We Speak Music

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

Published

3 years ago

August 23, 2023

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

Michele Ducci teases new album with uplifting indie single ‘Woman Like You’

Published

20 hours ago

April 17, 2026

Don Reed

Michele Ducci has unveiled the second single, ‘Woman Like You’, from his forthcoming album and animated film ‘Snail in the Clouds’.

‘Woman Like You’ pairs bright distorted electric guitar with an electronic drumbeat, adding in Ducci’s soulful vocals and a catchy uplifting chorus with Letizia Mandoleisi’s sweet vocal harmonies. A vintage organ pedalboard operated by Ducci simultaneously generates chords, bass and rhythm, like a one-man band. Shane Kennedy (Girl in the Year Above) joins in on guitar. Simon Milner (Is Tropical, Ysing) recorded and produced the track at his 4am Studios in London.

The album and film tell the story of a planet called ‘Snail’, inhabited by hybrids – primarily a mixture between scorpions, snails and humans – who lead a life according to the style of Pythagoras, devoted to music. There is also a cloud man named Agostos, a writer of musical operettas, who together with a talking smoke machine called Doctor Subtilis, begins to kill all hybrids, targeting in particular the hybrid musician Diodoros and his band, in an effort to steal the ark of melodies, an ancient ship that allows the whole planet to survive with music and joy.

The video for the single, created and animated by Ducci and Mandoleisi, delves further into the realm of planet ‘Snail’:

Says Ducci, “The ark of melodies, after various attempts, finally starts to work and fly in the planet Snail, while the shady Doc. Sub. and Agostos, with their platoon of soldiers made of foggy smoke, spy the miracle, planning to steal the ark for their evil and tyrannical purposes.”

About the track, Michele says, “I wrote this song for my love Letizia. Love seen from the mind is the sound we make. Sound is the love of matter.

We used a Technics synthesizer organ from a flea market. I tried to find a mood that was right for the song and I started using the bass of the pedal board together with the synth and the drums, and it was magical to hear the song reveal itself all coming from a single instrument. Leti was singing with me and we recorded everything live in one shot. Then we made Shane do the guitar flight, as if he came out of the window. The idea was to maintain disproportions, guitar thrust and synth drum thinness a la Haroumi Hosono, so as to create an estrangement, but naturally: it’s about how I listen, with close up something that captures me in its nuance as element of a larger orchestra somewhere. I’m glad we decided in the studio with Simon to use the layers of arrangement as the close-ups in the cinema; they look like strange enlargements that perch on parts of a mutated orchestra. I’m happy to come back with this love song at a time when everything seems to opt, even my labor in managing the flows of selfishness that have poured out on me while doing this album, for the sound of war. I’m here happy to be able to say that the sound of love always wins as did for me. Snail in the clouds is one of the most important works in my life and I am glad to start from pure love for this album that is my son.”

The album and full-length film will be released on the 5^th of June on Monotreme Records.

Michele and Letizia’s previous musical short film, ‘The Great Book of Nature’, is an official selection for the 2026 Venice Shorts Film Festival.