Bio

We are APE! A 4 piece outfit of misfits, we play and record our own music in a place called St Austell, in Cornwall. (SW England) Our recording skills are self taught and as the results show, you don't have to have all the equipment to show off good musicians! We record all of our tracks on a digital ten track recorder check them out! The band consists of Jay Furze (Vocals), Dan Jones (Bass), Nick Clarke (Guitars) and Darren Page (Drums). We are currently rehearsing and writing new material for the second six track bootleg cd as we already have one up for sale now. Please take the time to listen to our tracks and leave some comments (Good or constructive), as we will appreciate all feedback. A while ago we were approached to take part in a voting system to win the chance to go on tour in the U.S, The Company involved in setting this up is Avalon Global Promotions. They are calling it Avalon Bands of the World Tour 2007. Since the Avalon World Tour Has come about, we have been promoting ourselves all over Cornwall, handing out hundreds & hundreds of flyers, getting the story into local papers and radio; we have even formed a surf team to help us spread the word! We have also managed to make a lot of good contacts and friends in the USA who can't wait to hook up with APE for what will be a real life experience. We all hope you enjoy what you hear and see, be you a music lover rocking out in your room or a record company coming to take us on to bigger things. Keep in touch and we'll be seeing you all soon. APE ......................................................................................................... Members Jay Furze Vocals, Guitar , and Keyboards Jay started playing music in secondary school, where he first took on the drums, taking lessons, and reaching only grade 2 , then, in his 3rd year, he started taking an interest in piano and keyboards, and formed a band called the Interactive with 3 of his friends where they put together a large selection of House, Dance, Trance , Jungle and Techno tunes , while at the same time taking on DJing and forming a group of Djs called Delicious Promotions, where they took both out to gig in local pubs and clubs for several years. When Jay reached 18 , his music perception changed and he started to embrace all types of music. Originally he wanted to teach himself the guitar only to be able to sit down and have a glass of whiskey while plucking away on his guitar, but that soon turned into the desire to form a band and start performing in front of live audiences again as he did with Delicious Promotions and Interactive, this is where he feels most alive. After several cover bands playing Keyboards , acoustic guitar, jay tried his hand at singing, at first it was a learning curve, and altogether a whole different experience being the front man, but he soon grew into it, and now wouldn't have it any other way. Now Jay is only interested in writing and performing original material with his now band (Ape), where they have a considerable amount of original tracks, and look forward to pushing it to the limits and making the world aware of what Ape have to offer......................................................................................................... NAME: Dan Jones PREFERD-WEAPON : Bass Guitar (Music Man 4String With Mesa Boogie Road Ready amp) Hi, For the last year and a half I've been playing Bass Guitar for APE, before that i played for Birmingham based Band KHARMA and before that a lot of other bands some good some bad but none that i would change. I fell into playing Bass when i was around 14years old listening to bass like Rancid, The Chillis, and Incubus. When i play Bass i find something extra , i guess its like a release or maybe a quick reminder of what freedom feels like . Like a lot of you out there finding time to play like you want, and being able to fit the more day to day things into your life can be hard . If I've got one tip for you that works for me its to shut the door, turn it up and play! The rest of your life will follow or just be left behind . From the eyes of the beholder.... When Dan Jones moved to Cornwall he had just finished a big project with Kharma and was fresh and looking for new things. After taking the summer to drink heavily and finally live one of his dreams of being a surf bum he made the move to get back into what he loves the most! Music. Its was hard for him to find the standard of musician he was after and just as he had lost hope and was going to move back to the bright lights of the city he got the call!! The call came from local boy Jay a singer song writer. at first Dan could not understand a word that this Cornish man had to say so jay just let the music talk for him and as the words where in English Dan understood . A year and a half later Dan finds him self with 20 or more gigs/festivals under his belt as part of the band APE Dan's has also had a change of musical equipment he still has the trade mark Music Man but now he plays it along with a Mesa Boogie Giving him a warm punchier sound . So what next for The Bass player ? The band are looking over contracts as we speak so watch this space they will also be in the studio next year and after that well who knows....................................................................................................... NAME: DARREN JOHN PAGE (Drums)............ Drumming Influences Lars Ulrich, Mitch Mitchell, Bill Ward, Nicko McBrain, Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Chad Smith, Phil Rudd, Carmine Appice, Vinnie Paul Favourite Bands: Black Sabbath, Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, Metallica, Chilli Peppers, Rage against the Machine, G,N,R Pantera Musical History He got his first drum kit (Linko) at the age of six, after destroying his mother’s biscuit tins. Darren had a few drum lessons but mainly self taught by playing along to tapes and radio, from Phil Collins to Metallica, also buying drumming magazines and reading up on as much as he could. He played in a brass band and steel band at secondary school for a short time but he couldn’t find the satisfaction in the music. When leaving school he joined his first metal band called Demon Seed playing Metallica covers (Seek and Destroy, For Horse Men), also Black Sabbath covers (War Pigs, Iron Man etc, etc) playing to crowds from 20 to 2,000 people. After 10 years of playing metal covers he joined another cover band called Green Room for a further 4 years playing from Radiohead to Foo Fighters. After playing covers for 14 years he decided to leave the cover scene and playing other people’s music behind, by starting to play his own drumming patterns and create his own feel towards music by joining his new found band called APE, and trying to make playing the drums his full time career, feeling that he should of done this years ago.......................................................................................................... Name : Nick Clarke (Lead Guitar ) Nick starting playing guitar at the age of 14. He formed his first band ''Captain Howdy'' with his brother in school at the age of 15, playing a number of gigs in Essex. After leaving school Nick joined the Space Cadets for intensive ninja training and soon settled in Cornwall where he joined his second band ''Purple People Eater'' , gigging the Cornish pub circuit. Purple people Eater naturally died out in a massive toilet explosion, so Nick and the remaining members started a 3 piece band in Derbyshire called ''Pan''. Eventually Nick returned to Cornwall and met Jay at a jam night in St Austell where they put together a band called ''3 1/2 Rooms'', recording and gigging around St Austell. After going through about 50 bass players, 3 1/2 Rooms was put on hold and nick joined the ''Ebeegeebees'', playing many pubs. Then he left to go busking in Europe. After returning again to Cornwall he learned to play mandolin and started playing folk music, busking and playing local pubs with the ''Beltains''. Then he put together his own rock band ''Dangerous Ken'' in which he wrote the songs and was also the lead singer. He Has so far written and recorded over 100 songs. He later met up with Jay again and finally formed ''Ape'' in 2006. Nicks favourite food is curry and his favourite bands are Led Zeppelin and The Doors . His guitar sounds like a boiled egg dipped in melted cheese. [color="darkblue"][/color]