We Speak Music
Producer Dr. Apollo pushing the boundaries of Drum & Bass globally

Music producer Dr. Apollo hails from Los Angeles but has embraced the very British sound of drum’n’bass. A classically trained musician, Dr. Apollo counts Quincy Jones and Drumma Boy as mentors and his new single ‘Remedy’ features legendary UK ragga star General Levy. Here he talks about working with his idols, finding new sounds, and how Renaissance art can inspire dance music…
Tell us about your musical style?
“My production style is about creating dance music that feels like a brand new experience – inspired by all my favourite artists, from Renaissance art to modern EDM, from heavy metal to hip hop.
“I love pushing DnB into new directions while remaining true to its authentic UK sound. Creating a cinematic soundscape is also a very important aspect of my music.”
The more it feels like you are entering a different world, the better.”
What are your latest releases?
“‘Elevate’ recently came out on Ram Records, and my EP, ‘Genesis of the Singularity’, dropped on Drama Club Records, Boogie T’s label. My latest release is ‘Remedy’, featuring the legendary MC General Levy. He did the song ‘Incredible’ with M-Beat that rocked the jungle world back in the 1990s and became an anthem for today’s DnB fans, young and old. It truly is an honour to have a song with him and he’s been an inspiration since the beginning of my drum’n’bass journey.”

What’s your connection with the London music scene?
“My debut album, ’The Simulation’, is the first full-length LP from an American on ProgRam (Ram Records/BMG), which is based in London. All my music is heavily influenced by the originators of DnB, as well as the London tech house and garage sound. Right now in Los Angeles it feels like DnB is bigger than ever and I feel lucky to be a part of a scene that understands the importance of UK culture. Brands like Insomniac, Respect, Play Me and Timeless have been pushing the movement out here for over 20 years now. I try to take a trip to London whenever I can. It’s one of my favourite places. The mixture of history and culture with modernity and technology is unlike anywhere else on earth.”
What inspired you to become a musician and producer?
“When I got my first drum set, I knew it was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I was in bands for many years, releasing songs and playing all over the Sunset Strip and LA. It always felt like we were waiting for producers to finish our music, so I took it into my own hands and started to teach myself how to produce.
“I fell in love with dance music and started making house/electro/dubstep every day, and after only a year I won the Insomniac Discovery Project and played at EDC in Las Vegas.”
It then took a few years to truly understand drum’n’bass and all its sub-genres before I could even try to make something worthy of the DnB scene. I feel very blessed to live in the heart of the entertainment world, which has taught me so much about what it takes to become a successful musician.”

What have been your best music projects?
“The best is always yet to come. Great projects come out authentically and have to be true to my sound. Drum’n’bass is such a forward-thinking genre that I’m always trying to level my sound design and create something that has never been heard before.”
Remedy feat. General Levy: https://music.playme.to/drapollo/remedy
Genesis of the Singularity: https://outnow.io/t/drapollo
Elevate: https://open.spotify.com/track/6A9fAtxoGnJZwAf1HThbGf?si=90f1635b68344e8e
Featured photo credit: Kim Hardy
We Speak Music
Acclaimed US singer-songwriter Juliet Lloyd to tour the UK for the first time this summer.

Shortly after releasing her sophomore album in 2007, US-based singer-songwriter Juliet Lloyd walked away from music completely for more than 10 years, feeling burned out and unhappy with her career progression like so many other independent artists. After going through a divorce in 2019 and in the midst of a global pandemic, she found herself pulled back toward the siren call of songwriting and again making the leap to pursue it full time. Her latest album ‘Carnival’, released in 2024, is in many ways the culmination of those decisions, and the reintroduction of an artist who now has the wisdom of experience.
There’s an unmistakable urgency you can feel when a song is written and performed from a place of complete honesty. That feeling permeates ‘Carnival’. “I’ve always been envious of writers who say they write songs because they have to, because they had these things they just had to get out of themselves,” Juliet says. “I had never really felt that way until this album. I’ve become someone who writes because they have to.”
Stylistically, ‘Carnival’ draws on a range of influences from Laurel Canyon-era singer/songwriters, to Lilith Fair rockers, to confessional country/folk balladeers, to indie pop. The central theme of the record and that of its title track is not being too precious about any one experience or decision. Take them for what they are, live in the moment, and move on when they’re done. It acknowledges also that memory can be subjective, and ambiguous—was an experience ultimately a good thing or a bad thing? And whose memory can you rely on to determine the answer to that question?
‘Carnival’ doesn’t just deal with the complexities of ending relationships, it also deals with all the feelings that come with moving on. The album’snine songs feature evocative storytelling that reveals a simple truth: when the carnival inevitably leaves town, you’re left with an empty parking lot. And how you remember, it is a choice. As Juliet sings in the title track, “If only there was a way you could bottle up that feeling / and you’d drink it in / when the days are short and you long.”
Across her 20+ year career, Juliet has been admittedly stylistically non-monogamous. Her first full-length album, ‘All Dressed Up’, was released in 2005 and was heavily jazz-influenced- a label that she rejected at the time. “I am a piano player and a woman, so I was immediately compared to Norah Jones—and I bristled at that,” Juliet says. “Listening back now, I can totally see that it was true, and it of course wasn’t a bad thing.” Her follow-up release ‘Leave the Light On,’ came out two years later and featured a slick piano-pop production that led to five of its songs being placed on reality TV shows on MTV and VH1. Coming back after her 10-year break from writing and recording, Juliet released ‘High Road’, a collection of five Americana/soul-tinged songs produced by Jim Ebert (Meredith Brooks, Shai) that earned her widespread recognition and songwriting awards both in her home region of DC as well as nationally.
Now with her first ever UK tour scheduled for July 2025, Juliet has also dropped a completely brand-new single ‘Wild Again’, which like ‘Carnival’, was written with and produced by Todd Wright (Lucy Woodward, Butch Walker, Toby Lightman). ‘Wild Again’, however, charts yet another new step in Juliet’s journey.
“Carnival’, is full of deeply personal songs that are drawn from my real-life experiences and relationships. Coming out of that album cycle, I was feeling a little exhausted by my own navel-gazing and I was craving inspiration elsewhere. So, a lot of the songs I’m writing now are an evolution of sorts – focused more on external stimuli and finding the personal stories and humanity in that. Wild Again is a perfect example of this,” she explains.
The idea for ‘Wild Again’ was born out of a NY Times podcast Juliet listened to about the real-life efforts to return the whale that played Willy in the iconic movie ‘Free Willy’ back into the wild.
“It’s an insane, heartbreaking story that asks all kinds of thorny questions about human responsibility and humility and what’s the “right” thing to do and is that the same as the “kind” thing to do. There was a line that one of the trainers said in the podcast, explaining that they were trying to “train him to be wild again.” The complete absurdity of that statement hit me in the moment, and I immediately started jotting down lyrical ideas”, Juliet says.
Catch Juliet Lloyd on her UK tour this July:
1st July: The Folklore Rooms / Brighton
2nd July: The Hyde Tavern / Winchester
3rd July: Hen and Chicken / Bristol (CRH Music promotions)
4th July: Artisan Tap Hartshill / Stoke-on-Trent
5th July: Waggon & Horses, Nottingham
6th July: Cafe#9 / Sheffield
7th July: Hyde Park Book Club / Leeds
10th July: FortyFive Vinyl Café / York
11th July: The Muddy Puddle / London
13th July: The Wrotham Arms / Broadstairs

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