Apes of the State Credit: Jak Kerley

“We’re in control of our destiny and what we do, not the people in power. That has not changed. If anything, I’ve only gotten stronger in my desire to foster that mindset within our community, because I don’t believe that we need to rely on anybody else to do things for us and make our lives better.” 

Singer-songwriter April Hartman of folk-punks Apes of the State is at home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, reflecting on the 10 years since the release of the band’s debut album This City Isn’t Big Enough, and preparing for the band’s anniversary tour marking the milestone. 

This breakthrough record is rooted in Hartman’s own sobriety journey. 

“When I wrote it 10 years ago, it was really just an expression of a lot of emotions that were bubbling over, and it was like a coping mechanism, because I was in early sobriety, and I was learning how to cope with emotions in different healthier ways than using drugs about them,” she says.

“After a long time, I have stepped outside of myself and the emotions that I expressed in that album. I don’t feel the anger and the pain and the trauma of those songs anymore,” Hartman adds. “I more so see it as something for other people to find healing from those feelings.” 

The anniversary tour will feature two sets each night, with This City Isn’t Big Enough played in its original unplugged form, followed by the full band playing songs from their wider discography. Every night, local grassroots organizations are spotlighted with an opportunity to table, speak, recruit volunteers and collect donations. It’s an effort designed to support local organizing, and as Hartman says, “motivate people that feel very powerless right now about what’s going on to know that they can make a difference in their communities.” 

Orlando’s show will spotlight Central Florida Mutual Aid. “I wanted to highlight the important work being done by members of our community, not by the people in D.C. that lie to us to get votes and manipulate us to get money,” Hartman says. “There’s so many different ways to get involved, and you could find your niche in that.”

It’s this spirit of self-determination that shaped This City Isn’t Big Enough and continues to drive Hartman. The band remains fiercely independent, rejecting the traditional music industry framework and practicing a DIY ethos. “I’ve only learned through my experience that the things that I have in my life and that other people that are in my life have in our community are because of the direct action of members of our community,” she says. “Through music and community, we build the world we want to live in through our actions.” 

Hartman is also in the process of writing new music, eager to record and citing inspiration from the creative processes of artists and friends like Sister Moth of Sister Wife Sex Strike and Lomes Oleander of Pigeon Pit. Writing music is still a tool to process emotions for Hartman, but increasingly, something that brings the singer joy. 

“The thing I’m probably most excited for will be to get that album recorded and put out,” she says. “We’re currently working on it right now, practicing it, so that we could record it in between our next two tours, and then have it out pretty early in the next year.” 

On touring, Hartman shares a special appreciation for our strange peninsula and the resilience of marginalized communities consistently targeted by the state government, and the vibrant scenes that exist despite the attacks. “There’s this attitude of ‘Screw Florida, it’s just a bunch of conservatives down there,’  [but] we’ve learned that the narrative that Florida is full of bad people is bullshit,” she says. 

Online, Hartman has emphasized that cost should never prohibit someone from attending an Apes of the State gig. If you need a ticket, the band invites you to reach out. “Just like every other place in the country, there’s freaks and weirdos everywhere you go,” says Hartman. “If we show up and we make the space, they will show up en masse. And we can celebrate that weirdness together and that queerness in defiance of the political climate of where you are.” 

Orlando, consider yourself summoned.

7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 13, Will’s Pub, 1042 N. Mills Ave., willspub.org, $22.21

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This article appears in Jan. 7-13, 2026.