If you lived through the rise of a new generation of rockstar djs and witnessed the commercial success of EDM in the last ten years, you're probably too young to remember how it started.
Simeon Coxe, co-founder and vocalist of the 1960s experimental electronic band Silver Apples, was known for fusing traditional rock structures with electronically generated melodies, using synthesizers he built at home.
Although Silver Apples' career was short-lived, they influenced the likes of Beck, Beastie Boys and Portishead. Even Jimmy Hendrix was a fan of their work.
In the late 60s, Coxe was member of the Overland Stage Electric Band when he decided to incorporate the sound of a vintage oscillator into their music. Later on, together with Danny Taylor, he founded Silver Apples.
"When we were forming Silver Apples, we stayed in an artists’ loft day and night, playing music and developing our own sound for six months. During that time, we didn’t listen to anybody and when we came out of our shell, we started something."
Simeon Coxe of Silver Apples seen with his home-built synthesiser in the late 1960s
Source: BackSeatMafia.com
Based in New York, the band's first sounds were created just with the oscillators and a few pedals. They couldn’t afford to buy anything from music stores so they would use junkie equipment abandoned in cardboard boxes and started to experiment with it.
It was such an unusual sound at the beginning the first reaction was of self-defence. It took about ten minutes for them to get it but eventually it would turn into a party.
"We wanted to get them to dance. We never wanted to be ahead of our times, we wanted to be right in the moment. That analog gear we used is nothing like electronic music is today; we were never sure when we went on stage whether our great would work or not."
Coxe died at home in Alabama on Wednesday, September 9, having suffered with the progressive lung condition pulmonary fibrosis.
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