Gijs van Osch: lead vocals, guitar
Joep van Osch: drums, vocals, melodica, percussion
Don Gerritsen: bass, vocals
Brothers Gijs and Joep grew up with apple trees and music in their backyard,
singing along to old records for years before they started making their own songs.
Former enemies Don and Joep shared a desire for spontaneous vagrancy,
and got to know each other while sleeping as clochards in Parisian parks.
Later, at the train station of Casablanca, they decided to form a funk band.
Meanwhile Gijs was far away, living in a Pacific coast commune,
writing songs and singing close harmony with brothers from other mothers
until the time came to bring it all back home.
In early 2008 the three vagabonds finally got together in the city of Amsterdam,
where they started molding their odes to sunsets, volcanoes and random travel into
indie chansons with jungle beats. Apes in the Orange Grove was born.
Locking themselves in their own Banana Ballroom they managed to shake off
their daily sores by creating explosions of positive energy.
They quickly started taking their new songs to the stage, playing everywhere
from damp basements to ferry boats, and from
radio 3FM to
Paradiso.
After two years of writing, jamming and playing, the Apes felt ready to record their debut album.
Producer
Frans Hagenaars
(
Alamo Race Track,
Moss,
Johan) immediately said yes when they asked him to take care of the production.
The final result, titled "We Got Time," was presented in
Panama,
Amsterdam, on August 27, 2011. That same day the album was released worldwide through online stores like
iTunes
and many others.
Written in its entirety during a period of two years, and finally recorded as a whole,
"We Got Time" is the diverse yet coherent result of the Apes' labors and loves.