Apples recipe: Stir it up well

Quirky indie group the Apples in Stereo spent nine years charming critics and fans with carefully honed albums of orchestral pop that evoked such ‘60s heroes as the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Pink Floyd.

But for Apples leader Robert Schneider, familiarity with those influences was breeding, if not contempt, definitely boredom.

“Being in a comfort zone is a really nice thing,” says the singer-guitarist-producer, 31.

“At the same time, once you’re comfortable, you lose some sort of ambition.”

So, the Denver-based quartet, which also includes guitarist John Hill, bassist Eric Allen and drummer Hilarie Sidney (Schneider’s wife), decided to strip things down for its current album, “Velocity of Sound.”

The new collection, released in October by New York City-based spinART Records, is more Joey Ramone than Brian Wilson, with 11 tracks that clock in at a mere 28 minutes.

“Velocity” arrives at a time when listeners’ ears are attuned to the more streamlined and high-octane rock pleasures of the White Stripes, the Strokes, the Hives, et al. Indeed, the album’s super-simplistic songs have a childlike charm akin to those of White Stripes songwriter Jack White.

Schneider, who describes himself as “really hyper” and “a little spastic” and who speaks in rushed-yet-coherent sentences that stumble over one another, says the shift was strictly the result of his hankering for a change.

He usually has several interconnected projects going on at once. He’s working on his second solo collection, under the moniker the Marbles, and is collaborating on an album with one of his heroes, Andy Partridge of veteran British pop group XTC, which probably will be released next year.

But Schneider has been making the same kind of music since high school. In college he co-launched the Elephant 6 Recording Collective of groups including Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control and Secret Square, which shared members as well as a creative emphasis on whimsy and psychedelia.

“I just kind of felt burned out on being sophisticated, on being pretentious, on trying to evoke the sort of surrealist feeling of our [previous] records,” says Schneider, a South African native who was raised in Ruston, La.

“Everything that I’ve ever produced has been psychedelic. It was a real challenge to make a really direct, quick rock ‘n’ roll record.”

“Velocity” also let the group resolve something of a sonic split personality.

“Live, we’re a really, really loud kind of fuzz-rock band, and we always have been,” Schneider says.

“But on our records, we always took the approach of trying to make these deep, interesting, very colorful productions. Our new record [is] closer to what we sound like as a [live] band.”

Schneider’s impulse to shake things up came at a good time, and not because the album’s au courant sound perhaps has more commercial potential than previous works. It’s more that his life ended up paralleling the band’s creative shift.

He and Sidney recently moved from their longtime Denver digs to her home state of Kentucky, where they could more affordably raise their young son, Max, as well as continue their career, thanks to a recording studio in their garage.

The Apples narrowly avoided a less welcome shakeup last month, when its first-ever European tour was nearly derailed just as it began.

Upon arrival in Brussels, Schneider discovered that no one on the Apples support team had secured him a visa to enter Europe.

“I ended up being detained by the immigration police,” he says. “They were very, very nice.” Still, he had to travel to England to arrange a visa, which he managed, after much scrambling, with the help of officials at the Norwegian embassy.

“Rocking in the face of adversity is one of our mottos,” he says.

“And, after that, we had an incredible tour. The shows were sold out, and people were pumping fists and crowd-surfing. It felt like we were Led Zeppelin or something.”

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The Apples in Stereo

Where: Troubadour, 9081 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood

When: Today, 8 p.m.

Cost: $12.50

Info: (310) 276-1158