David St. John, Los Angeles
It's 10:30am, and while waiting for my interview to begin, I take note of the dilapidated coffee table and what lay upon it; an old Underwood typewriter and a half-empty bottle of Johnny Walker Black, surrounded by yellowed LP covers, a glass ashtray, some loose leaf paper, and yesterday’s edition of the New York Times. I'm here to talk with Mike Simmons, an up-and-coming folk/rock artist who's doing for Myspace-era ‘storytelling’ what the Counting Crows did for 1980’s overindulgence. With the soul and eloquence of a hard-living bluesman, Mike is making the kind of music that is meant to be consumed with patience and old-school class; through an old turntable, with glass of scotch, surrounded by items that make you think it might still be 1969.
After a few minutes, Mike emerges from the living room, apologizing profusely for keeping me waiting. True to form, he casually lights a cigarette and offers me a drink. Over the next hour, we talked about what goes on in the mind of a man of letters born about 50 years too late.
Mike recently completed his second full-length record, the folk/rock inflected, life-on-the-road homage, For Those Who Travel on Mondays, which marks a stylistic and conceptual departure from the blues/singer-songwriter feel of Mike’s independent debut album, Love Might Have Been the Thing That Could Have Saved Me. This change is most evident in each record’s respective origins; while Love was somewhat of a pick-and-choose compilation of Mike’s early writings, Mondays was developed from the beginning as a sort of epilogue to the first phase of Mike’s life and career, a way to document and pay final respects to those people, places and things which have helped shape the course of his first 25 years. “I can feel things changing,” Mike says as he lights another cigarette. “And I think anytime change happens, the way you create, and what you create is subject to change as well. There were a few things I knew couldn’t translate to anything beyond my past or present, I didn’t want lose the possibilities those things encompassed purely on that technicality.” Mike addressed the ‘farewell’ aspect of the record, a theme many listeners have written to him about. “People and places will always be coming in and out of your life I think, so that’s not something I’m trying to put too much attention on, or pretend to fix or maintain for any reason. It’s important to me not to leave anything behind before I leave one room and head for another. That’s all.”
Further distinguishing Mondays from Love is Mike’s increased musical maturity and the changing roles of the supporting musicians, most of whom played on both records. “I brought in the same people I used on my first record [including guitarist Mick White, vocalist Katie Leonard, and producer/keyboardist and longtime friend John Gilbertson], along with a few new background singers to help deliver the vocal dynamic that’s so prominent on this new record. On the first record, I gave everybody a lot of freedom musically, to achieve the feel and sound more comparable to a ‘band’ record as opposed to a solo record. Everyone who played on the record was so talented, and with that particular group of songs, I felt like it was the right way to approach the production. This time around, I felt ready to take more control of the recording process to achieve a specific sound I heard for each song, and for the record as a whole.” When asked how he felt Mondays compared to Love, he said “Whether it turned out better or not isn’t really for me to decide. I had completely different objectives and goals for each record, which makes it hard for me to compare the two. But I will say I do feel that I was able to deliver a more passionate sounding record this time around, that had a primary focus on feel and intensity above anything else, which I believe was the best way to address this record.”
The next several months will see Mike and crew out on the road promoting For Those Who Travel on Mondays, with plans to play all over the US before heading to Europe next fall. Before drawing our interview to a close, I asked Mike to offer his take on the changing state of the industry and how he thinks it will affect songwriters and artists. “I think today’s perception of entertainment has really divided music into two worlds. One is run by the industry, and relies completely on labels, money, and business. The other relies simply on music and people, and that world I believe is beginning to gain ground again. The business model is all f***ed up, has been for a while, but creating still comes first, or at least it should and always will for me.”
With his distinctly old-school, do-it-yourself attitude, Mike is slowly but surely gaining recognition from that small, but growing group of listeners who still appreciate the craftsmanship and passion that goes into a good song. His words to live by? “Write some songs you believe in, put them on a record, play the record to as many people as you can, as many ways as you can, as often as you can, and hope they like it. If they do, there’s not much else you need to worry about.”
