Not every band has a dramatic origin story, and applefield would be the first to tell you theirs isn’t one. Guitarist and vocalist Connor asked Juliet if she wanted to pick up a bass for the first time and play music together. He asked a friend, Ted, if he could join in playing drums. They said yes, and the trio got to doing the unglamorous work of figuring out how to be a band together.
What they landed on, more than a sound or an aesthetic, was an approach. Practice like you perform. Treat every rehearsal like there’s an audience watching. Bring the same energy to a run-through in the practice space as you would to a stage. It’s a simple idea, but for a band that has spent the past year playing house shows, sharing bills with touring acts, and slowly locking in their identity, it’s one that seems to have served them well.
That momentum carried them from gradually releasing singles to putting out their debut EP, where are you going?, in December 2025 — and defining their shoegazey slacker rock sound along the way.
What have y’all been listening to lately? Any favorites from 2025 still lingering?
Connor (guitar/vocals): They Are Gutting a Body of Water released a new album [Lotto], and it’s really good. I’ve been listening to that a lot.
Juliet (bass/vocals): I really enjoyed the new Deftones record [Private Music]. Lately I’ve been listening to some J-pop.
Ted (drums): My favorite album last year was Choke Enough by Oklou. It’s an awesome pop album. I’ve been getting into sophisti-pop stuff from the UK. There’s a band called Prefab Sprout that I’ve been listening to a lot.
Who is the first musician that you remember discovering on your own and obsessing over?
Connor: The Ventures, the surf rock band from the ’60s, and The Beach Boys. I was really into that as a kid, but that’s just from hearing my parents listening to it when I was growing up. Primus was probably the first band I obsessed over. I had heard nothing like it.
Ted: There’s the answer from before I was choosing the music I was listening to, which is The Beatles and a lot of early Fountains of Wayne. My dad is really into power pop. But I’d say the first artist I was really into was D’Angelo. That’s the one that I found on my own, where I was like, “Oh my god, this inspired me to make music.”
Juliet: Growing up, we listened to a lot of rock, nu-metal, ’90s rock, grunge; stuff like that. So I think I didn’t discover many of the classics on my own. The one that comes to mind is a goth-pop band called The Birthday Massacre, which I liked a lot when I was really young.
What inspired y’all to pick up an instrument?
Juliet: My dad is a musician, so I grew up with music in the house, and he was in a rock band when I was growing up. Obviously, music was very encouraged. So, getting older and having time to learn an instrument again has been pretty cool. It’s just always been something I’ve cared very deeply about.
Connor: Same thing here. My dad played guitar and sang around the house all the time, especially when I was growing up. I was just around it as a child, and I always admired it. So it felt natural when he gave me my first bass, which he passed down to me, and that’s what I learned on.
Ted: Honestly, I have a similar story. My dad plays drums. Drums weren’t my first instrument; I started with bass. But I would always just mess around with drums growing up, and then I felt like it served me well when I actually tried to play drums on my own later. But just having a drum set in the house growing up probably inspired a lot of that.
How did you all come together to form the band?
Connor: I pretty much just asked Juliet if she wanted to play bass, and she was down. Then I had known Ted for a while. He moved here around the pandemic, and I asked if he’d want to play drums in a rock band. It’s a pretty simple story. [laughs]
Did you know Ted before he moved here?
Connor: Yeah. We met doing marching band back in 2018. Ted was the best drummer I knew in the area that I could ask, so it just seemed right if he was willing. And then here we are. And then the same with Juliet, who learned bass for this project because she said she really wanted to be part of a band. It was like, “Why not? Let’s do it.”
Juliet: Connor was primarily a bassist before this project, so it was nice to have someone who was very knowledgeable and could steer me in the right direction for playing.
Image credit: chrissteelframe
As you guys started jamming and writing songs, what was the process for navigating songwriting and playing out?
How did you start building the band’s live presence while also shaping its identity, including the sound and songs that accompany the shows?
Connor: Before we officially formed, I had written some songs. I had an idea about what the sound should be. At first, it was just me bringing these songs. I was like, “Okay, Juliet, let’s figure out a bass line together.” ThenI’d tell Ted, “Okay, here’s a general idea for the drums.” And then we would make it happen.
As time went on, we started putting our own individual flair on the songwriting.It’s less of a traditional jam and more of a collaborative songwriting session.
Juliet: I feel like we used our experience from playing in previous projects to navigate the early stuff. Our very first show was a house show. I’m sure we were all nervous. It’s just something that you have to do, so we did it.
Connor: This is also my first time singing in a project, and it’s Juliet’s first time singing and playing bass. So a lot of early time was spent literally finding our voice and carrying that energy into a live performance.
Juliet: We’ve been learning as we go, finding our footing individually and as a group. Obviously, it’s different to create something on your own than in a collaborative effort. You have to learn how to work together efficiently and effectively to create something you can all be proud of.
Ted: And learning how to perform and be comfortable performing. I feel like we just kept learning that. We talked a lot about how we approach performance, especially mentally. Like how to deal with when a show goes really well, when a show doesn’t go well, and how to navigate that and just learn from it.
How has the preparation that you do for shows evolved over time, going from that initial moment of “we’re all in this together, and it’s new” to getting more comfortable with it?
Ted: That’s something that we talk about a lot. In rehearsal, we try to call it “practice like you perform.” If we bring the same energy we would use during the performance, ideally, it’s less nerve-wracking when you get there. It’s a little easier because it’s just muscle memory. I know I think about that a lot in rehearsal, and I constantly ask myself, “Am I doing what I would do in a performance?”
Connor: I just imagine that we’re on stage. So if I’m doing something during a rehearsal, I try not to do anything I wouldn’t do live. When we do a full run-through, we treat it very much as if we are performing..
Ted: If someone were to take a picture of me during a rehearsal at one point in the set, and then another during a performance, I want them to be the same.
Connor: There’s definitely a standard that we try to hold ourselves to when we’re rehearsing songs that we’ve done for a while. Even when we’re learning a new song and decide to do a full run-through, we try to make it like we’re performing it in front of people right away.
When you all look back on the past year, what were some of the highlights as a band?
Connor: Playing live. Any opportunity to play live.
Juliet: And everything that comes with that, right? Meeting new people, hearing bands we do or don’t know, and enjoying it. Getting to share that with others is really cool.
Ted: Yeah, that’s new to me, too. Being in a band and then being in shows where I’m a part of the show, as opposed to going to shows. This is the first band I’ve been in since high school. For me, it’s a new way to be in the music scene.
Connor: Last year, we were fortunate to play with Cloakroom and Glixen. It’s awesome to hop on a bill with some of the touring acts that have come through. We played with janedriver and Blinder. And we’ve also been meeting a lot of really cool people in the area.
Juliet: Being inspired by other bands and seeing that everybody is just really kind. People are happy to talk, share, and be around one another. That’s what is really important.
Image credit: chrissteelframe
Do you have any specific goals that y’all are striving for? Other than just playing more shows and writing more songs?
Connor: We’ve been trying to write a lot more lately. We just released an EP, [where are you going?], and are hoping to play more out of state. Just keeping up that momentum we’ve built over this past year.
Juliet: I feel like it’s taken us about a year to figure out the sound we really want to stick with. That’s something that we’ve talked about; we just really want to push that and grow.
Ted: We’re proud of where we are, but also always looking at where we could go with the sound or what we want to do with the sound. If we’re always like, “Oh, what’s the next thing, what’s the next thing?” it’s hard to appreciate what’s going on now. But then, if we’re only appreciating what’s going on now and not continuing to write new music, we might start to feel stuck. We want to make sure we’re always doing things we’re excited about.
Who are some of your favorite local or North Carolina-specific bands that you want to shout out?
Juliet: MEGABITCH is one of my favorites. Old Suns is awesome.
Ted: Gumhead is cool. We played with them quite a bit. And Big Mistake as well.
Connor: You also got bands like Sesame and Survival Tactics. There’s a lot of great hardcore in the area as well.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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