Recent graduate Greg Hummell (Medway 2012), who obtained a BSc (Hons) in Music Technology from Kent in July, has achieved over 100,000 listens for his first single Turning Tides, on general release from Apidae music.
Featuring lyrics and haunting vocals from fellow Kent alumnus and Music Technology graduate Drew York (Medway 2014), the stunning track was featured earlier in the year with a special mention in Q magazine as one of five songs to hear.
Greg’s signing with Dumont Dumont, a record label based in Stockholm, came about after he put Turning Tides up on SoundCloud as a demo, where it was picked up by blogs including HillyDilly and Pause Musicale before being found by the record label.
Greg performs in a number of local bands and co-established and managed a record label for the University in the latter two years of his degree. Founder of electronic project Apidae (the name derives from Greg’s surname, which is German for Bumblebee, and Apidae, a collective term for bees), his joint project with Drew York came into being in 2013, in the first year of Greg’s degree, when he started remixing local bands to hone his skills as a producer. From there, he started writing original material and putting together a live show.
Says Greg, “My music is inspired by alternative rock acts such as Radiohead, Mogwai and Foals, and electronic acts like Bonobo, Four Tet and Shigeto, and I sought to combine and reflect these influences in my individual project EP, which explored the relationship between conventional live instrumentation and electronic instruments, sound sources, and means of production. I composed arrangements seamlessly combining drums, guitars, and piano, with synthesizers, arpeggiators and techniques like sampling, side chaining and filtering. I look to continue writing, producing, and performing original music, and hope to get a job in a studio.”
Greg, who has been greatly inspired by the local music scene, credits his time at University as a big factor in supporting his career launch, thanks to the incredible experience of meeting like-minded people and being inspired by lecturers and speakers.
To keep in touch with further exciting developments for Apidae, follow @ApidaeUK on Twitter