Living the Romantic Comedy: Simone White: We Are the Man

While you may not have heard of Simone White – yet – this American-born singer-songwriter is currently touring Europe, where her fans are legion. As a friend of hers who has sometimes listened to Simone perform in small L.A. clubs for audiences of dozens, I was heartened to hear that abroad, a stadium of some 3,000 sang along with her as she played The Beep Beep Song – a song made popular there via its use in an Audi TV ad. Happy listeners in her home country may soon follow suit, as her album I Am the Man has just been released here on Honest Jon's label.

In honor of that event, I recently had a conversation with Simone for Living RomCom’s readership. Having blogged here previously about Simone’s unique and gorgeous sound – distinguished by a voice that’s like a velvet horn – I was interested this time out in exploring her writing process, and especially, in the wake of America’s Independence Day festivities, hearing what she had to say about being a songwriter in our current moment.

Mernitman: How did The Beep Beep Song get written?

Simone White: I thought I was in love. I was sort of having a summer fling, summer romance, but deep down I knew there was nothing to it, really. But we were saying goodbye and there was the sound of two cars in the street and they went nee-nur-nee-nur-nee-nur-nee-nur, back and forth, like in perfect time. I said, did you hear that? And he said yes. I said, I’m going to write a song with that in it. He said I’m going to write a song. And I said, well let’s see who writes it first! And he didn’t write anything and I wrote it like that day. And it really just plopped right out. I sense that when I tell people that, they want it to be about my true love. And it’s not. It’s so not about my true love. But it’s maybe about just Love with a capital L, and the energy. Because that’s what I was feeling at the time. I was feeling this force of love in the air. I call that summer when I wrote that – 2004 – my summer of love.

M: It’s interesting you say that, but a lot of your work coming from that same era is not so love-filled.

SW: I find it really hard to write a happy song. I think writing joy without being superficial or pop or annoying is hard.

M: It’s one of the hardest things in the world, for a writer. But it’s also one of the big challenges for all of us. How can you be happy, when so much that’s terrible is going on in the world?

SW: But then you might as well say, Sun, why are you shining? Tree, why are you growing? What’s the point? Despite everything, you have to… I don’t know. That’s a big subject.

M: It’s a subject you take on a lot in your work. I would call you a political songwriter, even though traditionally the stereotype is the old model of Phil Ochs and Dylan and the early days of protest songs that were specifically issue-oriented. You have a way of actually taking on issues without sounding didactic and without preaching, because you use imagery, specific ideas that get these things across.

SW: That would be what I strive for the most. To get it across without being didactic and preachy. I think about that a lot. There are a lot of things that I’m concerned about that I’d like to sing about, but it has to go through this filtering and honing and – I think of things all the time and think, how can I turn that into a song? And I think it wouldn’t work, people would find it annoying. But then I think, how can I sneak it in there? And how can I not sneak it in, but present it plainly? A lot of the love songs on [the album] aren’t mine. I feel really my voice in here is the political stuff.

M: Like Great Imperialist State. Where you address this whole issue of the relationship between us and everyone in the world –

SW: That’s feeding us –

M: -- who’s been exploited for so many years. But you sort of base it in character. Right?

SW: Oh, I never thought of that.

M: Because it starts with “there’s a farmer in a distant country working on the land,” which is so beautiful to me because it gets us down to that really specific level. There’s a human being. ‘Cause that’s the thing, right? Nobody really thinks about it. People don’t tend to think –

SW: If we did, it would be too heartbreaking. I think that’s when we disconnect ourselves. Where does our food come from, what’s happening to people on the other side of the world? What are the lives like of the people who are working in the restaurant? The people in the back – otherwise it’s overwhelming.

I think the seed of where that song came from was just thinking about how we’re supported by these faceless masses, working and toiling away somewhere else, and we get our food and flowers and goods and clothes and everything from them. And I thought, what happens when this empire of ours falls, and that flow stops? Those people stop. What happens when they come knocking on the door saying, Hey, you’re not in charge anymore. I was thinking about it like, I’m not one of them! Don’t get mad at me! I always felt bad for you. I always thought about you guys, and I always bought fair trade, and made sure I didn’t buy sweatshop clothing. But I’m still part of the system.

M: The idea that you are complicit.

SW: In [my song] The American War there’s a line: Did you ever think you lived inside the belly of the beast? Are you giving it something nice to eat? Are you waiting for your very own special treat? You’re living in the beast and feeding off of it, and oh I have these political leanings! And I’m not this and I’m not that, but just by being here and being part of it, paying taxes, and being part of the consumer society you are part of it.

M: And the other part of that is you also have songs about identifying with America.

SW: I did what?

M: We Used to Stand So Tall.

SW: Oh, that one! See, if I wrote songs saying you’re this and you’re that, no one would want to hear that on either side. But when I take it on, I’m internalizing it as a way of understanding. [We Used to Stand So Tall]… is taking on the American Dream, the broken promises of our forefathers: you will have this and you will have that and everything will be so great. And – whoops. We fucked it up, and we – we used to stand so tall. There was a pride.

I think of it for everyone. It’s not just Americans in that song. I felt it so intensely when I was singing it in Europe as well. The German audiences were really responsive to all the political songs I was singing. I don’t think it was because they’re simply anti-American and they liked that I was singing about the American war. I think they responded because they have their past, and everyone has their past. They’re understanding the enemy within.

M: So the other song that is apropos to all of this is your title track: I am the Man.

SW: That song came out of… everybody being angry at somebody else. At the man. Being angry at the man. And not realizing that I am the man. I am that as well. We’re all one, it’s all connected, and so somehow I am a part of – I’m part of what goes on. It’s a spiritual song and it’s also… You know, there’s so many thing that people will rant about, but if you look at their everyday lives, they could be doing something that affects the whole. But they’re not. You know, what you choose to buy, everyday, and who you buy from. Where you use your dollar. The idea is that there is a small government inside each person and if you are taking care of that, it resonates.

I played a show in Eugene for my – my dad got the show together, and he’s a new age hippie and all his new age hippie friends were there. I opened the song saying, this is a song about how there is no Other, how even George Bush is my brother. And all these people booed! All these hippies booed. And it was so funny, because afterwards people came up and said, you know, it’s really hard to listen to your songs but people need to hear them. That really reinforced in me this idea that there is no such thing as preaching to the converted. Because all these people who should know better don’t. So how do you present something to somebody who already knows the truth but has pushed it away? How do you remind them? I had to explain it.

M: I love the idea that everybody has a small government inside them. That’s a great image.

SW: And they do! There’s just too many examples. Like people having causes but not looking at their own environment. It’s my body, my planet. It’s like, oh the planet, and this and this and this, and then you’re spraying some toxic cleaner in your house, or using some toxic deodorant. You’re polluting your own seeds with what you’re eating. How can you be saying, Oh these big industrialists! And then you talk to someone and say, Why don’t you buy organic? And they say Oh, it’s so expensive. But that’s what those big companies say when you ask them to stop polluting. It’s all macro/micro happening on the same level.

M: Meanwhile people are going to wonder why you have a leopard cub on your cover.

SW: That’s my mother and her leopard Nero, when he was a baby. My mom was a performer and a folk singer and a belly dancer, and a performer with my grandmother, who was a singer and dancer on stage, this burlesque sort of thing.

M: I love the notion of someone who’s never seen you perform and doesn’t know what you look like, hearing the album and trying to reconcile that with the image on the cover.

SW: I know. And then there’s some people who see the title and think I’m saying I’m the Man [laughs]. I’d heard that but it wasn’t in my consciousness. Someone MySpaced me and said, You the Man! [laughs] Oh my god, does everyone think that’s what my deal is, like that’s what I’m saying? But they can hear the song and figure it out.

You can hear the songs and figure it out here, for starters, and here; for more details on Simone’s story, try this interview from the L.A. Weekly. Thank you, Tater, for the transcription, and thank you, Simone, for so generously sharing your time with us!

Comments

Wow. Cool interview. I went to her MySpace page and listened to some of her music and it was great. Really liked the videos, too.

Thanks Billy!

Posted by: Molly Timmins | July 09, 2008 at 08:56 PM

This is a new discovery! Thank you so much for the scoop Billy. Will digg more into this artist when I have the listening time : )

Found your site via "Risky Biz Blog" so far I like what I see, although I'm gonna have to check out the rest of the site, only browsed through a few entries. Took the liberty of listing you on my site, you don't have to do the same, just thought I'd mention it.

Life & Times In Hollyweird
http://johndako.blogspot.com

Posted by: John Darko | July 11, 2008 at 11:50 AM