As the season of sunshine, beach waves, and traveling comes around the corner, one must be prepared for the inevitable drink of choice to elevate the summer season. The Knockturnal had the chance to sit down with the fantastic singer-songwriter and beloved musician Omar Apollo, to talk about his latest collaboration with Buchanan’s Scotch Whiskey, as well as dive into his artistic integrity, successes, touring, and fan experiences.
If you’ve been on Tiktok at all lately, you’ve definitely heard Omar Apollo’s voice. He’s the singer of “Evergreen,” a track that has gone viral on TikTok and listeners truly can’t get enough of the beautiful mellow beat and stunningly written lyrics. The track’s widespread popularity has helped boost the song to enter the Spotify and Apple Music charts and eventually debut on Billboard Hot 100 at number 62 for the week ending of October 1st, earning Omar his first-ever entry on the chart. In response to the rising success, the song was chosen as the album’s next single and was later sent to contemporary hit radio on October 4th, making it his first-ever radio single. It’s been an incredible year for him, as in addition to his solo tours, Omar has also performed at Coachella, Something In The Water and All Points East festivals.
The Knockturnal: First of all, congratulations! I’ve been hearing the song all over tiktok, that’s so exciting. This is your first time charting on the billboard 100 with your recent chart breaking song evergreen, how does that feel?
Omar Apollo: I mean it feels really great because I feel that evergreen wasn’t me trying to make a song that was going to go on billboard. It came from a real place, and I really love soul music, so it’s really cool to get to make soul music.
The Knockturnal: You have a lot of really exciting things coming up, the deluxe edition of your album and your solo tour coming up, tell me a little about that.
Omar Apollo: In the summer I released the deluxe edition and now I’m getting ready to go on tour. I’ve been working on it for awhile, I’ve been working on stage design. It’s called the prototype tour, and I leave in like a week or something like that. Yeah, I’m excited.
The Knockturnal: You talked a bit about Evergreen being soul music and how when you were writing it, you wanted to channel something a little more. Tell me a bit about what you think that song means.
Omar Apollo: I feel like a lot of my music in the past few years has been about longing, and these torch songs. It was, I feel like, influenced by the music that my parents played me growing up. They’re all these romantic love songs from the 50’s in mexico.
The Knockturnal: You’re supporting some businesses through the 200% Futuro campaign,why would you say that it’s important to fuel the futures of these businesses and nonprofits? What does it mean to you?
Omar Apollo: I usually only want to partner with brands that i feel are are aligned with what I want to represent, and Buchanan’s has been a part of, I’ve seen my uncles drinking it since forever, so it’s been cool to partner with The Plant Shop and Tacos Sublime, and The Futuro Fund which is a fund that Buchanan started that basically donates one million dollars over the course of five years to these latino owned businesses and supporting these creatives, which I think is really sick.
The Knockturnal: What would you say it means to you to be a 200%er through your lens, being 100% Mexican and 100% Midwest?
Omar Apollo: I think it just means that in the land of cultures, I was fully born in Indiana but I had the influence of my parents and my cousins. The culture was still very much alive and brought to Indiana,and it still is and is surfaced in many different ways. Like the restaurants, the stores, the events, all those things are a new culture. We have spanglish, I go to Mexico and they probably won’t know some of the things I say, it’s a new thing I hear.
The Knockturnal: How would you say that you embrace your culture through your music/fashion/style?
Omar Apollo: For sure. My mom, she’s known that I’ve loved dressing myself for as long as I can remember. When I was younger I did a lot of Baile folklórico, mexican folk ballet, and since then I’ve been able to bring that kind of thing to stage, as well as the mariachi clothes and things like that.
The Knockturnal: What’s it like to be on tour? What are the emotions associated with that?
Omar Apollo: Being on tour, you definitely have to build a new tolerance for things. You have to go in knowing it’s going to be a stressful environment. This will definitely be a better experience because I have two tour buses now, before everyone was cramped in one. You have to be kind if you build this tolerance of preparing yourself mentaly. As long as you do that it’s very fun and rewarding for sure.
The Knockturnal: You’re absolutely blowing up lately. What do you want new listeners to know about you?
Omar Apollo: The way that things are represented, I think would be nice to have when I wanted to be in the music industry, I wish there were more latinos. So I hope that in that way I could inspire or push something and make somebody want to wake up and do something. I know that sounds corny but we all gotta do something, everyones gotta make money you know?
The Knockturnal: What are you most excited for in the coming weeks?
Omar Apollo: I have a Jimmy Kimmel performance that I’m rehearsing for today and then touring. I think all of my energy has been going into it, all of the specific styling and stuff. I think that’s what I’m most excited for?