Charleston's Fire Apes getting hotter

John Seymour wasn't even 10 years old. And there he sat on the floor of his older brother's bedroom floor, starring with amazement at the album cover while the vinyl looped around the record player. The Beatles classic "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" filled the room with one song after another, including the hidden track not-so-secretly placed on the run-out groove at the end of side two.

Although the album had been released years earlier — 1967, to be exact — and the band had long since gone their own ways, the songs and the imagery were all new to Seymour and little did he know, but the Charleston native was experiencing a life-changing moment.

"I remember putting it on and just thinking it was the greatest thing," said Seymour, who had no idea that, years later, he would form his own band, The Fire Apes.

"I just listened to it over and over and over. It was just amazing."

None of his friends were as fascinated by music, much less a collection of albums released decades earlier.

Seymour could never really describe what it was like discovering The Beatles that afternoon. That is, until he was 11 years old when he rediscovered the album jacket.

He sat there alone, sans the record playing in the background, once again staring at its gatefold sleeve.

"I was so excited by just the image of the jacket, because I remembered what it felt like to listen to it," recalled Seymour. "I've never been the same since."

It is no surprise that a teenage Seymour began writing songs that aren't necessarily heard anywhere on today's musical landscape. Instead, it's clearly more of a transgenerational sound heavily influenced by likes of The Beatles, The Doors and other melodic artists from yesteryear, such as The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys.

He eventually went through a self-described Pretenders phase. However, the obsessive singer/songwriter is as influenced by literature — if not more so — than he is by those very same records he discovered as a young impressionable boy.

"Generally speaking I do write metaphorically," Seymour explained, "and I don't expect anybody to get everything. Usually if it sounds like a love song I'm talking about something else, but not always."

Seymour not only understands that different people are going to feel different ways about his songs, but he also champions the notion of listeners developing their own interpretations of the material contained on the two albums and one EP that The Fire Apes have released.

That is, after all, where emotions — like the ones he felt listening to "Sgt. Pepper's" — come from.

When Seymour first formed The Fire Apes it was less about wanting to be in a band and more about fulfilling a growing demand to perform live.

"When I released the first album it was just a lot of ideas," Seymour said. "I had so many songs I wanted to record and I still do, but I was more interested in writing than playing and touring."

In fact, he rarely even performed after releasing the first album, and only began regularly playing out when his second release proved to be equally well received.

Even then, for all intents and purposes, he disbanded the group and only contacted two of the previous members — Hugh Knight III and Julian Volpe — a couple of years later, after receiving several requests from record companies.

That led to the release of 2007's self-titled EP produced by Eric Bass, which has since done well in England, Spain and Germany.

The single "Hey Kate" was selected from tens of thousands of submissions in an online songwriting contest, and as a result The Fire Apes — Seymour seems to be making a concerted effort to think of the project as a band as opposed to some sort of solo endeavor — might record in Sacramento, Calif., as well as in Greenville, with famed producer Noel Golden (Matchbox Twenty and Edwin McCain).

The band has a deal with MTV Networks, placed a song on the hit TV series "The Hills" and is involved in the soundtrack for a couple of upcoming movies.

"Yeah, it could help (your career) if you're in a big city because it can happen so quickly," Seymour said, "but, on the other hand, we're really happy here (in Charleston).

"We would certainly love to play for any audience and have them be moved by it — no matter how big or small the audience, and we've done both. There's no real rush."

Keith Ryan Cartwright is a Colorado-based freelance entertainment journalist.