It's no secret that folk musicians let the outdoors inspire their expert penning, particularly the woods and the wilderness. Or that classical music carries emotion through a series of mesmerizing movements, telling stories equally well despite containing no lyrics. But what if we told you that a band from San Diego, CA found an innovative way to combine these two genres? Characterizing their style as "folktronica," the Simians are introducing an unlikely genre crossover, and their triumphant debut single "The Logger And The Snow Angel" is the picturesque, heartbreaking ballad you never knew you needed.
The Simians followed this release with the slightly more edgy "Message For An Answering Machine," and their debut album, Crises of Willpower, is coming on April 26th. Recently, Playlists & Polaroids got the chance to hear from the band's frontman Simon Breen and lead singer Lauren Kirby. Keep reading for our full interview with them!
Image credit: The Simians, graphic created by Karly Ramnani
YOU'LL LOVE THE SIMIANS IF YOU LISTEN TO: Noah Kahan, Hozier, Zach Bryan, Maggie Rogers, Vance Joy, Mumford & Sons, The Head & The Heart
What gave you guys the idea to pursue a project like this? How did all the Simians meet and come together as a band?
SIMON: I'm a songwriter who can't sing, so it's always been an uphill climb to try to get my songs off the ground. In my early twenties, I co-founded a band called The Hand Clap Orchestra that never took off and we disbanded around 2007. After that, I wrote 30 songs and home recorded a demo of them, and then I just stopped writing songs or playing guitar altogether. I really loved the experience of being in a band and making music, but I felt like not being able to sing my own songs was always going to be a brick wall. And anyway, I wanted to finish college, I traveled and lived abroad with my wife, we joined the Peace Corps, I worked at a monkey sanctuary, went to grad school for primate conservation--just kind of lived life. Once in a while, I'd think about doing something with those songs--I even tried to more professionally record some of the songs with two of my friends in 2014, but that effort stalled. Then during the pandemic when people were going stir crazy sheltering in place and picking up hobbies, making sourdough bread and whatnot, I finally got the gumption to dust off the ol' guitar and form Simians. I felt like the songs still held up even after all that time, and I wanted to make an earnest effort to try to finally get them released. So I made a post on Craigslist and reached out to people on BandMix. We went through a few different rotations of bandmates before we finally landed with our current lineup. I feel so grateful to have a band of such richly talented musicians--and more than that, they're all just such exemplary people too. And what a stroke of luck to find Lauren! She gives my songs a voice, and it's a voice more beautiful than I ever could have hoped for.
LAUREN: I always called myself a “closeted musician” and after a decade of writing my own songs but not singing live or sharing much, I was desperate to sing in a concrete and collaborative way. When I moved to San Diego two years ago, I was beyond ready to have a tangible musical outlet. When I saw Simon’s ad for Simians on Craigslist, it was perfect because Simon had everything ready to go, he just needed a few more musicians and vocals. Because I had the passion to sing but no concrete plans for my original songs, I felt really grateful to find the organization and shared musical focus through Simians. Timing is everything and it felt like we both individually have built up momentum and musical passion for years and we were aching to get out there and share our creative potential. What’s more, the demos Simon shared on Craigslist (sung by his friends Ryan Knight and Chris Wellock) were very moving, I liked the tonality, the lyrics, and that it wasn’t overly happy music since that’s not what I typically write. I knew immediately this was the project I had been waiting for.
Image credit: The Simians
Prior to the Simians, how much musical experience did the members have?
LAUREN: I sang jazz and classical music in high school as well as the University Chorale at the University of Washington in Seattle. I also performed and sang in middle and highschool musicals. I got into songwriting in 2011 and started recording my songs at home in 2015. Collaborations were usually remote and through sending files with friends I met through Craigslist or my travels. This is the first live project I’ve done where I’m actually performing live, recording professionally, and consistently working on songs with the band.
SIMON: I started playing guitar when I was a sophomore in high school. So like, 15 or 16 years old. I also dabble with piano and other stringed instruments like mandolin and ukulele. I call myself a songwriter, but I don't consider myself a real musician.
The other members of Simians are the real musicians in the band. In addition to Lauren on vocals, there's Aaron Freeman on upright bass. He plays in orchestras and is in a luau band called Lolo Paniolo. Alex Fonseca plays trumpet and mallet instruments like glockenspiel and vibraphones for Simians. He's played in cover bands and college orchestras. Jason Votaw plays piano/keys with us. He's been in a lot of bands and it seems like he's always got musical projects going on. In addition to Simians, he's also in a San Diego-based band called Modset, and he has a bouncy solo project called Auldhelm that you can find on Spotify. Brandon Wallace is our multi-instrumentalist and another accomplished musician. The guy plays like 30 instruments. He's a wildman. Mainly for Simians he plays violin, viola, accordion, banjo, baglamas, and the kaval. He's played in the UCSB Middle East Ensemble, several local bands like Fanny and the Attaboys, and he recently finished a theater run of the play Cotton Patch Gospel. Leilani Gjellstad plays flute, keys, and does backing vocals. She's classically trained, and is also in a badass flute quartet called Connessa. And Mitch Fedie has been playing drums for us live, but he's actually a killer guitar player and a great singer. He and Leilani are in a band together called Wild Caravan. They're groovy. And we were very spoiled to have grammy-nominated drummer Ken Coomer play drums on our album recordings.
Alex Fonseca plays trumpet and mallet instruments like glockenspiel and vibraphones for Simians. He's played in cover bands, tribute bands, musicals, college orchestras, and played trumpet for six years in the marching band for the NFL's team in Washington D.C. (currently known as the Washington Commanders).
Image Credit: The Simians
How did you guys develop your signature folktronica sound?
SIMON: I love the fusion of folk and synth that you hear with bands like Grandaddy, Sparklehorse, and Tunng. Their songs would stand on their own acoustically, but they spice things up with some electronics. We owe a lot of gratitude to two of my longtime dearest friends, Ryan Knight and Chris Wellock, for injecting the -tronica into our sound. In 2014, long before Simians was a band, I flew out to their friend's studio in Austin and they engineered and produced some early demos of a few of my songs from our upcoming album, Crises of Willpower. Them being the synth wizards that they are, they incorporated some very cool synthy elements. Years later, I used some of those demos to help entice bandmates to join Simians, like Lauren mentioned. The Austin project never got completed, but there's talk of releasing an EP of those recordings eventually. By the way, Ryan and Chris recently formed a band together called Sad Pajamas. They'll be releasing their own debut album soon too. Check 'em out. They're really stellar.
Not all of our songs are folktronica. Some, like The Logger and the Snow Angel, are more traditional. But you'll hear some folktronica in our follow-up, "Message for an Answering Machine."
Who are your biggest musical influences - both on the classical and non-classical side of things?
SIMON: My two greatest influences, hands down, are Leonard Cohen and Philip Glass. Even though one's a lyricist and the other is a composer, they both kind of have a similar approach. Most of their songs set out a canvas of fairly simple chord progressions that repeat in a rhythmic and almost hypnotic way, and then they paint beautiful layers over it--Glass with his colorful orchestral arrangements and Cohen with his poetic lyrics. Their music moves me, no matter how often I listen to it, and I aspire to write songs that are at least a sliver as thoughtful and beautiful as their songs are. The Amélie score by Yann Tiersen is also a massive influence. The instrumentation is so lush and whimsical. And then there's the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Pink Floyd, Electric Light Orchestra, Andrew Bird, DeVotchKa, Fleetwood Mac...those of some of the biggest, in addition to Grandaddy, Sparklehorse, and Tunng that I already mentioned.
LAUREN: I’d say my first memory of a singer I was fascinated by was Sarah Brightman. My parents took us to see the Phantom of the Opera when I was 12 years old and I was enchanted by her soprano vocals. In High school I sang in a jazz sextet and fell in love with Ella Fitzgerald and her vocal styling. When I started to form my own musical taste in more popular music, female artists, Sia and Hannah Reid from London Grammar, became my all time favorites. The soul and sheer skill that comes through their voice is mind boggling. I also appreciated reading an interview with Hannah Reid where she expressed she had performance anxiety and how crippling it was…but here she was killing it singing for millions all the same and changing lives with her songs and hauntingly beautiful voice. Reading that helped me to stop hiding my songs and passion in music because of my stage fright and start working through it, and sharing who I really am, and how much I love singing and creating music.
“The Logger And The Snow Angel” is a sad but beautiful allegory for a universal feeling. Did the inspiration for this song come from your own experiences of feeling stuck?
SIMON: When I wrote this song I was living in Redding--a small town in Northern California. It's a beautiful place, but there aren't a lot of economic opportunities there. The protagonist in the song is trapped under a red oak tree. The "red" is a jab at Redding, and a metaphor for how I felt stuck without a promising future ahead of me there. But we all have our own moments at various points in our lives when metaphorical oak trees fall on us and make us feel like we're going nowhere. In those circumstances, do we just wither and die or do we cut ourselves free, figuratively speaking? Funny enough, red oak trees aren't actually found in California. They're endemic to the east coast. And that's where I imagine the song takes place. The snowy setting for this song was inspired by some blizzards I experienced as a child during winters in Maryland and Vermont. But anyway, The Logger and the Snow Angel isn't just about being stuck. It's also about death, of course. And death is something we all come to know over the course of our lives. So in that regard, it truly is universal.
What does each individual movement of “The Logger And The Snow Angel” represent?
SIMON: The song has four sections. The first two verses and choruses make up Act 1, which is all about the struggle the character finds themself in, and their efforts to break free. The bridge--the "If this is death" part--is Act 2, which is that moment of acceptance when the logger realizes their fate and lets go. Act 3 is the tranquility that comes after letting go. This is that slower section where Lauren hums so beautifully. Her singing there always reminds me of the part in the Little Mermaid where she sings Ahhh Ahhh Ahhh and the sea witch steals her voice. And Act 4 is the final act where there's a Wes Anderson-esque instrumental hoedown. That represents death's dance. Our bass player, Aaron, likes to say that the sinister staccato bowing reminds him of the grim reaper's scythe taking the logger's soul.
Would you take the approach of creating characters and writing symbolic storylines again in a song? Perhaps in the form of a prequel or sequel to “The Logger And The Snow Angel”?
SIMON: Most of the songs I write aren't fictional narratives like this one, but I do find it to be a useful device. It's quite freeing to embody a character and channel their emotions, struggles, motivations, etc. You can convey messages without getting too personal if you don't want to. I'm sure I'll draw water from that well again. A prequel or a sequel? Now there's a fun idea I hadn't considered!
How do fans respond to “The Logger and the Snow Angel” when you guys perform it live? In what ways have audience reactions encouraged you guys on your musical journey, in general?
SIMON: It's been truly touching to see how this song strikes a chord with certain people. One of the first times we ever performed it live, someone in the audience relayed they had an almost spiritual experience hearing it. And a couple different people have mentioned crying cathartically during the "If this is death, there's serenity in it, and I welcome it" part. It's so moving to hear that this song can resonate with people in that way. Hopefully it can provide a healing experience that helps people who are mourning cope. As a songwriter, I write songs that are meaningful to me, and that make me feel something. I hope they'll be meaningful to others, but you never really know how it'll be received. To see that a song like this can make other people feel something too, and in ways beyond what I ever imagined--it means everything to me. And it motivates me to want to keep putting out more music. That, and the fact that it's just an absolute joy playing music with this band.
LAUREN: I like hearing that people feel the warmth in our band’s friendship and that we genuinely respect and like each other and have formed deep bonds through being in Simians. We are here because we each need to create music to feel alive and how cool is it that we found fellow music geeks that happen to be rad humans and lifelong friends now through Simians.
A piece like this seems very tricky to record, let alone mix and master! As a group, what strategies did you guys use to break down this process and make it a little easier?
SIMON: Last year we were very fortunate to have a rad studio in Carlsbad, California--Amplified Studios--generously offer to video record a shortened live version of this song for free. So we practiced it ad nauseum and really had it down tight for that exercise. That experience was incredibly helpful when we recorded the full version at Cartoon Moon Recording in Nashville. The producer of our upcoming debut album, Ken Coomer--who's a founding member of Uncle Tupelo and Wilco--he first had us track drums, guitar, bass, and vocals together, but in separate rooms. And then we layered on the other elements like piano, trumpet, flute, accordion, and cello.
Ken's got a very unique approach to recording. Rather than tracking, for example, all the drum, bass, and guitar parts for the entire album all at once, and then all the keyboard parts for all the songs, and then all the trumpet parts, etc. like most producers would do, Ken prefers to record a song a day. So that means we pretty much recorded all the parts for each song in one day. There are 13 songs on the album, and so that was 13 days in the studio. There are a lot of musicians in this band, a lot of moving parts, so I created this nerdy spreadsheet to help us keep track of everything. Ken's studio isn't that big, so there was this revolving door of people constantly coming in and out to lay down their parts. It was fun.
What can fans expect from your debut album, Crises of Willpower? How did you come up with the title?
SIMON: Thematically, it's a concept album that's all about the various struggles that make up the human experience, whether it's personal, political, existential, or what have you. The title comes from a quote in the episode "How Willpower Works" from the podcast, Stuff You Should Know. One of the podcasters, Josh Clark, makes this almost casual comment, "I wonder how much of our modern problems are really just crises of willpower," which is just so profound.
Musically, it's a mix of cinematic folk rock songs, with a healthy blend of folktronica in there. There are something like 16 musicians who play on this album, so it's a lush, full sound. The band really elevated these songs, and of course Lauren's beautiful vocals instill it with so much vitality. Ken did a fantastic job producing it. He made a point not to edit out every little flub. He wanted it to sound human, which is in theme with the album's concept, so I appreciate that. We're really proud of this album, and we hope people will listen to it and find something meaningful for them in it.
Image Credit: The Simians
And now, to wrap things up with our P&P Classic: what’s a lyric from “The Logger And The Snow Angel” that stands out to each of you? How does it resonate with you, and what was going through your head as you wrote it?
LAUREN:“If this is death, there’s serenity in it, and I welcome it.” My grandma passed away amidst a time Simians gained momentum and started to perform live. We performed a livestream with Wildcat Studio Live that I shared with my mom during that time and she said that particular line at the end of “The Logger and the Snow Angel” was profound and helped her get through the loss of her mother. Now every time I sing that line it helps me remember there can be serenity in dying, whether that’s something figurative or literal. Simon has a way of writing that is poetic, real, and leaves you feeling healed, even if the topic is melancholy.
SIMON: Yeah, I'd have to go with that line too. In our society, at least here in the U.S., we don't talk much about death, and surely that's because we're terrified of it. I know I am. But it's just another rite of passage that we all have to face. To fight it off as long as you can, but then to ultimately accept it when the time comes--to know your life has been lived and that it's no longer your boulder to push--there's relief and solace and beauty in that. I wish we could all find that moment of serenity when our time comes.
We can't get enough of "The Logger And The Snow Angel" and "Message For An Answering Machine," and we're super stoked for Crises of Willpower! The Simians are truly the first of their kind, and their fresh perspective might be just what the music industry needs right now. Here's a playlist we've curated that we think captures their vibe.
Bình luận