My Pop Five
My Pop Five
SYML: Love Liza, "The Road", "Grace" by Jeff Buckley, jjjjound.com, and James Turrell
Step into the world of acclaimed musician SYML as he joins us for a powerful and introspective conversation about creativity, influence, and artistic evolution. From his early days with Barcelona to his current work as a solo artist, SYML reflects on the moments and media that have deeply shaped his perspective as a songwriter.
We touch on films, literature, and music that left lasting impressions—some of which may surprise you—and explore how fatherhood and visual art have expanded his sense of meaning and connection in his work. Throughout the episode, SYML shares personal stories behind his latest record Nobody Lives Here, offering a glimpse into his creative process and emotional lens.
Whether you're a longtime listener or just discovering his sound, this episode offers a rare and intimate look into the heart of an artist whose music continues to resonate across the world.
Stream Nobody Lives Here now and catch SYML on tour across the UK and Europe. For dates and more, visit symlmusic.com.
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We'll see you next time. But until then, what's your Pop Five?
Hello, hello and welcome back. It's another episode of my Pop 5. And today we're entering with the song Carry no Thing with today's guest, Simmel. When I first started the show, I had a list of dream gets and Simmel was definitely at the top of this list. So I feel so grateful that he was here, willing to come and talk about his new record Nobody Lives here and also break down his pop five. You can listen to the new record anywhere that you get music and actually catch him on tour right now in the UK and Europe. If you're interested in those dates, you can find them at simulmusiccom. So, without further ado, let's get into our episode with Simul.
Speaker 2:And the money we save, but a time to lose, no time to waste. I will carry nothing but my love for you.
Speaker 3:There will always be A last day for me when he calls my name. I will answer true All the good and the bad. I will thank him.
Speaker 1:Hello everyone, we are back. It is another episode of my Pop 5, and we are here with one of my favorite artists of all time. I've been a follower of your music since the Barcelona days and I just can't be more amazed by the work you put out. Simmel Simmel, thanks so much for joining the show. I'm so privileged to have you on.
Speaker 4:Oh, thank you. That's a very sweet intro.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you. I'm going to be obnoxious in your praise probably throughout this, just because your music has touched me at so many different points in my life, both when I was a touring musician and the way Barcelona was so impactful for us. Then and then later, you were one of my wife and I's first dates going to see your show at Hollywood Forever and continually having touch points. So thanks so much for doing this Awesome Thank you. I'm really excited to get into your Pop 5 here today because there are so many things on here that I can kind of see some correlation to some of the things you do stylistically or some of the things that happen in your music. But in other ways I'm also just like I want to see the connection here, because I don't immediately see it. As we get into it, we ask all of our guests without comment, without context what is your pop five?
Speaker 4:Okay, my pop five is Love, liza the Road, grace Jouncom and James Turrell.
Speaker 1:Love it. Yeah, such really great stuff. Stuff that you know in going in and spending some more time with this stuff before we chatted just left me in a pretty melancholic state, not good. But yeah, I'm excited to kind of see how it kind of correlates. But before we get into all of these, I'd love to just give the audience some just background in terms of how you kind of got into music and what are some of the things that make up your story.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Earliest memories are musical Listening to music, going to concerts with. My parents Started classical piano when I was very young and carried that through college. I thought I was going to be a music teacher because those were my biggest mentors growing up. But started a band called Barcelona right out of college and did that and then Simmel came out of those years of being in a band into being a solo artist. So music has been a language for me since I was young and didn't start writing songs until I was a bit older. But yeah, that's the brief version.
Speaker 1:No, that's great. It's interesting to hear I didn't know that. You kind of had that music education background. That's originally what I went into school for. Was that because you really wanted to be a teacher, or was that because it felt like maybe the more practical play while also being interested in music, or what was your kind of thought process?
Speaker 4:Yeah, it wasn't for money. It's like, especially where I'm from, it's an expensive place to live and teachers are chronically underpaid. It was, I think it was just more of like. I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian for a while and then I took like a advanced biology class and that sort of clearly outlined that I was not meant to be a veterinarian, it was the. It wasn't even music. It was the way that those teachers shaped me and music just happened to be the thing that we were studying right.
Speaker 4:so it was it was, um, yeah, I think it was more of that and I taught. I taught privately like to help pay bills when I was in college and, um, I loved it. So and I also love student teaching. One of the I joke, but like one of the reasons I didn't teach immediately out of college is that I still looked really young when I was in college and the kids that I wanted to teach were high schoolers and they didn't. It was like a journey trying to get their respect when I was student teaching. So I thought, like give it a couple of years, maybe I'll come back to it. But yeah, it was mostly just from a mentorship want more than anything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so hard and it just is going back to my space. And you know I asked the question because a lot of the turmoil I had at the time was, you know, my parents. I wanted to do music performance primarily, you know, but then it was like there's no job with a jazz studies degree or whatever that. Because you know, I had a mentor teacher that kind of told me the same thing like you look young, when you go in you're gonna have to like earn their respect very quickly, and so it's like I cringe thinking about it now, but it's like one of those things that like when I go in, you know I was a drummer primarily, it's just like if I'm going to demonstrate something, really shred you know, and then be like okay, you can see, I can play now.
Speaker 4:Now let's go ahead and get into, like the lesson you know my disadvantage was that I was never like, uh, and still to this day like, but I embrace it as a strength now but like kind of master of none approach, which is hard to tell a high schooler who just wants to shred like they actually don't need to be that good to succeed. So it was more like it was. It was more cool young teacher relatable that I was going for totally yeah.
Speaker 1:And what a lot of the students don't realize too is a lot of times when you get hired it's because you're a good hang or because you have a varied skillset, because you can set up a Ableton session and you can play and you can run samples and all this different stuff, not just shredding, but yeah, very cool. But I'm going to get into your stuff here. But one last thing is I was thinking about I mentioned, like the things you look back on, cringe on, and actually the first time I ever spoke to you is one that I think back and cringe on a little bit, because I saw you came through Albuquerque probably right before not quite yours came out whenever you were with Barcelona, and after the show you were at the merch booth and I came up to you and you had opened that show with a cover of the Avett brothers murder on in the city if I get murdered in the city, don't go revenging in my name person dead from such as plenty.
Speaker 1:I love that song too, but you were getting ready to put out not quite yours, and so like most of the songs I think you were getting ready to put out Not Quite Yours and so, like most of the songs I think you were playing were like hey, here's some songs coming from that record. Yeah, so I assumed I had never heard the Ava Brothers.
Speaker 1:I assumed that was one of those and so, like you're at the Mirafluth and I come and I'm like lovely to meet you. That first song was so good and I can't wait to hear it on the record, and you it on the record, and you were just like, yeah, you know, thank you, you know.
Speaker 1:So I'm just, and then, immediately when I got in the car, you know like I like googled some of the lyrics that I remembered and I was just like, oh, no, and so just like, yeah, cringe that I was complimenting a song that wasn't yours, but well, I didn't realize we met previously.
Speaker 4:Man, thanks for, uh, thanks for that memory. I remember that show and I remember, um, I think we were with. Were we with a band from New Mexico, do you?
Speaker 1:remember, like on that tour, I don't remember I think it was opening for Blue October actually, I think, or something like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that was a good time, but you're not alone, man.
Speaker 4:I mean, like I play a version of the song, mr Sandman, and to this day, like many people think I wrote that song instead of it being a banger from the from the fifties.
Speaker 2:So it's it's not.
Speaker 4:It's not a, you know, it's a very innocent mistake.
Speaker 2:Mr Salmon, bring me a tree, make her the cutest I've ever seen. Give her two lips, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's one of the things that I've really mired about. The stuff you've done, though, is historically, a lot of the stuff you've done is really cool versions of covers, Like I remember also, when you were getting ready to do basic man, I think you were doing you'd put out like covers of like paper kites and covers of um Robin, and you know there's just a lot of really good renditions that you kind of so yeah well, let's go ahead and get into it.
Speaker 1:I really want to kind of chat through these things that influenced you and inspired you. I watched Love Liza last night to refresh some things and it is very much a tragedy, but I want to talk through it with you. So let's walk through Love Liza. Why is it here on your pot five?
Speaker 3:Call the cops and get him out of here. No, no, he's sick. He's okay with me. There's something you want to know.
Speaker 1:No, I think there's something that you don't want to know.
Speaker 2:You ain't going to open that thing in here, are you? Well, you need to open this near some candles, or?
Speaker 4:something. Yeah, I must have seen it like right around when it came out, and which I don't know. Did you see what year it came out? Was it like 2003, I think? Three, okay, yeah, so yeah, I was like college age and and just finally sort of like opening myself up to like trauma, trauma, porn, I guess, I don't know that's like very much what that movie is.
Speaker 4:To me it's it's like um, it's like sheer grief and loss with like a bit of humor because like what else can you do except sort of laugh through it a bit? Yeah, it's that, it's the idea of feeling numb by like an unexplainable loss, and so you sort of fill it like with these sort of silly and like dangerous things which I mean, like I just can relate to like throughout my life. Philip Seymour Hoffman RIP. The actor from that movie just has this amazing portrayal. He also kind of does it in um Magnolia, which was around the same time. He had his character characterization of loss and sadness just feels so human and like he just creates so much space for it in his acting. But obviously the writing of Love Liza is just I don't know, I've not seen movies like it and sort of this. I guess it's like this, you know unsung indie movie at the end of the day. But I'm glad you watched it, did you like?
Speaker 1:it. Yeah, I did. It's hard to say, you know, like with it in some aspects, because I generally like to feel in that place of some aspects. Because I generally like to feel in that place of like sadness feeling. I'm not like it's, I'm not like there's no aversion towards it, like I'm sitting in it. The songs that have that sadness quality to it or that grief quality to it can feel comforting. Yeah, but this one, I think there's always like a tinge of moments that you think there's going to be an upswing, like something good is going to happen.
Speaker 1:He makes a friend or he finds a hobby or some work opportunity comes up at multiple times in the movie and then it just continues to go downward. Yeah, you know, yeah. So I think that struggle against that. I think I'm sitting and thinking about it and want to go back and like spend more time with it, cause I think that caused more friction and like thinking it was going to go a different direction and then continuing to to sink down.
Speaker 4:I also have a relatable part of it in terms of like why it hit me so hard at the time.
Speaker 4:I watched it like I so I was adopted as a, as a baby, and I've known that my whole life, um, and it's a big part of who I am, but in that movie that love lies obviously is referring to a letter that that he gets from, not like no spoilers, but like his deceased, newly deceased wife. Yes, and I, um, I'd gotten a letter from my birth mom, like two years earlier and it's not like it wasn't like a a letter that she just wrote me in 2001, it was like from when she was in the hospital with me just before and I just hadn't gotten it from my parents. They didn't give it to me for some reason, wow. So I like, fully, was in that space of like this surreal sort of letter delivering some news to me. So it's, it's. That was another reason I'm just now realizing, you know why it?
Speaker 1:was so big for me. Yeah, in the movie he takes some time to yeah toil, whether he opens it or reads it. And did you have that same experience? Or was it like, once you got it, you were eager and excited, or maybe not excited, but just at least eager to see what was inside? Yeah, I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 4:Like I don't think anybody is like ready for that kind of. I think letters are so powerful Like my dad, before he passed away, wrote letters to me and to my sister and my mom and stuff. So I was seeing something the other day where it was in that Netflix show about golf called Full Swing, yeah, and this guy who was diagnosed with brain tumors like talked about writing letters to his family too. Anyway, letters are really powerful and they're different than you know. Texts and emails Like for some reason, like a handwritten letter, has just tone to it that human voices have, that like digital representations don't have. I don't know why, but anyway, yeah, I don't know, there's something there.
Speaker 1:Wow, it's crazy to see that correlation there. Yeah.
Speaker 4:And kind of that impact.
Speaker 1:Going back to like the feelings about the movie, I also struggled with it. Now, I think, in hindsight, in comparison to, maybe, when it came out, because of how Philip Seymour Hoffman died as well, you know.
Speaker 1:So it's like it feels more real in the sense of like some of the struggles you see him going through in the movie with addiction and grief and otherwise, and just knowing that the tragic ending to his own life just put that additional pain towards it. But you're right that his performance is phenomenal and there is so much comedy in it, you know, even if it's like little spurts of it. But again, I think, because I'm seeing it from the future there's like a scene in this movie where he's playing basketball and missing every shot and it's like aligned with like he does almost the same thing in that movie Along Came Polly, and so it was a good homage to just like who he was as a performer and just like the humor and the little things in life that can happen even while you're going through those rough times.
Speaker 4:Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1:Did there or was there any sort of direct correlation or impact in terms of the work you made, or was it primarily just impacted you?
Speaker 4:from a personal standpoint, I think both I sitting in grief and sitting in dark spaces as a form of catharsis, like that movie is very much that, and I'm sure the music I listened to around that time was was also inspired that in me. Those were like early songwriting days for me. I don't know. I definitely had a huge impact on how I understand myself and digesting grief and pain and then how to put that into sound and word and composition.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the thing I was thinking about while watching it also is like the soundtrack is also incredible, like Jim O'Rourke made most of the songs kind of throughout it, and I was thinking about the Simmel Project and just like how much of your work I've seen being placed in TV and films and things like that, and just the correlation with just like being able to create soundscapes for these types of feelings and things in imagery, and it reminded me actually that you know, the question I had was when, when Simmel the project was first coming out I think it was at the tail end of like Basic man also coming out and I think I remember when you posting about it I don't know if there was intention for it to be, you know what it definitely became today, but a lot of the Ford momentum came from things like placements and stuff like that. So was there a plan for Simmel to be like the next big project or endeavor, or did it like just kind of, was it a happy accident in some ways?
Speaker 4:No, very much happy accident. I think I've written songs that have a cinematic quality for a long time. I mean, like I admit regularly that that songs like Where's my Love and the War and the early cymbal songs were before cymbal as an idea was really born were very much could have been Barcelona songs. It's just that the sound of Basic man or something had just moved so far away from solo piano stuff that it just was the happenstance that it started going a certain direction early on to really justify starting a new project around it.
Speaker 2:Cold bones. Yeah, that's my love. She hides away.
Speaker 3:Like a ghost. Ooh, does she know that we bleed?
Speaker 4:the same. I had no plan to do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's interesting you say that from the soundscape standpoint, because I think Absolutes is very different from Not Quite Yours and is very different from Basic man. But I think of songs like Less Than Two from Not Quite Yours and I think that very much feels like a similar project and stuff too, you know, and there are correlations throughout. You know that I think you you kind of feel and like yeah ghosts, ghosts. Off the first simile, ep felt like a basic man.
Speaker 4:Yeah yeah, you can tell, I think for listeners who have as much depth of knowledge of my writing as you do. Like the, that first single album definitely like was exercising some some stuff I was still on in the barcelona mindset. And then like the second single album uh, the day my father died was very much like not quite yours in terms of recorded in that sort of like same live style yeah and which I mean full circle.
Speaker 4:Not quite yours was the first time that we really started getting tv placements and which was odd because like half the band really hated that album and half the fan really hated that album because I think it was very raw, sure, and but that for whatever reason, got tv, uh, sync love, and so that encouraged a lot of like how I was creating the early cymbal stuff too. So, yeah, wild it wild, it's just. Everything's a cycle, everything's a season, totally, totally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's so cool Cause I mean, all of those songs are great and I think when you boil it down to you hear people talk about this all the time that like production is great and I love music production, but like true songs are like when you can boil it down to an acoustic instrument and voice, it's like that's the song and I think throughout all of your projects it's just like it's your songs that really hold true and I think that's why you could find so much synergy between both projects, because at the end of the day, it's you and your guitar, you and your piano and it's making beautiful melodies and stuff like that.
Speaker 4:Thank you, that's awesome Cool.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, let's go ahead and move on to the next one here. This one is equally painful, but the book the Road by Cormac McCarthy Curious. How did this enter your life and why was it so impactful for you?
Speaker 4:popular one, obviously, was adapted into a movie, but the way it was written is just so simple and clean and stark. It's the end of the world and it's it's like my favorite love language. It's like um, and this is before I was, before I was a dad too. Now you know that it's. It's if you don't know the road, it's it's this boy and this man, and you're not really sure their relationship or whatever, but they're surviving together in this sort of like apocalyptic scenario. Cory mccarthy, it's this boy and this man and you're not really sure their relationship or whatever, but they're surviving together in this sort of like apocalyptic scenario. Cory McCarthy was an amazing author in that like he painted these vivid landscapes where it was just like pure survival and then like it's also very brutal.
Speaker 4:That book less so than like Blood Meridian, which I almost picked. But Blood Meridian is like, so brutal and mostly just about violent nature of humans, less about surviving in love, and I mean I don't even think it's really about love, I guess it is, but.
Speaker 4:I was more drawn to the subject matter and the way that he captured the voices. I mean, it's like when everything is stripped down, you sort of have this like really basic language, which is how writes and even. But what's wild in that is that it can be also very complex and hard to read, which is a is a piece of magic. I think I'm like always entranced by is like how do you make something simple? Hard, and because it's on the creative, creative side, it's really hard to make something simple sometimes, and then on the digestion side, some of the simplest hard stuff is like the hardest to understand. Anyway, the road is a really, really clean example of a piece of work that has really inspired my own.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what I think is really cool about what he does in this is like it starts in this post-apocalyptic world but he doesn't care to share what caused the apocalypse.
Speaker 1:You know there's little things that you can maybe put something towards it, you know, yeah, but it's just like there's a lot of hey, it's more character work.
Speaker 1:We're sitting here talking about the emotions and feelings and it's like the outside stuff doesn't really matter.
Speaker 1:And I think like at its core you know the two characters right, the boy and the man you have this like innocence and like empathy that comes from the child and then the pure survivor mentality and what I was taken by again just boiling it down like the core emotion side of things is like there's the struggle between playing either a father, nurturer role or like when do I have to shift and be a mentor and guide to tell you how do you also be a survivor to be ready to kind of take on the world? And I'm having my first kid in May and it's just like so much of as I was kind of revisiting this is just like outside of a post-apocalyptic world. There's so much that's happening in the world right now that can feel strong in that same way and it's like how do you balance that Like I'm going to be loving and nurturing and empathetic while also being like I have to prepare you for real stuff and give you the tools to be ready for real stuff.
Speaker 4:And it's just like those emotions can be you know, the book or the darkness in the book aside like that's a real thing that you have to just go through as a human yeah, luckily, like, we have things like art that uh, help as a bit of like a salve or something to like take that sting away, especially as a parent, because, like, on one hand, it's very much like going to going to soccer practice and just do like being being just simple and normal. Sure, at the same time, it's like you well, actually, you need to, you need to know about how that world might end or how it's all ended in the past and about how we, as like global citizens, can like help that from not happening.
Speaker 4:Little kids like you can like be safer on the world. I mean, it's such a it's too giant to like to wrap your mind around. So, luckily, art can kind of go out into the ether and like help us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know what your relationship has been with this since you've had children, but you know I hear a lot in your work. You know, like the songs that you write definitely for or to them. You know I think of Girl and then on the record that's coming out here now in April. You know, please Slow Down, like there's a lot that's kind of going there, that's kind of speaking to, like how can I be able to relay these messages?
Speaker 2:Just remember to be brave and in the moments you're afraid, it's that fear that lets you know that you're alive. Before you close your eyes to sleep, you should know our plans are key.
Speaker 3:Close your eyes to sleep, you should know I plan to keep Every little part of you gets the best of me. Please slow down.
Speaker 1:Time, wait up for me Was there. You know, have reason. Visited the book as a father, um, and you know how does that kind of carry over into your work?
Speaker 4:no, no, I have not seen love lies or read the road, since I I do this weird thing with stuff I love, like I don't uh, like overindulge in it. It's sort of like this weird sacred thing it's, it's I don't like think about it either.
Speaker 4:I just sort of it just sort of is that way. So it's been a, it's been a minute, because I think it was like had such a profound impact on me. I don't want to like mess it up. They probably will hold up always. It's something that good will hold up, but I don't. I it's, my memory of it has probably shifted so much that I wouldn't want to like expose myself to what it actually is.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 4:But it's also like having kids is great, because I mean a kind of dumb example or silly example is like I couldn't wait to watch Star Wars with my son and show him because he was old enough and whatever. But then as we were sitting there watching it, he kind of looked over at me and was like it's not really, I don't like it. And I was like.
Speaker 4:I was kind of like yeah, I don't really either, like what is it Like? Why are we forcing there's going to be this version of this book and this album and these and this movie or whatever right For for my kids? That will speak to them so differently, and so I'm kind of with them in that, like what, discovering what that is for them, so we can have new versions of what these things were for me.
Speaker 1:No, that's huge because it's finding those feelings that it created for you, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not necessarily the direct correlation to the it's not the thing itself yeah, and it's so hard because so much as I've gotten older is just trying to chase and find those spaces, because it happens less frequently, you know, and so it's like when you find those things it's great, but, yeah, sometimes it's like when you find those things it's great, but, yeah, sometimes it's a total risk or problem to go back and try and get that same feeling from the thing, because it's-.
Speaker 4:It's dangerous man.
Speaker 1:Wild, you know, babies being roasted on a spit and cannibals and all this stuff in here. Like one of the things I love like looking on in the book is there's a moment where, like Coca-Cola is featured prominently and you know, there's just the reminder that in this world the kid has never kind of experienced Coca-Cola Right. But I think it's just like. I think there was. There was a movie, disney movie that came out a few years ago. Soul kind of had like a.
Speaker 1:Another similar feeling for me which is what I liked about that movie is there's like a moment that he's reflecting on his life and the stuff that's like actually important or the things that mattered more were just like remembering sitting at the beach or the taste of a pie or all these different normal feelings and you know, coke can play in that for some, some people. But it's just like the little things we take for granted, the little like pleasures, the little things that exist can also just be like have so much importance that if they were completely ripped away and so I liked that from from the book as well- yeah, it's good observation great.
Speaker 1:Well, let's go ahead and get to the next one here, which is, uh, jeff buckley's grace phenomenal record, mind-bending in terms of the work that he does. But why was it so impactful for you?
Speaker 3:well, it, goes like this, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift, the baffled king composing hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
Speaker 4:Kind of like what we were just saying. I don't like his passing too. I'm just now realizing that all these people are like I would hate to hear an album.
Speaker 4:I would equally love and hate to hear an album that he would make today like it's it's like one of those perfect albums and of course he, I don't think, knew that he was going to pass away when he was making this art. But it's again this, this uh, this ability to to sort of translate human wailing into music in this case, that hit me, and it hit me around the same time as that movie in the book too. This is obviously a formative time in my understanding of who I was and what I wanted to speak and how I wanted to sound. Like Jeff Buckley's voice sings pretty naturally, pretty high, and that's and that's also true for me. But just the way that he contorted his like physically, his face and his voice into feeling, and some of it, like some of this album, like this is an album that I do still listen to and it holds up. I mean, there's some 90s ish things about it in the sonic quality, but the writing I mean it was just ahead of his time. The way he sang and played, I mean also ahead of his time.
Speaker 4:Some of his most famous songs obviously are like his version of hallelujah or lilac wine, which is another favorite covers, right, like it's him embodying and like possessing the song in this way that like just I mean not me shook the world a bit.
Speaker 4:I don't know how. He's one of those artists where a lot of people don't understand like the music they love is in, somehow like touched touched by him. Like I love learning that Chris Cornell from Soundgarden, who was also hugely impactful on me, his mother has like a really important role in Jeff Buckley's estate and like the reason that we have like a lot of these posthumous recordings from him. Anyway, like gosh, I don't know my favorite song in the world, which I was forever hard to declare as Lover you Should have Come Over which is on this album and that like I don't know a young person in love as you're becoming an adult, like that's, that's really what this, this album, sounds like to me and that's where I was in my life when I heard it, so important to me too young to hold on and too old to just break free and run run.
Speaker 3:Sometimes a man gets carried away when he feels like he should be having his fun. I'm much too blind to see the damage.
Speaker 1:Wow, it's interesting that you mentioned the Cornell thing too, because I was watching this video last night in prep for our conversation of him also just being like Jeff Buckley just made you want to play the guitar when you're listening to it, you just want to play and the impact that he had on so many other musics Tom York and Matt Bellamy and all these people.
Speaker 1:But my intro to the record was I actually when I moved to LA studied with Matt Johnson, who was the drummer on this record and study with him for a few years and just like him, like going back to these records and kind of speaking to it and the stories that I would hear, is just so incredible. The, the work that happened here. But you touched on the fact that he was like didn't know that he was going to die before this and his death was an accident, you know. But you know I was thinking of you, you know in in grace, you know you have like the lyrics or he's talking about I believe my time has come and so there's like so many like poetic elements.
Speaker 1:When I was first listening to this record of just being like gosh, it was almost like writing it into existence in some ways and it's just like all of it. It's. It's heartbreaking, I think because of the story that happens with the. You know, anytime anyone makes something like Kurt Cobain or otherwise and they go too soon, it's just it makes it so much harder and you, that emotion that you're speaking to in in the writing and in the melodies is just it just hurts so much more knowing that it's just kind of packaged in this.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's beautiful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I also loved, you know, when you were talking about the correlation of the voice, about both of you singing high or like in that higher timbre. One of the things that I think is really cool that he does and I see it in your work too is like you get like a lot of like falsetto range stuff in the voice but and then repeated back with like a full voice, chest voice, you know, and I love, like when you've done that before as well where you'll like take a melody and it's been falsetto the whole song, but at the end you're just doing it in chest voice and it's just like, oh, now it's so much more powerful, and like he does that, going back and forth with the same melodies and stuff, and very cool. So I saw the correlation in terms of at least how you write, whether it was directly or indirectly influenced. It was cool to hear that like, yeah, reflected in your work cool to hear that, like, yeah, reflected in your work.
Speaker 4:That's awesome. Yeah, I'm sure it is. You know what now I feel is like, uh, instinctual, or like habits that I love, I that I do like I'm sure at some level it was emulating people like him and or chris, or you know, or billy corgan, I don't know. Like it's all these like weird high voices, yeah beautiful high voices, great.
Speaker 1:Well, I want to don't want to take up too much of your time, so I want let's go ahead and move on to your next one here. This is the one I was not familiar with, which is jown, yeah, and very cool stuff, especially, you know, I love that you added the specification of, like, the image library, because it's uh, you know, I understand that at their start there was this like first curated digital mood board of images, so to speak, and now it's like a shop to buy clothing and stuff. Talk to me about this and why it's here on your pot five.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So my friend Rhett, who was the drummer in Barcelona, was the one that showed me this, and we both share a love for design. And you know, again, master of none like, I don't consider myself a designer and and or really a fashion based person. This website is very much like it's I think it's a play on found, which I'm not as familiar with, but it's basically like a. It takes it's photos of objects and it could be human, it could be mechanical, it could be human, it could be mechanical, it could be nature, it could be, you know, it's anything. But it's like, kind of kind of in the search of, of objective beauty. That's that's what I sort of feel it as.
Speaker 4:And again, this is like at a time of life where I was, like you know, active in the pursuit of what I found beautiful and that's like all across all things. It's like it's. It could be food and drink. It could be like it's. It could be food and drink. It could be like sex and love. It could be what I wear, what I put on my wall, all that what I listened to.
Speaker 4:It was like this sort of like elevated um in a non fancy kind of like what um before it went off the rails and turned disgusting, like what somebody like Kanye was doing at some point, which was like I just want to find what's beautiful and it needs to be in this blank sort of space to to have that, uh, be possible. Yeah, I just I religiously looked at it because it was updated every week for a long time, religiously sort of went to it for inspiration, um, and I haven't forever and I just like, when it popped into my head, I went and checked and found out that, yes, it's mostly merch now, because it works so well for this, for the, for the person who curates it, that they turned it into like this, you know shop kind of supreme ask, yeah Thing. We're like, oh, I'll make a basketball with Jound on it or like you can buy my socks or basic white tees and I like I love that, I think it's great.
Speaker 4:I know hate there at all. White tees and I like I love that, I think it's great. I no hate there at all, but yeah, it's, it's the. It's the ability to curate beauty across many different physical objects that I was just really into that.
Speaker 1:again, respect the hustle for whatever they're trying to do right now, but what did make it hard was even finding the image library for a minute. You know, it's like it took me a minute to even like get to the point on the site that I could even access it. But yeah, it's very cool. There was someone I saw on Reddit or otherwise that kind of pulled like 15,000 of the images and built this like portal that you can kind of like experience the library too. So cool. That website was like very cool to actually go through and click, because then you can like, of these images, show me something else that from the library that's kind of been in this space and you can kind of put these palettes together. So it's cool. I'll send it.
Speaker 4:Oh, yeah, but awesome.
Speaker 1:Did you take any direct inspiration in terms of album artwork or the way you kind of approach, like, because what I find beautiful about other things you've done with the Simmel project is a lot of the like music video stuff that I've seen. You know, I think uh fear the water. Or you know one of those first ones with, like, the dancing in the room and stuff like that. Like I that's what immediately came to mind when I was kind of scrolling through down is just like, oh, a lot of the you know, visual components of the work you've been putting out uh being really focused on it's not similar behind a piano all the time, you know, in a room it's like, hey, we're going to show some piece of art or dance or moments, and that was very cool.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I would like to take more credit than I can for music videos and a lot of the visual, again, like not a director, not a producer, not a choreographer, not a but I know what I like and can like back it up with why I like it right. So, which is, like you know, going back full circle to the teacher thing, I think, like a teacher's job is not to tell you what is good or like you know how you should do something, but it is definitely like I think a core part of a teacher is like you should know that this exists and then you should form an opinion about it either way, and and have an opinion. Um, so, all the music videos and visuals and stuff, like even though I've been in the creative process with it and saying like, declaring like yes, I think this is good, it's really trusting other people who have a shared vision and who are influenced by the music to be able to say that, like, this is my reflection back of it in it.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I think, I think that there's probably some magic thing that exists between the collaborative process where, if you're looking at images like that jound has, yeah, where there's a shared love of like object or human movement or whatever that plays through, all that, was there ever like when you first think about it, you know, know, and if we're saying Jound, is there like specific images that come to mind, or specific objects or subjects that you think were most compelling, or was it just?
Speaker 4:Man, I mean there's a lot of naked women on it. That is like probably the thing that sticks in my head most. But, um, but it's, it's tasteful, you know, for the most part, and and, uh, or at least my interpretation of what tasteful is, Sure, Uh, but there's also, just like there's a lot of cars, which I'm not a car person, but the way that they, they choose to feature cars or architecture or sort of um, it's rarely like modern in the sense of it's rarely like the latest edition of a car or a home or a camera, or it's like a, it's a clean vintage in a way. That's like it's something about like how something is decayed or not, that they do a really good job of curating. So, yeah, I don't know, there's like vintage sneaker, a lot of vintage sneakers, yeah.
Speaker 4:And there's a timeless qualityaker a lot of vintage sneakers, yeah, and there's there's a there's a timeless quality to sort of everything in there, whether it's new or old, and you can't even tell if it's like future vintage, like it's. It's like it's a pretty, pretty wild balance to strike beautiful stuff.
Speaker 1:Let's move on to your last one here staying in that, uh, imagery space artist, james torrell. Yeah, tell me about how they came into your life and what you found impactful.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I was not aware of James Turrell until maybe six or seven years ago and I was in Western Massachusetts and I went to this massive modern art museum that is sort of in the woods there and it's in this old foundry or something. It's this old, old uh factory where they've taken over. It's massive and I I don't know if the exhibit is still there, but it was this really, really immersive uh james trill exhibit where, um, each room is sort of this own piece that you go in and experience. And like, probably the peak experience of it was this, you know, maybe movie theater size room where it's painted all white and you go in and I was I don't know how many people that live in at a time.
Speaker 4:It was really not busy when I was there, so it's just me and I went and sat in the middle of this slightly sloped room, all painted white, and then it's like this about 15 minute. I mean it sells it short to call it a light show. It's this immersive experience with light, no sound and after like.
Speaker 4:Of course, my first like, first takeaway was like I wish there was sound totally missing the the um, the impact of what just one sense can do, and the best way I can describe it is I felt just like I was tripping like high from just being immersed in this light experience, strobing and some color shifting and whatever. But it's basically just this. It feels like a Space Odyssey type curved shape that you're sort of staring into. That's the size of this massive room and these, this light comes around you and you feel drunk and you feel safe. I like wept during it. It's a really evocative experience purely based on light and shape and color.
Speaker 4:That's that's james charles art art medium and there were some smaller ones there too that that were really cool and and and inspiring. But this full body, sort of like light bath, was just otherworldly and I'd never experienced anything like it so very inspiring in in. I don't think I've like I can't think of like one thing that I did after that that was like directly inspired by that, but certainly as like a make a body feel away, inspiring, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's interesting that you said that you wanted the sound too, because I wonder if it would have been as visceral response had there been sound. You know.
Speaker 4:Well, I'm sure people go in with with headphones and sort of like. You know whether it's like I don't. Max Richter, or like, or like some. You know what's his name Trent Reznor, like Sure Type, I mean that soundtrack to Soul, like some of the sound soundscapes, would have been great for it. Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wonder too, because at least my brain works this way, and it's like sometimes I wish I could dump all of the music knowledge out of my brain, or dump music school out of my brain, so I could like, for someone who doesn't really care about it on an analytical level, like, what does music feel like and sound like? And going back to that space, you know, because, like I can't hear something in the restaurant without like hearing where the groove is or where the song's going, or yep, now we're going to a chorus or whatever the case is you know. And so I think, same for people who maybe have more experience with light or art in those spaces, you know, like being able to be like I'm experiencing this raw, without any background information, is what's, you know, evoking that type of response.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that's honestly a great point to, as we grow, grow, to try to put ourselves in new experiences, like where it's uncomfortable because we don't know what's coming next. Or yeah, I'm trying to learn something. As an adult, is is like a real, real big trip, like and I think again, not even about the thing that you're trying to do, like whether you're trying to learn how to cook something new, or like speak a new language or learn an instrument or whatever paint, like it's not the actual thing that you're enjoying, it's that you're challenging your brain and learning a new way of communicating. I don't know. I feel like, yeah, that could happen till the last day and that would be a wise use of time.
Speaker 1:Totally yeah. And there's two halves of that which is like a couple of years ago I, just like on a whim, decided to take like a hip hop dance class, just beginner.
Speaker 4:You do give hip hop dancer energy, for sure.
Speaker 1:Thanks. I only went through like one 101 class, so the end result has not yielded too much fruit, but the two sides of it, which is just like yeah, the actual, like going through and learning something new, and like challenging your brain in different ways, like I've never had to move my body in this way, that's part of it. The other half of it, though, is I think that like it's uncomfortable, you don't want to do it. I remember getting to the parking lot saying I signed up to do this thing, I don't want to do it, but shit, I'm going to go in anyway and actually make it happen.
Speaker 1:And like that has its value too is like being in those situations of persevering through the thing Like I don't want to do it. I want to be safe and comfortable. But no, I'm going to actually go past those barriers.
Speaker 4:Man that as you become a parent, that is like the number one. You want to protect this thing, but you also want them to be uncomfortable and learn how to like be in the world and and to work hard for something like yeah, you got to embody that still as as as an adult, as an example.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, exciting, yeah, we'll get you out of here, but before we do, we ask everyone five rapid fire questions. Okay, so first one here. If you could be on a reality TV show, which one would you choose? Road?
Speaker 2:rules.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's a good one Deep cut. If people have never consumed any of your pop five, what's the one you'd want them to go experience right now? I mean, the easiest would be Grace Jeff Buckley Beautiful. What's a favorite onstage moment or performance that you've had?
Speaker 4:We were playing this like really small festival and kind of close to where I live, and there was this like somebody had just died and their like picture was still there with flowers and balloons like from the event prior to the festival. They just didn't move that shit. And so the light show, uh, was being run by somebody who did not understand lights and it was just doing like a traffic signal, like it was literally like jamaican, like red, red, green, yellow behind us, like it looked like a movie set.
Speaker 4:And we were playing a song and I had I basically like I had removed myself from caring about the situation and so I started laughing like chuckling with my best friend who was with me and we just laughed for like a minute 30, still playing the guitar parts, and just didn't go back to the microphone because it was so surreal and bonkers.
Speaker 1:That's my favorite, that was similar, or Barcelona.
Speaker 4:That was similar.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, that's so funny, especially because some of the songs in that moment could have felt saccharine or something you know Totally. It was that surreal, oh gosh. Okay, this might be like choosing your favorite child, so I don't mean to do that to you. But if people had to take one barcelona album and one of the simile albums to put in their vinyl collection, which would you choose?
Speaker 4:oh man, for barcelona, it's gotta be the first one, it's gotta be absolutes, but like pre major label, that's the untainted absolutes. And then first simile, I mean the first ep is like, really it's just kind of the same idea, I guess, like if you can get that on vinyl to get that like it's, it's really innocent and again like unspoiled and that there was no expectations on it, so it just was and that's a really really good place to listen from.
Speaker 1:Totally awesome.
Speaker 4:And what is one piece of advice you'd give a past version of yourself to just be more gentle with with myself in terms of, uh, of feeling good enough and and loving, you know, the natural version of myself, instead of like a, an altered version of myself with many ways that we can alter ourselves. So, yeah, I would just say you're okay and, yeah, be more gentle that's huge.
Speaker 1:All right. Now's the time I want to promote your record here.
Speaker 4:Tell people where to find it, and okay, so it's called nobody lives here, and I recorded most of it in this room behind me, which kind of goes back to that first album. Like it's it's very much done in a bedroom and it's not. It's imperfect, but it's also like it feels like a blanket, it like it's so comfortable and I wanted it to be that way these songs are. I mean, this is a little bit like favorite kid too, because it's like these are the newest songs and I'm most proud of them and I think they're all beautiful. I don't think there's one miss. I think it's all smashes. No, I, I'm super proud of how it turned out. There's beautiful instrumentation on it from some really skilled players that I'm proud of. Um, and I'm about to go play them live for the first time in Europe and I can't wait to see how they sort of grow and change. Even though they're sort of like stamped and done on the album, you know, the live version of them can just change in a million ways. I'm excited to start that process.
Speaker 1:So excited to hear it in its entirety. Heard quite a few of the songs when you played in here in LA recently and you have some that have come out at singles and stuff as well. So excited, huge, huge fan of all your work and you know I want the people to follow you, so can you also plug where to follow you on socials and things like that?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so you can stream all the music on Spotify and Apple and Amazon and YouTube and everywhere you stream. You can get the vinyl at your local record shops. You can get it on my website, which is simulmusiccom. That's also. Tour dates are up there. And then, yeah, instagram, tiktok, all those ones, it's all just simulmusic. You can find it there and you can, you know, see how awesome I am at socials.
Speaker 1:Wonderful, awesome. Well, thanks so much for joining the show. It's been such a joy. I feel so privileged to have gotten the chance to chat with you and forever a fan.
Speaker 4:Thank you so much, and that was great man. I really appreciate it. Great, great questions Great conversation. Thank you for having me, of course.
Speaker 1:That'll do it for today's show. Thank you so much for listening. Please go check out the record. Nobody lives here anywhere that you get your music and catch him on tour, if you happen to be in UK or Europe. We're going to head out today with my favorite song from the new record, heart Breakdown. We'll see you next time, but until then, what's your pot five?
Speaker 2:Kiss you softly with intention, leave you breathless from the pain when her heart breaks down, when her heart breaks down, won't you stand your ground and start again? When her heart breaks down, when her heart breaks down, will you find your way somehow to love again, somehow to love again. Lately she's been up till sunrise. Sleep is lost, it can't be found.
