By Lucas Villa
The attraction of the rising star Omar Apollo’s artistry is his authenticity. In his songs, which fold his experiences as a Mexican-American and queer singer-songwriter into progressive R&B and laid-back funk, he isn’t afraid to put on his coronary heart on his sleeve. His debut album Ivory captures the journey from his indie beginnings to his breakout as a Chicano pop musician. Later this month, Apollo might be taking his music profession to the subsequent stage on the Coachella lineup.
“It is my first time [performing] at Coachella,” the 24-year-old artist tells MTV Information over Zoom. “Oh man, it should be so loopy! I can not wait!”
Earlier than hitting the Coachella Valley stage, Apollo, born Omar Apolonio Velasco, was writing and recording music in his childhood bed room in Hobart, Indiana. As a child, he was impressed by the soul of American pop artists like Mariah Carey and Prince, which melded with the standard sounds of Mexican icons like Pedro Infante and the flamboyant Juan Gabriel that had been all the time on repeat in his household house. Apollo discovered to play the guitar as a teen, however at 18, he started crafting his personal songs. He moved right into a good friend’s attic and recorded there.
When a good friend lent him $30 in 2017 to add “Ugotme” to Spotify, the bluesy love track grew to become his first hit on Spotify, the place it has since amassed over 56 million streams. That led to the discharge of his first EP, Associates, and efficiency slots at festivals like South by Southwest and Lollapalooza. “I am simply attempting to not waste the chance,” Apollo says. “I am attempting to honor it. I am out right here simply working. I am simply attempting to maintain going off of that.”
Apollo was changing into a pageant common when the COVID-19 pandemic halted touring in 2020. Nonetheless, he stored pushing on along with his music profession. Whereas in quarantine, he wrote and recorded the mixtape Apolonio, which was distributed by way of Warner Data. Throughout the 9 eclectic tracks, he flexed his versatility. Apollo gave the balladry of Mexican corridos a heartfelt spin in “Dos Uno Nueve” and touched a bit on his relationships with males in trap-tinged “Bi Friend.” In October, Apollo obtained a co-sign from Prince’s property, which chosen him to be the primary artist to carry out on the late pop icon’s former house, Paisley Park.
To entertain followers who had been caught at house, Paisley Park opened its gates to Apollo, who channeled the late pop icon throughout a horny efficiency that was streamed dwell. In a deep purple go well with that bared his chest, he gyrated throughout the stage. “That was tight,” Apollo recollects. “We had been there for a pair weeks and it felt like camp as a result of I used to be simply rehearsing there and preparing for that present.”
After years of producing buzz with bombastic single releases and sold-out dwell exhibits, Apollo recorded an album that was initially set to drop final yr. Within the course of, he was paired with producers and different artists with whom he didn’t instantly join, and so he felt the ensuing LP wasn’t true to his imaginative and prescient or who he was as an individual. He scrapped it and began over from scratch.
“I simply wasn’t excited in regards to the music,” Apollo says. “I made this entire first album. It was cool, however it wasn’t what I needed to carry out. It was sort of a part of the method [of getting to Ivory].”
“That was a dream come true,” Apollo says about working with the Neptunes. “Pharrell’s the very best and we received alongside tremendous nicely. I can not wait to make extra shit with him.”
Apollo is feeling himself all through Ivory. Its title is “a metaphor for a bond or belief,” he says, referring to the fabric’s robust sturdiness. All through the album, Apollo coos about romance and erotic trysts in fiercely private lyrics, unafraid to make use of male pronouns when referring to his accomplice, whom he presents to sing to sleep within the title monitor. Apollo tries to win again his man within the sweeping “Evergreen” or describes his dream man in otherworldly “Invincible” that includes Daniel Caesar. (“Latin boy, Frida Khalo forehead,” by the way in which.) The surreal music video for the latter options caricatures of two males embracing in love. Whereas Apollo prefers to not publicly label his sexuality, he lets out his queerness in his songs and thru his playful tweets to his followers on Twitter.
“It feels so good to be truly sincere,” Apollo says. “The truth that I get these DMs, and these younger children and other people my age are like, ‘Thanks a lot for saying what you say and utilizing pronouns the way in which you do,’ it simply makes me really feel so good. There have been a couple of individuals, however I did not have anyone within the Latino neighborhood doing that after I was a child or rising up in highschool. I used to be studying a DM final evening when anyone instructed me that, and it is an affirmation for me that issues are on the best path.”
Throughout Ivory, Apollo embraces all of the intersections of his identification, together with his Mexican roots. Final November, he obtained his first main nominations from the Latin Grammy Awards for his work with Spanish rapper C. Tangana. Their breezy collaboration “Te Olvidaste” was up for Greatest Various Tune and Document of the Yr. “It was my first time being embraced by any a part of the music trade,” he recollects. Apollo sings totally in Spanish within the heartbreaking “En El Olvido,” his sparse tackle ranchera music, a style historically rooted in life on the ranches in Mexico.
“It feels good [to sing in Spanish],” Apollo says. “It feels lengthy overdue. I really feel like I used to be simply ready to get somewhat extra comfy. Now I can not cease. I used to be within the studio final evening making some shit in Spanish.”
Apollo not too long ago kicked off his Desvelado World Tour the place he is performing songs from his catalog up so far. He guarantees the tour, which incorporates these two stops at each weekends of Coachella, might be a secure area for followers. “There’s going to be loads of surprises and I am excited,” Apollo notes. “I am undoubtedly going to be dancing on stage, for positive. I miss it a lot.” He’s additionally laborious at work on a deluxe version of Ivory. Surging all through the tracks is a refreshing confidence that he hopes is empowering for listeners, because it has been for him.
“I wish to maintain making music perpetually,” he says. “I’d simply hope that individuals really feel impressed. Even when you’re impressed to stand up, go outdoors, go to a present, sing a track, or choose up the guitar, no matter it could possibly be. That is the one factor you’ll be able to hope for in terms of releasing music.”
