Candy Apple

First off, this band's album art arouses me. Looking as if it were the original member of the Ocean's Eleven with an axe over his shoulder? Well, yes sir, I do believe that Jeanie was Motorbiker. That is the name of the band, Candy Apple's song (Jeanie Was a Motorbiker). This state side band has enough mph to rock plenty a suburban garage. It is a pleasant return to rock 'n roll and for that they deserve recognition. You gotta respect those that keep it old school, and classy. - 7Digital

(East End, 203 SE Grand) Since their inception in late 2007, Chico, California's Candy Apple have already blazed a mighty trail up and down the West Coast with '60s garage rock and explosive soul as their guide. Via the two-man vocal assault from Farfisa organist Scott Barwick and guitarist Jake Sprecher—along with bassist Katie Kelley, tambourinist/vocalist Summer Maroste, and drummer Slee Jensen—Candy Apple's endearment stems from both a tempered vintage addiction and a punk rock sneer, as evidenced on tracks like "Jelly Bean" and "End of Time." The band's adoration for groups like the Sonics and the Standells is palpable, but fresh turns of spit-in-the-eye swagger and the restless abandon of five small-town wanderlusts bursts through to implore your hipbones to sway and your fists to pump in staggered unison, a sentiment not to be slept on if you're someone with a pulse. RJP - Portland Mercury

"Chico’s Candy Apple would be a tough act for anyone to follow. I was informed the five piece had suffered a rather late night the previous evening, but any lapses in energy were absent from the band’s set. Propelled by Scott “Scott” Barwick’s Farfisa and Jake Sprecher’s guitar/spastic energy (the two share vocal duties), Candy Apple ripped through a set that was consistently rooted in classic rockabilly and rhythm and blues. The band’s hypertension never seemed to lag, with Summer Maroste shaking the tambourine, while Katie Kelley (bass) and Slee Jensen (drums) kept the rhythm twice. Belting out catchy choruses like, “before you leave me, honey / you better think twice,” the band was easy to pick up on lyrically, whether or not you were previously familiar with the band’s work." - Bay Bridged

Certain sounds never get old. Styles may come and go, but there will always be an audience for good old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll. Over the late summer and fall of 2007, Chico local five-piece Candy Apple served as a much-needed reminder to the power of music played fast, loud and free. Utilizing tambourine and vintage keyboards along with a standard guitar/bass/drums set up, the group creates a dirty, danceable form of rock music that borrows most heavily from ‘60s garage rock. In mid-December, Synthesis had the chance to meet up with four members of Candy Apple, fittingly enough, in the group’s garage practice space.

Candy Apple only started playing together as a group in August of 2007 — their first show at Off Limits (now Nick’s Night Club) the following September — but in that short amount of time, the band is already off to a prolific start. One reason for the band’s quick jump out of the gate was that vocalist/keyboardist Scott Barwick — also singer/guitarist for Machinegreen — had been working on material for another project before Candy Apple was born.

“I had eight or nine ideas to kind of fuel the fire,” Barwick said. “And Jake [Sprecher] jumped right on board to start writing stuff, and it’s been a real collaborative process since then.”

Drummer Wes Jensen was recruited thereafter. Barwick said he “instantly had Wes in my head because he was playing drums with Evil Jack and the Honey Creepers.”

“Scott had approached me with a CD of the stuff he’d recorded on his own — basically those eight or nine songs” Jensen added. “He asked me if I would be interested in playing, and I definitely was after listening to it.”

After bassist Katie Kelley agreed to join the lineup, tambourine player Sunny Summer (who Barwick said will soon make her debut as a lead vocalist with the group) was the last element to be added to Candy Apple. She is also the only member who hadn’t had extensive prior experience with playing in bands.

“Do I have to get naked? Because…I’m trying to change my reputation,” Summer joked about her initial reaction to being asked to join Candy Apple. “[Scott] asked if I knew how to play the tambourine, and I said, ‘Of course. Tap dance, tambourine, let me show you all my skills,’ but I didn’t know what I was getting into, but it’s been really badass.”

Sprecher and Barwick had worked together in Machinegreen, a group in which Sprecher played drums. In Candy Apple, however, he moved to the foreground sharing vocal duties and playing guitar.



“I wanted to collaborate with Jake again because he’d played drums with Machinegreen before he’d moved away — and then came back,” Barwick said of Candy Apple’s beginnings. “I had something that was a little bit more — it had the organ thing in mind — but it was a little more punk-y sound. We got together one day at my house, and we were listening to my songs, and he said that he liked it and we should try to refine it.”

Though it wasn’t their original intent, Sprecher and Barwick eventually moved into a more garage sound. This decision was inspired, in part, by a compilation released in the mid-‘90s called Back to the Grave, a collection of garage rock that featured bands such as The Outsiders, The Banshees and Ken and the 4th Dimension. “I started listening to the Back from the Grave compilation, which, basically, a lot of the inspiration of what I was writing before came from that, but I decided to [take what I was writing into] a little more of a true garage sound,” Barwick explained.

However, Back from the Grave wasn’t the only impetus behind Candy Apple’s sound.

“My inspiration for the project came from my fascination with old keyboards,” Barwick went on to say. “I knew I wanted to bring that old Farfisa, Vox sound in. It wasn’t like Back from the Grave was our only inspiration. I’m sure all of us have enjoyed garage music for a while. It’s the kind of music you can’t really hate on. It’s got this certain innocence as well, because a lot of those musicians back then didn’t really have that great musicianship. They just had this raw energy.”

Sprecher added that though the garage influence is prevalent, it’s not the only pool Candy Apple draws from.

“This kind of music is fun because you can meld all different kinds of raw energy,” he said. “There’s all different kinds of styles of rock ‘n’ roll that are stripped down and aggressive, and you can kind of put them in a melting pot to make something really interesting in between. I had someone come up to me after the show the other night who said that we sounded like a ‘‘‘60s punk band,’ so obviously there are a lot of different influences coming in from a lot of different genres.”

The new year seems like it will be a busy one for Candy Apple. In addition to upcoming Chico dates at Nick’s Night Club on January 11th and February 1st, the band will also do extensive touring. Candy Apple will head to Southern Califor - Synthesis Magazine