The Orange Apples are the brainchild, lush and gorgeous music by Ilona Skuča, whose songwriting is equally alluring. What’s Your Name? is the debut set by The Orange Apples and features the single “Naked Love,” and Skuča’s Irish voice that haunts and lingers with the listener. Skuča’s developed a masterful sound that is aptly described as music written in the language of dreams, sweet, and seductive, and dangerous.”
“Naked Love” is a very distinct video featuring “two young women with a similarly-dressed young man, in a field, with their backs against a tree, meadow grass swaying in the wind behind them.” (Hip Video Promo) The video is yielded in nature, with shades of ambiguity featured throughout. We had the pleasure of interviewing The Orange Apples, who discussed their creative and collaborative process with Stanislavs Tokalovs and Egija Smeile, Ilona’s explicit songwriting process, the unique idea behind the video for “Naked Love,” and Ilona’s “fun music favorites” as we like to conclude most of our interviews.
“Naked Love” is poetic and haunting, with the video featuring beautiful imagery and stills from Egija Smeile, who collaborated with award-winning Stanislavs Tokalovs. How did this collaboration come about, and what was the creative process like for it?
Stanislavs was looking for a song to shoot a music video, where he can realize his creative ambitions without commercial limitations and targets. I knew about his full movie and was looking for a collaboration with a professional and experienced cinematic director who’s open-minded to brave, artistic ideas and ready to experiment and who wants to create really international things that are clear for people everywhere. Stanislavs liked the songs and sound quality of The Orange Apples. and made his choice. He is also an experienced screenwriter and that is a huge bonus for such a collaboration.
The initial idea went through several stages and changes and the final one absolutely inspired all of us. The biggest challenge was to find out how to show the content of the song not in a too provocative way but bringing more sensuality that kept it interesting also for young people, that’s why the young models were found. During the process, Egija also joined which was a winning point to accomplish the vision of the conceptual idea. Egija is a talented painter and photographer; she has her own style already and has cinematic experience.
It was amazing to watch how they created some new ideas during the shooting. They both are very sensitive and catch the smallest details to get and embody the atmosphere of the music. I know they worked deeply and carefully with the lyrics too during the montage. This you can see in what kind of scenes are taken, the colours, and the poses.
I think this was a huge bonus, as they are able to bring both – men’s and women’s vision to put together and get some kind of unique feeling. I’m very happy and thankful for their work!
“What’s Your Name?” is your debut set. Ilona, what is your songwriting process like?
When I came to the studio, I had my first song completed that was “Hello”. That was a nice idea to start the album with saying Hello. My initial name of the song was Ode to Life, as there I’m saying my Hello to life. All the other songs were written one by one for 7 months. Some of them were started earlier, but some came up to accomplish the lyrics and some were written from scratch.
“What’s your name” is the refrain of the last album song “Melody”, wherein a poetic way describes a songwriting process –
“Melody, from where you come?
From far away to me..
Never mind, it’s so typical
To use philosophy.
What’s your name? What’s your name?
I’m the way unknown to me.
What’s your name? What’s your name?
I’m tone which I can be.”
The second song, “When the Sun goes down,” was inspired by a photo of a well-known Israeli photographer and I see this song becomes actual every time when political conflict or any tragic event happens.
“We all feel the same” is the most tender song that I ever wrote and sang that gives me thrill. It’s about the deepest feeling of Love. That was inspired by the meeting, where different people shared what they think, what they feel about some main common things.
I can list many people, as there are people always behind every song. People who I’ve met and who inspired me, I remember those when I sing every song.
What was the recording process like for “What’s Your Name?”
Almost the songs were recorded in the first session, first try of each – I mean the vocal. I did my main vocal preparations at home and in the studio often I heard the arrangement for the first time (smiles). So that was a challenge and I was able to use all my big vocal luggage at the same time with not prepared vocal version. The arrangement was always surprising me and gave additional inspiration. That kind of process gave me great experience and some kind of “fresh taste” or innocent voice, I believe.
Regarding the music, I always recorded some demos at home, then described the ideas of what kind of mood it should bring to the listeners. Some drafts the producer sent me, e.g. for the first song – Hello, but mostly not. And after the voice was recorded, the sound producer was adding some final additions to the arrangement and the sounds.
A special pleasure for me was to sing with the unique “Blue” mic, which was perfect for the voice technique I used for this album.
The “Naked Love” video features two attractive women, and a young man, together in a field. The video is idyllic, although there is caution warranted when another man becomes involved. Can you share with us the creative insight with the making of this very unique video?
I think during the video there are two moods kept at the same time – idyllic and a bit of danger. This might be taken as an allegory of the Paradise we lost and the real world, reality, that might be or might look dangerous, when we are very open and fragile. In the final stills, you see some kind of freestyle dance, movements in nature that stay together as they are.
Many insights the directors got from the paintings – old and modern art. This is similar to poetic, cinematic, and symbolic language, when the video doesn’t tell the story. The directors found incredible symbols to show life and not inanimate things and emotions – nature, flesh-colored cloths, black and transparent polyethylene, BDSM accessories. I think Brodsky told that poetry is not the feelings themselves, but something that should raise the feelings. I would say the same about the music and these kinds of videos. There are no actions, no tricks to catch your attention in an aggressive way, right? So, what you can get from that – your feelings. The directors found the perfect language to translate visually what the song is about.
What are you looking forward to most through the rest of the year?
This year I’m waiting for the Christmas as never before 🙂 With hope for peace and joy.
Fun Questions
What was your first concert, and who has been your favorite so far?
With this project, meaning The Orange Apples., I didn’t have any concerts, as that was an idea to keep it as a studio project.
But in general, the very first time I was performing the “Doll’s song” in a kindergarten and the audience was impressed by my slow falling down in the final part of the song 🙂 I was trained for a long time to do this and I still remember. (smiles)
Then I had different concerts, small or bigger, but my favorite was when I was singing for my friends and there was a little cute one-year-old girl who was listening and dancing to my songs – for me, that was my best, that’s like to sing to an angel.
What was your first album on cassette, CD and/or vinyl?
I had some single recordings before, not the albums. And now I still don’t release on CD or vinyl, just distributed 2 releases digitally to most of the music platforms. Nowadays everything is digital.
Which five albums and/or artists would you not want to live without?
Well, at this moment (winks) this might change time to time:
Buena Vista Social Club
The Beatles
Elizabeth Fraser
Nat King Cole
If only 5, then hard to choose – Goran Bregovic or R.H.C.P.
If you weren’t making music, what do you think you would be doing?
My friends say that I should open a restaurant or bakery, as I love cooking and making my special pies, dishes, and delicious apple marshmallow. Btw, in Latvia we have our famous branded apple marshmallow, can translate as “Tenderness.” (smiles) Another option would be some kind of design I guess because I made a lot of decorations for my apartments.
Although you play guitar, is there another instrument you’d love to learn/play?
Actually, my main instrument is piano, I started to play the guitar much later. I tried to play flute a bit and even violin. I think flute or violin or some percussions, might be the options.
