For our final installment of our 10th Annual Siren Festival chit-chat series we had the distinct pleasure of shooting the breeze with Ilirjana Alushaj, Angus Tarnawski and Philip Aceto, members of New York's haunting synth-rock band Apache Beat. Their highly anticipated debut, Last Chants (ha!) is out Oct. 5.
PAPERMAG: So how do you spend your time prior to hitting the stage?
Ilirjana Alushaj: I do vocal warm ups, I eat chips, drink water, play some Nintendo.
PAPERMAG: What about any Mariah Carey crazy rider requests?
IA: I only request the black M&Ms... because they don't exist.
PAPERMAG: Not the coconut M&Ms?
IA: Oh, I do like the coconut M&Ms! I should do that! I'm gonna add that on to the rider.
Angus Tarnawski: I think we should start requesting seasonal things like fresh farmer's market produce depending on the state we're in.
IA: We're pretty chill on our rider vibes. We're just happy we have a rider.
AT: Generally I ask for more than two drink tickets.
Out of all the people today, who are you most excited to see?
IA: I love Holy Fuck! They're friends of mine.
PAPERMAG: Where do you guys like to hang in New York?
IA: I live in Williamsburg...I guess I see a lot of bands. So I go to Monster Island and Death by Audio. I like staying in Brooklyn a lot. Going to Bushwick.
PAPERMAG: So what's special about Siren for you?
IA: We've never played outside before.
Philip Aceto: Yeah we have, when we were at South by Southwest.
IA: South by Southwest doesn't count -- everyone plays outside! This is our first real festival. And basically, this is our first proper gig that's not like fifteen minutes long in front of like thirty people. So we're really excited.
Photo from Brooklyn Vegan
