Simon Apex & Subsonicunderground

 

    Simon Apex was first introduced to the intoxicating sound of Hardcore in 1991 at the ripe old age of sixteen through

bootleg tapes supplied by his friends at school. Hooked on the high-octane break beats Simon started collecting tape

packs and then just after his 18th birthday the legendary Rhythm Station opened just miles from his home where he

became an immediate regular.

    Over the next few years Simon attended some of the most memorable events in hardcore history including the first

ever Slammin Vinyl and almost every Fusion event. At the age of 19 Simon wanted to be more than just a raver and sold

everything he owned to scrape together the money to buy his first set of turntables. Just after buying his decks he met

the person who was to become the gateway to everything he has achieved today and that person was his wife Angela.

Angela was visiting the UK from her homeland of California, USA. The couple instantly fell in love and married only 6

months after meeting. They remained in the UK for a year and then headed off to the USA to see what life would be on

the other side of the pond!

    When Simon arrived in the states he hooked up with a few of the djs in northern California and busted them some of

the freshest Hardcore belters. The response was not good to say the least! Turned out they did not even know what

Hardcore was and their scene revolved around Deep House music! Simon was shocked to say the least! He was given

some very inspiring words of advice “ No one will ever like this stuff! If you want to get bookings then start buying House

music” (boy was that guy wrong!). Simon did agree with the geezer on one point though, no one is going to book Hardcore

 in a House dominated scene but what if he booked himself. So Simon set out putting together his first of over 150 events.

He photocopied a crude black and white flyer and hit the streets. The line up for the event featured House, Breaks and a

slice of Hardcore. The night of the event came quick and with an attendance of over 400 people the Northern California

Hardcore scene and Subsonic Underground was born.

    Simon made a lot of friends in Northern California one of which was Jay Vigor from Fuzzy productions who was the

largest event promoter in the Sacramento area. Simon started taking regular slots with Jay and struck a deal that he would

play for half his regular fee if Jay made him a resident. The combination was a huge success and lead to a year of legendary

events that people still talk about today!

    Then on December 26th 1997 history was made when Simon and the team set the stage for the first ever Northern

California 100% Hardcore and Drum & Bass event. Drum & Bass in Nor Cal at the time was as much controversial as

Hardcore was! The event was a huge success selling out in 30 minutes with over 700 people in attendance! SSU went from

strength to strength organizing events for the next five years, producing the stage that debuted some of the UK’s finest

Hardcore DJ's including Robbie Long, Devastate, Scott Brown, Hixxy, Force, Styles, Sharkey, Energy, Jon Doe, Dair, Fade,

Kaos, Ethos, Mc Storm, Mc Charlie B, DNA & Vinylgroover.

    With the events growing and more and more people asking where they could buy this intoxicating sound they were hearing.

Simon and Angela laid the ground foundations of the original online store www.subsonicstore.com, little did they know the

scale of that can of worms! Within 6 months of the online store launching it was the go to place for Hardcore choonage in

the USA. With the continuous success of the events and the online store Simon and Angela began developing a physical store

location based in Sacramento California. The store opened in March of 1999 and people would travel as far as 3000 miles

just to visit!

    With everything operating smoothly Simon then turned his attention towards producing his own music. Thanks to Calvin

at Alphamagic Simon co wrote his first track in 1998 with Fade and Bananaman titled Destiny. Within months of Destiny

being finished it was being dropped world wide on dub and received a licensing for Hardcore Heaven Vol. 4. It was the

inspiring time Simon spent in the studio with Fade & Bananaman that left him with the dream of one day building his own

studio and that day had arrived!

    Simon teamed up with a production partner Ion and they set about building the basics of what was to become Stateside

Studio’s. When the studio was finished the only thing they were lacking was an engineer. Simon had been talking a lot with

an engineer from the UK called DNA. DNA wanted to head Stateside but did not know how to go about it. So Simon opened

his arms and brought him on board with SSU. In return DNA would become the head engineer for the SSU studio and teach

Simon the basics of engineering. Within 6 months of DNA arriving in the USA Simon had him DJing full time all over the

country and they were working hard on projects in the studio.

    By the end of the year SSU 1 – Feel Good / Treble & Bass was released. The initial 500 copies flew off the shelves and

SSU Recordings the first ever USA based UK Hardcore label was born. Not only was SSU Recordings the first but it went on

to become one of the largest. One of the most successful releases on the label was SSU 4 – Superman. Superman sold

close to 1000 units on vinyl and received a licensing to the massive Japanese compilation album Dance Speed. Over the

next year the team kept on top of the release schedule and included two new labels, Mashed Up & Havinit Large. Around

the same time the label launched Simon had become good friends with one of the key players in the Southern Californian

Hardcore scene, DJ Lostboy. Simon immediately brought Lostboy on board with SSU as an artist that built a bond between

the North and South and completing an organization with connections into every corner of West Coast Hardcore.

    Simon and Lostboy wrote many releases together including Rushing, Why Can’t We See, Reaching The Edge and the

monster Drowning Remix. DNA eventually returned to the UK and Simon stepped up into the head engineer position. Simon

went on to received many more licenses including the huge Bonkers series on React, The Hec-Tech album, The Ministry Of

Sound Decadance and even a television documentary about the underground dance music scene. SSU Recordings was hitting

hard, selling well and receiving regular coverage from mainstream press with a slue of articles in publications like URB, WAX,

 BPM, Insider, Fix, Massive, Lotus & Freebass.

    The labels kept rolling like a freight train and Simon branched out to include other artists including, Robbie Long, Coyote,

Ethos & Storm. SSU 8 – Falling saw Simon team back up with one of his mentors, Fade. Falling was an absolute stormer and

was originally scheduled for release on Next Generation Records but Simon wanted to release the track as quickly as possible

and decided to stamp it under SSU. Falling came out and sold over 750 copies and again received licensing to the monster

Dance Speed compilation from Japan. Then in 2003 Simon was nominated for a Sammie award in Sacramento for most

successful Electronic Musician. Things were looking very bright for Simon and SSU!

    On top of the events, Record Store and Labels Simon also had an insanely hectic DJ agenda that had him on the road

every weekend and took him to almost every state in the USA, then to Canada, Mexico and back to the UK to play events like

Raindance, Future Dance and Adrenalin. Simon also held residences with some of the largest organizations in the USA

including Feel Good, Insomniac and Skills all averaging attendance of over 10 thousand people on a regular basis! It was not

rare for some of the events to breach 30 thousand people and then an event called Nocturnal Wonderland broke the 50

thousand mark!

    The years had been very good to SSU but what goes up must come down! In 2002 the scene in the USA had reached a

pinnacle and been thrusted into the public limelight and the general population did not like what they were seeing on news

shows such as Dateline 20/20’s “under cover at raves”! The government came down hard on American dance culture and

the repercussions were and still are harsh. Promoters were being prosecuted for the actions of their attendees and police

were finding any reason to shut down even legal events! This ever-increasing pressure took its toll heavily on the industry.

Attendance was at an all time low, record sales had dropped dramatically and the once king pin organizations were falling

like dominos.

    Then on February 8th 2003 Simon and Angela’s life took a new meaning in the form of little baby Zoë. Simon knew it was

time to slow down and he had to prioritize his life. Simon and Angela sold the store in the summer of 2003 and Simon turned

his attention to his family. Simon still writes music and occasionally takes the odd Dj booking but he is just happy enjoying a slower

pace of life with his family friends.
   

    Subsonic Underground has been by far one of the most influential organizations to be a part of the United States Hardcore

scene. Over the past eight year’s SSU has played a major part in the introduction of the Hardcore sound to the West Coast.

They started the first USA based UK Hardcore studio& label, opened the first stateside store specializing in Hardcore,

organized some of the first events and debuted the USA to some of the best UK Hardcore artists in the world. Simon dedicated

a big portion of his life to pushing the music he loves but most importantly he is just thrilled to have been a part of the best

music scene in the world!