April Hartman suggests folk punk, the oft-maligned music genre which combines acoustic instruments with punk’s ethos, is misunderstood. Her band, Apes of the State, is one of the genre’s foremost acts. The Pennsylvania-based band expects a sold-out show March 3 at Bohemeo’s when they return to Houston.
Hartman found her way to the music following a stint in rehab nearly 10 years ago. Since then, she’s not only become one of the genre’s most recognizable artists but may be its staunchest defender. To hear Hartman tell it, what makes folk punk so disparaged is also what makes it so wonderful.
“Just that it’s bad, that’s like the biggest one, you know?” Hartman laughed at one of the misconceptions about the music. “Folk punk has a rap for being bad and a lot of that is it’s got a low barrier for entry and it’s one of the first genres a lot of people dive into when they first start playing or writing because it’s so beginner friendly. But that’s part of what I love about folk punk. When I first got sober and I started listening to folk punk it sounded like I could do it. That was the biggest thing for me. I was listening to Pat the Bunny and I was like, this guy’s just screeching some stuff over a couple of chords. Like, I could play four chords, can talk about my experiences. So yeah, it gets a rap because of that.
“I love folk punk. I think the community undoubtedly saved my life at a time when I needed it the most and it continues to be so instrumental in my recovery and my mental well-being. I love the community and I want that community to thrive and be shared with people that need it,” Hartman added. “So many folk punk bands, once they get a little bigger of an audience, they just stop marketing themselves as folk punk, they’ll say they’re anything but. They’ll use 10 words to avoid saying they’re a folk punk band. In reality, I love being a folk punk band, I’m proud of it, I’m not ashamed of it, I’m gonna keep that label with us.”
Hartman is interested in growing the genre, too. The effort to grow includes creating new music, like the 2024 release planned by “Apes,” as fans affectionately call both Hartman and the band. Another part of the push is to bring the music to audiences via lots of touring. The current run, including Houston’s show on Friday, is part of a coast-to-coast trek teaming Apes with Indiana band Dana Skully and the Tiger Sharks.
“We really like to bring smaller, lesser-known artists on our tours that we think our fans would love. As I said, we’re DIY at heart, we don’t really care about selling out the show or whatever, we just want to play for our fans and we want to expose our fans to bands that deserve recognition that they may not know,” Hartman shared.
“Dana Skully and the Tiger Sharks, they’re from Indianapolis. I would say that they are very well-known among other touring bands. They are the Indianapolis band, so any time anybody tours Indianapolis, plays Indianapolis, they pretty much have a hand in either setting up the show, working the show or playing the show. Usually all of those things.
“They’re awesome. The songwriting is really vulnerable, really emotional, super catchy, they’re similar to Apes of the State in that way. Dana has some folk punk roots, they have some acoustic songs on both of their records and I just love it, I love their tunes. They need a lot more ears on them so that’s our hope for this tour, to get more ears on them.”
Bringing artists along, literally or figuratively, is a genuine interest for Hartman and Apes of the State. Hartman has made it a mission to promote folk punk and DIY music on Spotify, for example. She’s curated arguably the biggest, most comprehensive folk punk playlist on arguably the world’s biggest music streamer since 2017. The playlist is called Folk Punk DIY TAKEOVER and it features a wide array of artists across the genre.
“For that playlist, my goal is to get lesser-known artists heard and also active artists, because a lot of the time people think of folk punk and they think of the big names of the past like Mischief Brew and Pat the Bunny, people that have since retired or are gone, unfortunately. And there’s also a lot of people out there that are like, ‘Folk punk’s dead – it died when Plan-It-X died.’ So, my goal with that playlist is to show that not only is folk punk alive, it’s thriving and there’s so many active bands in the scene, aside from a couple of big names.
“Another goal of mine with that is from an algorithmic standpoint, I put in the bigger acts that are currently touring and the classics, the bigger names of the past, just because that helps the algorithm for these smaller bands that are just starting out,” Hartman noted. “It helps the Spotify algorithm figure out what they sound like so they can help push them towards fans of those bands. That was a big thing for us. When we first put our music on Spotify, if you don’t have any bands that you sound like in playlists, it takes awhile for it to figure out and it can push you to fans that really don’t make sense. At first, Apes of the State, our radio had Taylor Swift in it. I love Taylor Swift, but I don’t think their fans are likely to be huge fans of our band, so it helps zone that in.”
The genre is growing. Folk punk bands have charted Billboard. The music is ubiquitous on TikTok. It’s edged towards the mainstream.
“Folk punk is bigger now than it ever has been, right? I like to say that because I know it’s true looking at, just this weekend Days N Daze playing four or five shows in the northeast and selling every single one of them out, like 500-plus cap rooms. Bridge City Sinners touring the whole U.S., doing the same thing. Amigo the Devil playing 1,000-cap rooms all over the U.S. Pigeon Pit getting on NPR Tiny Desk. That’s huge.
“Do I think it’s good for folk punk? Yeah. I think it will reach people that need it. Will it bring more negative attention on folk punk in the short term? Sure. Any time you take some really niche genre thing like folk punk – I’m well aware that folk punk’s not for everybody. I’m well aware of that, it’s totally cool. It’s too raw for some people. It’s too sonically whatever for some people. But for the people it is for, it is everything.
“I really mean that when I say that,” Hartman continued. “The fans that we have, who our music resonates with, they’re so dedicated. They’re going to come out every time we tour, they’re going to buy every single record that we put out. They’re going to come to the show and they’re going to email me and say, ‘Your music helped me through a difficult time.’ So ultimately, yes, I think it’s good. The more people it reaches, the better.
“There will be a lot of shitty comments on YouTube to sort through in the time being, but my policy is to just not read that shit,” Hartman stressed. “Like, I don’t even look at it. When we get on YouTube or we go viral on Reddit, I don’t even read it because I know like half of it is going to be ‘This is terrible! Why would you ever listen to this?’ But then, there’ll be like 20 people that are, ‘This is incredible. This really means something to me.’ Ultimately, you’ll have to sort through it, but I think it’s a net good.”
During the pandemic lockdown, Hartman shared with the Houston Press the very personal story of music being a vehicle for her journey to sobriety. She said then that she started her career as a musician with humble expectations. But any sports fan knows the best offense is a good defense and in its defense of folk punk Apes of the State has grown into one of the genre’s biggest acts. Hartman said there have been growing pains, but the adjustments are always worth it if it means getting the music to new listeners.
“Our band is primarily my form of self-therapy and I still see it as that. And our biggest goal with touring is we still want to play for our fans. We don’t care about selling out a huge room, we don’t necessarily care about doing support for other bands really. We’re not trying to do huge tours where we play like 500-, 1,000-cap rooms, we just want to play for our fans, whether that’s 20 people or it’s 300 people,” Hartman said. “The hardest part of getting a little bigger honestly has been that, the scaling up of what we do ethically to bigger rooms.
“Prior to 2021, I booked all of the tours myself and we could get away with playing a house show everywhere or a little DIY venue everywhere. And I loved that because it was so easy for me to book tours. I would just send a couple of emails out, I know all of the people that booked all those rooms and I would just do it,” she added. “The struggle now is trying to navigate playing bigger spots and vetting all of the people we’re working with along the way.
“We have an agent now that helps with our booking when we do need bigger rooms and it’s hard to vet a venue when you’re 2,000 miles away,” Hartman continued. “I don’t know this place, how does it operate, how is its promoter, is its promoter going to do shitty things like try to make the locals sell tickets and charge them money? You never know. And we’re so anti- all that stuff, so to try keep our ethic and just scale it up, that’s hard.
“You’re going from being on the top of one scene to being on the bottom of the other and that’s tough because primarily we just want to play for our fans. We just want to play for our fans and we want to make it financially work for all of us so that we don’t come home broke. That’s pretty much all it comes down to.”
Apes of the State, Friday March 3 at Bohemeo’s, 708 Telephone. With Dana Skully and the Tiger Sharks, Noogy, Trashkat, Gripe and Hoodie Party. The all-ages show is presented by No Sleep Fest. Doors at 6 p.m., $15.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
