Today we’d like to introduce you to Dee and Erika Rhodes.
The APX is a local husband/wife funk duo who’s music reaches beyond Atlanta’s city walls. Having played sold out shows at City Winery, Center Stage and Masqerade, their artistry is well recognized in Atlanta. Today we’d like to introduce you to Dee and Erika Rhodes of The APX.
Dee and Erika, please share your story with us.
Erika – It all started as a dream to travel the world together. Dee and I met in 2013 and it was almost like love at first site. We shared so many things in common and from the start, we knew we were destined for great things together. The APX started out as a cover band called The After Party Experience (which still tours today performing for weddings and private events worldwide) – and it was our baby, our project, our gift to the world. When we got married in 2014, we immediately stopped all other projects we were working on and poured our heart and souls into developing what is now one of the most saught after party bands in Atlanta.
Dee – Eventually we branched away into our inner passion of soulful funk music (it’s all we would ever listen to around the house) and decided we wanted to help bring that sound back to the masses in our own way. Every time I heard Erika sing, I would immediately fall in love and I felt like the world needed to hear our sound, our story, and our message. We took to social media and shortened our band name to ‘The APX’ (because it was edgier and represented our new lane better) and went on to share our sound with the world. We had NO idea we would get so much love back. We were able to grow the following for our music to over 50k with all our social sites combined. This has landed us opportunities we could have only dreamed of.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Erika – Absolutely not. No one knows but I have struggled with certain health problems. For me, I was diagnosed with Glaucoma (it runs in my family) and it’s made it difficult for me to see certain things. It makes it hard for me to always focus on music because I need to make sure I’m doing everything I can to keep my eyes healthy. For the past two years, Glaucoma has been my reality. Thankfully thru constant research. I’ve been getting better and able to see better and focus more on our music career.
Also, I haven’t always been a musician (I was a singer mainly and I didn’t play any instruments) – Sometimes it causes me to feel a bit behind since Dee has been playing his whole life. At times, Dee and I are at odds about it, but at the end of the day, I couldn’t ask for a better teacher and best friend to help me along the way.
Dee – People have always critiqued our music. It’s tough because people always say that we’re not mainstream enough and we’re not “pop” enough. In actuality, that has been our drive to keep going. We don’t want to be like everyone else, we want to be ourselves, and it’s gotten us this far. Being an independent band without a major label backing us has really pushed us to do so many things for ourselves and we’ve learned so many new things about ourselves because of it!
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about The APX – what should we know?
Dee – We’re an electro-funk duo. We’ve taken the best inspiration from 80s funk and we’re bringing an electronic music approach to it. We have one full album out called Electrik Funk and it has received amazing worldwide reception!
Erika – We are working on our next album now. People have come to know us as today’s funk lovebirds. We’re doing our music in a way no one else is. We write, produce, mix, master and design all of our own material and it only gets better from here.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Dee – A good friend of ours that’s helped us along the way Tariq Nasheed has really been a big influence. We also couldn’t have gotten far without our amazing team: Oli J, Skrapp, Jason Orr and all the people and “funkbotz” who support our music from across the globe.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.theapxmusic.com
- Email: info@theapxmusic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theapxmusic
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theapxmusic
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/theapxmusic
Image Credit:
Shelby Gordon, Lourdes Sukari
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