Part of the Sound and Silence Collective, Apollo Cruz has been making a splash in the local music scene for two and a half years. Playing a variety of venues from the Sasktel Jazz Festival all the way to small town shows in Kindersley, Sask., it’s evident that they are zealous fans of music no matter where their stage happens to be.

Comprised of three very talented musicians — Nick Longpre on guitar, Brandon Ziola on bass, Aiden Currie on drums and all of them trading off on vocal duties — it’s obvious that what brought them together was their love of the blues, rock and Bud’s on Broadway

“I started playing guitar at a very early age,” Longpre said. “I learned a lot of guitar theory, but I didn’t actually start playing until my second or third year of taking it. I went and bought my first electric guitar with my parents and went home and learned every AC/DC riff there was.”

When asked why AC/DC was such a strong influence on his musical style, Longpre replied: “I don’t know what it is about them but I’ve always admired their solid rhythm and Angus Young’s guitar playing,” while his bandmates pointed out his AC/DC shirt.

Currie also started his musical career early, playing drums for his first show at Bud’s at 13 years old — and he hasn’t looked back since.

“I’ve always had music in my life,” Currie said. “My dad’s been a professional drummer for 45 years. My parents got me into conservatory piano at a young age and I did it for seven years, but I didn’t get anything out of it. After that my dad set up a snare drum and hi-hat and I would just mess around on that, getting my stick handling up.”

Ziola was also a classical guitarist for most of his life, but being a part of Apollo Cruz was more important to him than the details of his instrumental ability.

“I saw [Longpre and Currie] playing with their previous band [and] I thought, ‘I would do anything to play with this band,’” Ziola said.

Fortunately for him, opportunity came in the form of a missing bassist during a live show and a $20 bass.

Longpre “comes up to me and says, ‘Hey, you play bass right?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely.’ [While] in my head I was like, ‘I do not!’ — I had no idea what I was doing,” confessed Ziola.

The risk paid off for him as well as Apollo Cruz. Since that show at Bud’s, they’ve been a solid creative trio that has produced some interesting sounds and amazing live shows. They have dubbed their particular style of blues-rock fusion “high-octane blues” and listening to them will give you the same nostalgic feeling as old school blues, while simultaneously wanting to get up and dance.

“We give people the best night of their life any night of the week because we’ve literally played every night of the week,” Ziola said.

Watching Apollo Cruz perform gives you the sense that they are three pieces of the same puzzle. While lead singer and guitar player Longpre croons away into the mic, it’s clear that he is a talented musician who is able to play difficult two-part guitar pieces as well as sing.

“The way I think about it is that you wouldn’t want to have a band with two drum kits in it, or two bass guitars,” Longpre said. “I should be able to play everything, both rhythm and lead, at the same time.”

And being multitalented isn’t just for Longpre. It seems the band’s philosophy is to be able to do multiple things between the three of them, whether it be sing, play keyboard or play multiple rhythms. It wouldn’t be a surprise if one of them decided to pull out a trumpet solo in the middle of their performance.

Whatever your preference for music is, you would be remissed as a music lover to not give Apollo Cruz a chance. They are undeniably a talented up-and-coming group and their creative ambitions and musical fusion will definitely help you explore new avenues of music.

“Music is a great opportunity to explore the world and expose yourself to new experiences, so I think we do a lot of that,” Ziola said.