Over the course of any musician’s career, there will be a million reasons to just give it all up. As they say, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. You must have both the passion and the drive to push forward even when life throws hurdles at you. Quitters never win. Our recent find Todd Apfel is no quitter.
The singer-songwriter originally hails from a tiny town in southern Wisconsin. Todd Apfel would fiddle with music in his basement but was stuck in the rat race trying to climb the corporate ladder with a commute to Chicago each day. It wasn’t his dream but this was life.
In 2004, he realized that the industry he had worked so hard to rise up in was now dying. A change was needed so Todd Apfel revamped his life and moved to small town Iowa. He bought a local bowling alley as a new career. All seemed fine for a while but more curveballs were to come.
Todd Apfel Takes The Punches and Moves Forward
Two years ago he got divorced and lost the bowling alley in the settlement. He retained his house, became semi-retired and began working for the county. Todd always finds a way to land on his feet. It got even harder last year when his mother passed away and he was left to care for his 89-year old Alzheimer’s afflicted father.
Life was difficult but Todd Apfel found that “Making music, writing, and recording makes for great therapy.” He spends all his available free time in his home studio to do what soothes his mind best. His music is powerful Americana with a rock edge that shares all the emotions and anguish that he and others may come across. This makes his music very relatable and in essence an open door to his life.
The latest release by Todd Apfel is the hard-hitting new EP One Horse Town. The 4 song record puts it all on the line for everyone to hear. The opener and title track “One Horse Town” grabs attention with a much more aggressive rock feel than I thought it would. There is a full assortment of sound blended together to form a full sonic tapestry. There is a more country style guitar on “Not The Only One” but that transforms into a fully involved mixing board as well with noise coming in from all angles as the lyrics dive deep into reality. There are even some timpanis on this one.
Todd Apfel shows a softer and even more emotional side on “Shadows In Your Mind”. He wrote this one with his father in mind. He shares the pain and hope with lyrics like “All the dreams you’ve locked inside/So no one ever sees them/As your memory’s denied/To turn back the hands of time.” There is true emotion in Todd Apfel’s songwriting and instead of hiding behind the songs, he welcomes us all in, to be a partner in the struggles and successes.
Dive into the music for yourself on his SOUNDCLOUD page.
