APPLETINIS | INTERVIEW + TRACK REVIEW

Appletinis make the kind of music that feels like laughing too hard while your life quietly falls apart underneath it. Their songs arrive dressed in sharp indie-pop hooks and conversational charm, but beneath the surface sits something far messier — emotional exhaustion, self-awareness, disillusionment and the uncomfortable clarity that comes after romanticising the wrong people for too long. There’s a reason the band chose a name as playful as Appletinis while writing songs this emotionally loaded. The contrast is the point. Equal parts catharsis and chaos, their music captures the strange way humour, heartbreak, anger and vulnerability all tend to coexist at the exact same time. Built from years of shared history, late-night conversations and the kind of chemistry that can’t really be manufactured, Appletinis sound like a band less interested in pretending they have life figured out and more interested in documenting what it actually feels like while you’re still living through it.

TRACK REVIEW -

“Lovesick” opens with an intro I instantly connected to. There’s something about the atmosphere and looseness of it that reminded me of one of my favourite artists, Still Woozy. Then those rhythm guitars come sliding in with such an interesting groove and tone choice that the track immediately separates itself from standard indie-pop territory.

There’s also this constantly-present shimmer sitting throughout the song, whether it’s keys or a heavily chorused guitar, I genuinely couldn’t tell at first, but honestly that almost makes it better. It creates this hazy emotional texture underneath everything that gives the track its identity.

What really sold me though was the tension building through the pre-chorus. You can feel the song tightening emotionally before the chorus finally lands with this thick, weighty bass tone that completely carries the release. It’s consistent, heavy and ridiculously satisfying without ever overpowering the emotion of the track.

Appletinis do something really well here that a lot of bands struggle with, they make emotional vulnerability feel cool without losing the human mess underneath it. “Lovesick” feels catchy, conflicted, frustrated and self-aware all at once.

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“Lovesick” turns emotional self-awareness into something almost physical. When did you realise heartbreak could sound less romantic and more nauseating?

I think it was the moment we stopped romanticising staying. A lot of of heartbreak can be framed as beautiful or tragic, at times it's also positioned as a badge of honour to stay with someone who isn't right for you. "Lovesick” came from recognising how physically and mentally draining it is to keep accepting less than you deserve while convincing yourself it’s love.

Your songs tend to begin intimately before expanding into these emotionally explosive moments. Do you consciously build tension that way, or is that just how your emotions naturally come out in music?

Our song writing/composition style naturally stems from how we lean into a more conversational approach. This naturally builds tension as a "story" progresses, usually leading to an epiphany or emotional pinnacle. We find it's also how most real emotions are expressed, they're rarely outwardly explosive -- usually there's a build up before everything boils over, so I think our music reflects that.

You’ve all been gigging for years before Appletinis officially formed. Did creating this band feel like a fresh start, or more like finally arriving at the thing you were always building toward?

For us it was arriving at something we had always been building toward. Jaz and Kieran had been playing together since they were 13 years old, and after their drummer decided to step back a few years ago, they'd been hoping for a new opportunity.

Meeting Mendez kicked off Appletinis for 2025 and everything clicked creatively and personally basically in our first jam session. 

It didn’t feel manufactured or forced, and Mendez brought such fresh perspectives and passions that really reinvigorated our passions. It was through Mendez we had the pleasure of meeting Will - the final ingredient for our Appletini cocktail. Granted -- Will doesn't drink.

There’s a contrast between the name Appletinis and the emotional weight in your music. Was that disconnect intentional?

Honestly, we love the contrast. Our bandname is a bit playful and unserious, but I think that almost makes the emotional side hit harder because you don’t necessarily expect it. 

And we believe it reflects real life too. Humour and sadness usually exist at the same time.

“Girl You Think You Know” and “Lovesick” both seem interested in perception versus reality. Do you think your music is often about the gap between how people appear and who they actually are underneath?

A lot of our songs (released and unreleased) explore disillusionment in different forms. Sometimes it’s realising someone isn’t who you thought they were (GYTYK), and other times it’s realising you weren’t being honest with yourself either (Lovesick). 

I think we’re really drawn to that uncomfortable moment where perception breaks and reality steps in.  

Your influences range from Paramore to Billie Eilish to Ocean Alley, which is a pretty wide emotional spectrum. Do you feel more drawn to atmosphere, storytelling, or pure emotional release when writing?

As individuals, we're all drawn to different elements when it comes to writing. Jaz naturally leans into the storytelling aspects, Kieran is great at recognising opportunities for emotional release and Mendez and Will have a fantastic knack for atmosphere. 

However, overall, I think we typically lean to emotional release first, then storytelling and atmosphere grow around it. Most of our songs try to capture a specific feeling or emotion, that our lyrics then translate. 

A lot of breakup songs position the other person as the villain. “Lovesick” sounds more self-aware than that. Was it important to leave room for your own flaws inside the song?

We definitely believe it was important to leave room for our own flaws, the song wouldn’t have felt honest otherwise. Obviously relationships can hurt you, but there’s also accountability in recognising the ways you ignored red flags or kept settling for less.

The song's inspiration stepped from a best friend's breakup, wherein afterwards they really were disappointed in themselves for accepting recurring behaviour for so long. 

They kept a lot of the negatives of their relationship completely concealed for 3+ years, and it wasn't until they decided to bite the bullet, that they came clean about all the times they accepted less. It basically lead to a lot of internalised anger and doubt. 

We wanted to bottle up that spiraling frustration, and reproduce it in a song. With a bit of humor and jabs at the ex who did them wrong "you're not even that good in bed" "your narcissism is insane" .

When we first wrote Lovesick - about 2 weeks after their breakup - it became a song they listened to as a bit of a personal anthem. Lovesick is definitely a favourite song for our friends because of this as well.

There’s something cinematic about the way your tracks evolve emotionally. When you’re writing, do you visualise scenes and moments, or does that atmosphere come naturally from the sound itself?

Nearly all of our songs have come from real life personal experiences, which I think enables us to write very vividly. When writing, Jaz will often close her eyes or get the boys to repeat a chord / bar over and over until the line fits the idea they're wanting to convey. 

I think the cinematic feeling comes from trying to recreate those emotions as vividly as possible rather than just describing them.  

Indie pop can sometimes hide difficult emotions behind polished production. Your music feels more willing to let things get messy. Do you think vulnerability loses power when it becomes too clean?

There’s something powerful about hearing imperfections in music because emotions themselves aren’t polished. We still care a lot about production and making songs sound good, but we never want to smooth the humanity out of them. Some feelings are supposed to sound a little uncomfortable. Plus there's nothing more frustrating as a gig attendee, than hearing a song online - then hearing it live - and it sounding nothing alike. 

We like to hope we sound pretty similar live to what you hear on streaming platforms. 

If someone hears Appletinis for the first time through “Lovesick,” what do you hope they understand about the band beyond just the breakup narrative?

That honesty is always more important than pretending everything is fine and figured out. Even when our songs are emotional or messy, there’s a lot of self awareness in them too. We want people to feel seen in the uncomfortable parts of being human, not just the polished versions of it.