“It was the first time I felt like I could produce the sound I was hearing in my head,” singer-songwriter Lew Apollo remarks about writing for his new single “Let the Light In.” The singer, songwriter, musician, and producer first picked up the guitar as a kid growing up in Minnesota before moving to Austin to further pursue music. Inspired by singer-songwriters and classic rock from his youth while also performing soul and zydeco around Texas, he forms a unique blend of chill yet groovy tracks that still carry an emotional weight. 

Apollo’s debut album Fool’s Gold, which comes out on August 8, is his most vulnerable work yet. He peels back the layers of transitionary times in relationships and the grief he experienced after the passing of his father three years ago.

With the release of his new album on the horizon, he reflects on the growth of his artistry and how Fool’s Gold reveals honesty like never before. 

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Culture Flux: So you listened to a lot of Prince and Bob Dylan when you were young. Considering how different those artists are, what was it about them that you were drawn to?
Lew Apollo: I grew up surrounded by the forest and silence, and in that space, music hit differently. Prince and Dylan felt like opposite ends of the same truth for me. One was swagger, the other was poetry and lyricism – both had soul. 

What drew me in was their fearlessness and the trails they both blazed. Prince made vulnerability feel like power. Bob Dylan made confusion feel like clarity. They both held a mirror up to the world and found a way to say what we all felt through music. That mix of real emotion and surreal storytelling is something I’ve always been drawn to.

Despite some of the sadness in your lyrics, the music is groovy, funky, and upbeat. Do you purposefully create these juxtapositions?
Yeah, definitely. That tension between feeling and sound is where a lot of the magic lives for me. I don’t think pain or grief has just one sound. Sometimes it looks like dancing with tears in your eyes. Sometimes it sounds like a major chord with a raspy and cracked voice. I try to reflect how real emotions work—how pain and joy can exist at the same time. When a song makes you move and hits you emotionally is when it feels most natural to my ear.

The new single “Let the Light In” was written in only a few hours. Is it normal for you to have this burst of creativity at one time instead of working on a track over an extended period of time?
Yeah, I prefer it to be quick and to me, that’s usually the first sign of a good song. Some songs just show up fully formed, like they’ve been waiting in the background and suddenly decide it’s time. “Let the Light In” came fast while sitting playing my guitar one night. Other songs take months of tweaking, but the ones that happen in a burst usually feel the most honest. It’s like catching a wave – you ride it or you miss it.

Is there something that you explored for the first time when writing Fool’s Gold?
Yeah, honesty and reality within myself. Fool’s Gold was the first time I stopped trying to write what I thought people wanted to hear and leaned into the stuff that actually scared me to say out loud. I started digging into the idea that healing isn’t always clean. That love can be real and still not be enough. That grief sticks around, even at beautiful times. I stopped trying to make everything tidy and just let the songs tell the truth.

What were some of the biggest challenges with making Fool’s Gold?
Letting go. I produced it myself, so there wasn’t anyone to tell me “this is done” except me. I sat with these songs way longer than I probably should’ve because I was scared to put something so personal out. Some of them were written during the heaviest parts of grief, right after my dad passed. Writing through that was brutal at times. But honestly, the hardest part was just trusting myself to let the songs stay raw and not overthink every detail at times.

How do you feel that you’ve changed as an artist since the release of your EP Jungle two years ago?
Jungle was me stepping into a new world for the first time with a new sound. With Fool’s Gold, I’ve started telling that story without hiding behind metaphors. Two years ago, I was still figuring out who I was outside of performance. 

Since then, I’ve lived a lot, lost people I love, and sat with myself more. My sound feels more focused now, and I’m less interested in fitting into a specific genre. I’m just chasing whatever feels honest to me.

You self-produced Fool’s Gold, so how much did the sound of the album change from the initial ideas in your head versus the final outcome?
A lot, and sometimes not at all. The emotion stayed the same as when I first wrote the songs, but sonically they evolved. Some started as simple acoustic demos and ended up layered with lush vocals and synths. Others stayed raw and intimate. Producing it myself gave me the space to follow the feeling instead of trying to make everything sound perfect and it was integral to the songwriting itself. I just listened to what each song wanted to let them grow and come to life naturally.

You have an album release show coming up in August. Are you thinking about this performance differently than other shows considering it’s an introduction of something new?
Absolutely. This show feels like a real moment. It’s not just the album I’m sharing- it’s who I’ve become through making it and through the things I’ve been through. 

I’ve built a set that feels like a full experience that’s immersive and honest. I want it to feel like we’re walking through the world of this album together. There’s a different kind of energy that comes with playing new songs live for the first time, and I want the audience to feel that too. I can’t wait.