Emancipator

Before he started focusing on music full time, Appling was and remains to this day something of a musician’s musician. He’s classically trained, having taken up violin lessons at the age of four, and also has experience playing drums in a number of high school bands.

However, what he mainly takes into his work as a trip-hop musician is his violin and guitar playing. His DJ sets have seen him bring on live string players to bolster his sound and he’s been known to do whole sets while playing guitar live as well.

All this makes the fact that he studied and completed an undergraduate degree in psychology all the more surreal. However, it was at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, New York City. So given his location in quite possibly the coolest, most musical neighbourhood in the coolest, most musical city in the world, it makes a lot more sense.

It was while he was there that he started making beats as more than just a hobby. By the time he was 19 he’d released his first album, 2006’s “Soon It Will Be Cold Enough”. His second album, 2009’s “Safe In The Steep Cliffs” was what made his career truly take off, however.

Before then, his only live shows had been sets in Williamsburg coffee houses. 2009 saw his very first professional live shows however, and those shows were spent opening for Bonobo, the British electronica legend who’s one of Appling’s favourite producers and biggest influences.

Those shows, along with a tour of Japan, made Appling a name the world over. Since then he’s had two more hit albums, an interview with Rolling Stone Japan, a Puma sponsorship and has been signed to some of the world’s most prestigious electronica labels.

The sky’s the limit for this unique talent, and seeing him rise to the top of his game will be unlike anything you’ve seen before. One to watch, for sure.