.

World domination. He's a tuxedo. He's got an attitude.

Oh, great. Well, don't give that poor little cat a midlife crisis. Still in the prime of his youth. Right, so we've been talking today about DIY music making and obviously we're on transmission. We're all trans around here. We love it. So I wanted to ask, how does your trans identity factor into it? Obviously, you make alternative music and you make it in your own way. Do you find that your identity is part of that? Do you find that there's a crossover in the community? I'd like to hear your thoughts on that.

I think Adam's got a good basis to talk about trans identity and metal music.

Well, I'm intrigued.

Please tell us. Jump in quickly and say, I don't personally think it impacts my slang songwriting too much. Aside from the fact that I am just a trans person making music, it's not the centre of what we do. Yeah, but it is like, you know, part of who we are.

I guess it's a reality. Yes. I really like that perspective. I just want to say real quick that I think that's very valuable. We get caught up a lot in the activism and the importance of fighting for our rights and everything that gets talked about. But also, at the end of the day, we are just individual people and a lot of trans people definitely deserve the rights to just quietly live a comfortable life. I certainly, I hold no qualms to anyone who wants to just be able to exist comfortably, which is also why we're so passionate about talking about it. But I love that approach. I love that approach of you're just trying to authentically put yourself in and you happen to be trans. It's not a joined project there. But on the other hand, Adam.

So for context, I'm currently doing my PhD and it's very much talking about trans identity and trans existence in metal culture.

Oh, perfect.

And metal subcultures.

I didn't know we had a full on professional on the subject in Tell us everything academic.

But I think in my sort of, I guess, opinion, I find especially for us, there's obviously the blanket thing of, you know, I'm a trans man. I've been on testosterone for a number of years now that I can't remember off the top of my head, which obviously sort of initially shaped how we were songwriting because I had a completely new vocal instrument to work with. But I guess one thing that I think I've started to notice especially that I think definitely pertains to us and then also with a bunch of other trans heavy artists that I see around, is that I think there's a lot more of a willingness, I think, to mess around with the genre and to really get a bit weird with it and get a bit funky with it. And you know, I noticed a lot of times trans people, especially the ones that exist in here in Meanjin's metal scene, tend to exist more in like the more extreme metals or your black metal, your noise metal, all that sort of stuff. I think part of that's just because you have this music that's already so. So much about pushing boundaries and doing stuff that's different. And if you're someone that just by your existence is kind of pushed a little bit to a boundary.

Yeah.

Playing with that in your music can kind of just. I know it feels a little bit more Allowed.

Yeah, that makes total sense.

Yeah.

So you're saying there's sort of like a higher tendency for trans musicians, trans creators, to be in these very alternative genres and fields.

Yeah.

And trying to like. You're saying it's like pushing boundaries on. Pushing boundaries, right? Yeah. You've gone into a subculture and you're like, I don't think we've changed this enough.

I think we can make it weirder.

Yeah.

We can get even stranger about this. I really like that. And do you apply that methodology to what you create with Apollo?

Yeah, absolutely. I think we're very. We very much push and pull from all sorts of things. Like outside of metal, I've got, you know, a big soft spot for like electronica and stuff. Stuff.

Unsurprisingly, my personal passion actually lies in listening to K pop.

Wow. How does K pop influence Apollo?

Personally, I really enjoy taking things like the amount of highly processed vocal layers and things like that. You would have just heard that in the ending there of Icarus. We didn't record multiple harmonies. I actually just copied and pasted and vocal shifted.

Oh, very fun.

A bunch of harmonies into Adam's voice, which gives it that kind of electronic kind of feel. And then you lay some overdrive over the top of that and it's suddenly kind of this really cool metal y alternative thing that's pushing the boundaries a little bit.

Pushing the boundaries and also can only exist in the context you made it in. That's not something that can come from live performance. That's not something that can come in a different recording atmosphere that's specific to your process. I like that a lot. That's really, really, really, really cool.

It's really, really fun. I think it is.

Yeah. And I think you're right about the. We do try to make something that's not been made before, I think. And we're more willing to push those boundaries, I think, because we kind of exist a little bit pushing boundaries in society as trans people.

Absolutely. It's like comfortable. It's a second nature kind of thing. Yeah, that's great. Well, obviously making DIY music is important. I want to know as someone who makes music, but also as someone who enjoys music who goes to gigs. I want to know how I best support DIY music making. I want to know the best avenues to make sure creators like you are able to keep creating. And I'm curious if you have any sort of guidance on what best supports a band like yourself.

I think definitely coming to live performances is one of the ways. But Also, in the day and age of our Lord 2025, social media is a really good place to support your local queers and just showing them that you, you know, you hear them and you see them. By interacting with things on social media, showing up to gigs, I mean, ideally things like, you know, supporting your merch and buying on Bandcamp, but also just, you know, listening on Spotify or some or other streaming platforms like that where it is 0.001 cent per stream. But that interaction still, you know, shows the greater society or whatever that. That people are interested in hearing what we have to say.

Totally. I mean, that makes total sense to me. You know, there's financial support, of course, but there's also just supporting the idea of you. Yeah. Getting people to know that you like to listen to. If people go on Spotify and see there are listeners listening to you somewhere in their brain, that activates a. Oh, this is legitimate. This is something I should listen to.

Yeah, yeah.

And I think the, the community here around Myungen is quite, quite lovely and supportive and showing up for people really shows them that you're there for them.

And I like what you were saying also about social media. I mean, we all dread it. I'm not a fan of social media. Right. But it's also an unfortunate necessity of the world we live in. Like you say. But I find in my personal experience, it's also just such a vital thing for queer people, like you said, because, you know, even through what we hear from the people who text into 4zzz or the people I know in the queer space, the online queer community is so huge. And for so many people that I've met in my real life, their biggest support network of other queer people is the online one. For a lot of people, it's the way they begin to interact with and understand that they're a queer person. So I think you're totally right. That's one of the strongest avenues to be supporting creators like that. And it's the way that we find each other.

It is, yeah. There's a certain safety to being behind a screen as well. You're not worried about. About getting physically hate crimed on the street?

Yes, definitely. And an ability to be yourself as well. There's a lot less work going into changing a profile picture than there is to starting hormone therapy or something like that. Well, I love it. I'm really, really intrigued by both what you create. I've been obsessed with the thematic sort of through line, with all the Grecian mythology stuff. The debut ep Mythos is totally worth listening to anyone who's listening right now. It's on Bandcamp, it's on Spotify. It's very easy to get. And you will find it very easy to listen to as well. I think it is fantastic. Not to say it's not hard. I should. I should say it's very open to the listeners, what I'm saying.

And just to make it even easier, if you're out there listening and you want to find Apollo online, it does have an unconventional spelling. So we're looking at capital apo.

O.

Am I correct?

Yes, that is correct.

Which is in particular that intense last O as well, with the pause and everything.

Oh, 100%.

You have to type O. Yeah.

Yes. Well, doing that was more for search engine reasons and aesthetic reasons, rather than typing in the Greek God's name into Google. Yeah, you do just get the Greek God to come up, which is appearing.

Underneath Wikipedia historical references. And also just a bunch of archive of our own stories. Probably.

Probably.

Or there's like a. Like an RV Caravan brand there.

It is.

There is, right? You have all kinds of competition to be fighting against there.

You know, gotta swap.

I know you're really taking on the higher ups of society there. I've had a fantastic time talking to you too, about how you make your music, but also just, you know, what it is, what it means and everything like that. It's fantastic. And that just leaves me with, you know, a burning desire to support you more. So when are you playing next? What are you doing? How do people find you?

So our next show is on the 19th of July. It'll be at Yagera hall with the Yanjian People's Pride crew.

Excellent.

Bunch of cool, other heavy, weird, old music projects that are all queer.

Very cool artists playing.

Very cool artists playing.

Come support your first nations people.

Yeah, we've got a couple more that will be around that you can check out on our socials, which is Apollo Music, Meanjin on Instagram and then just Apollo everywhere else.

And if you're searching somewhere that is not a name tag again, that is apo O. I love it.

Correct. Yes. Do you have music out on the all the streaming platforms? The Spotify, Apple Music Bandcamp gives us a little bit more money. If you've got a little bit more that you would have disposable income, you can spend on your local trans artists.

That's the way I love it. Well, yeah, if you want to, as I'm sure many of the listeners do, experience some awesome trans and queer music. You're going to be at the Meanjin People's Pride performing there. Love it. It's been an absolute joy having you on the show. Thank you so much.

Loved being here. Thank you for having us.

Well, that's us then, for transmission. My name's Hazel. I've been Hazel, and my pronouns have been she, her.

I will persevere and continue on to be Liz.

Wow. I enjoy that. That's your strength.

Thank you.

And I honour you for it.

And thank you so much, Apollo, for coming in this morning. It's been an absolute pleasure.

Thank you so much for having us.

We've also persevere, I think.

Hell, yeah.

That's the spirit of transmission, baby. See you next Tuesday.

Thank you so much for listening to Transm Mission. See you next Tuesday, 9 to 10am on 4 Triple Z.