Apartment 99 dive into the genesis, genres and meanings that inform each track on their new EP, Addicted.
The release of Apartment 99’s much-anticipated EP Addicted is hotly approaching, and the Switzerland band have drip-fed fans with a swathe teases in the interim.
Last month, the rock four-piece hinted at a new sonic direction for the five-track project, telling Happy Mag that the EP will mark a “shift from their alternative rock style” and include a “a dynamic mix of genres.”
Listeners got a taste of this shift with the release of a handful of singles, including Best Of Me and Shelter In You, both of which see Apartment 99 tread new territory while raising the fanfare around Addicted to fever-pitch.
Now, just weeks out from the EP’s release, Apartment 99 have swung by Happy to shed even more light on the project with a track-by-track guide through each song on the tracklist.
Catch Apartment 99’s full Addicted track breakdown — compiled by bandmates Finn and Will — below, and scroll down to listen to the band’s most recent single, Everything I Cherish.
Addicted — Finn
Addicted was one of the first songs I wrote when thinking about “what genre could we explore right now?”. I was listening to a lot of esteemed Pop Punk bands like State Champs, Neck Deep, The Story So Far and the iconic Blink-182, so obviously that’s the style I was going for. To me, the song is about being addicted to past feelings and memories that you can’t let go.
I aimed to capture some of the old school Pop Punk vibes in this one, although I’m always trying to bring a modern touch to it – which is why I incorporated a breakdown in the second half of the bridge.
I feel like Addicted is the first step into the right direction of what this band is able to do. But there definitely will be more ambitious and relentless songs in our catalogue than this one. This is just the beginning.
My Daydream — Finn
Quite a funny story to this one – the original song called My Daydream got dumped on the day we recorded it. Well, the only thing left to record were the vocals.
Anyway, we just weren’t happy with it at all and knew that the song had no place on the EP. So, Will told me that we maybe should just consider a new song to replace it – so I immediately got to work.
Lyrically I went into another direction than the old version, but in a similar direction like the other songs on the EP. It is again about someone not appreciating you, or what you’ve done for them.
The song reflects on being there for someone 24/7 and not getting anything in return. I feel like a lot of us have already felt this way, right? Well, 24 hours later I had the Demo ready.
Everyone learnt the song and we recorded it the day after. Gotta say, in the end it’s probably my favourite song from all our releases. Until now at least….
Shelter In You — Will
This song differs from others in the way it came to be. In contrast to the others, the lyrics were created first, and the instrumental was composed afterward. Another distinction is that I, instead of Finn as usual, wrote the lyrics for this song.
The reason is that the subject matter is very dear to my heart, and I felt compelled to write about it myself. It’s a topic that I not only know well personally but is also something that holds significance for people I deeply care about.
It revolves around how one deals with their own problems and self-doubts. I tend to keep my problems to myself because I don’t want to burden or bother anyone with them.
However, this often leads to problems piling up until one reaches a point where they don’t know how to move forward and find themselves in a deep hole from which it’s hard to climb out alone.
That’s why it’s crucial to communicate with the people close to you early on, to collectively overcome these issues. Once you open up and communicate, everything becomes easier.
Best Of Me — Finn
Best of Me is a song that emerged from a feeling of insecurity about a very good friendship I had. I just felt “Hey, if you don’t care enough about me, then f*** off “, so that’s where the lyrics came from.
I know, I know; I guess friendships can grow apart. But I just felt like this would make the perfect song right now. Musically, I was just following my usual recipe of trying to make catchy choruses and fierce verses.
The main riff for the intro and chorus was a product of just fiddling around on the guitar. I immediately fell in love with it. I think this song is very much in the middle of all our styles combined. I also drew a lot of inspiration from Post-Grunge Bands such as Seether, Foo Fighters and so on.
Everything I Cherish — Finn
My first take on a bit heavier song. It is more my usual style of writing songs, but I was unsure about how my bandmates would think of it.
But I remember walking into the band’s practice room with this song on my hands and I just thought “this one’s gonna be good, it HAS to be good”. There’s nothing much to say about the writing of this song.
It’s again about mourning some past feelings, someone you loved (yeah, I guess there were some bad feelings being processed in my mind right then) and it is extremely simple with the chords and stuff.
That’s because I’m not very good at playing guitar. So that’s why it basically repeats itself again and again. But on the other hand, I love these kinds of songs.
I love it when you can build up a song from just repeating the same chords over and over again. After a while, the main riff got stuck in our heads so bad, it just became one of our favourites and setlist stables.
