APRE

An '80s-inflected pop approach anchors the music of this British indie duo, whose multi-instrumentalist members Charlie Brown and Jules Konieczny first came together in the late 2010s. Although both originally hail from Kent, the pair crossed paths at Ealing Chess Club in West London while completing a BA in Creative Musicianship at The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance. Beginning in 2016, Brown handled drums and Konieczny took up guitar as session musicians within the same groups, simultaneously developing original material that would evolve into APRE. The project's name echoes the French word "après" and was adopted once another act had already secured rights to the Gallic spelling. With each member raised by a musical father, pursuing a career in the industry felt instinctive, and the time spent collaborating in other ensembles ensured that, upon issuing their debut single and stepping onstage for the first time as APRE, the act already projected a fully realized identity.

Their initial output, among it the 2018 EPs The Movement of Time and Drum Machines Killed Music, appeared via the duo's own Beach 91 imprint, a nod to signage on the garden shed at Ealing Chess Club. By year's end they had joined Polydor Records, which put out the March 2019 EP Everyone's Commute. The release aligned with a U.K. tour alongside labelmates Sea Girls and was quickly followed by the vinyl-only compilation 2.45, collecting their first three EPs. Summer brought APRE's introductory U.S. performances, after which the fourth EP, Guns Down, surfaced in November; that same month saw the standalone holiday single "Christmas Trees in the Rain." Early the following year the pair launched their first headline tour, then issued four additional singles across spring and summer 2020. Their first proper mini-album, Always in My Head, emerged before the close of the year.