Mike Simmons

Alternative Rock singer/songwriter Mike Simmons began writing songs and poems when he was a down-and-out kid looking for ways to make money.  Writing was the first to catch for Simmons and he began reading his poems to homeless kids on the street and dancers on the late shift at a strip club where his friends worked. This led to meeting a group of musicians one night who recognized his ability to create and urged him to take writing and music more seriously suggesting he try actually saying something and putting it out to people in a context and situation they could understand. In the years since, Simmons has developed into an emotive songwriter who has played his music across America in venues ranging from clubs and halls to gas stations and adult video stores.
His writing ability and melodic instincts quickly drew notice from emerging producers in New York, Boston, and Los Angeles who hired him to groom the artists they were recording. During this period, Simmons began drifting into the fine arts and contemporary subculture communities in Cambridge and New York.  His writing, both in prose and song began to explore the thin line between the gritty life he lived each day and the glamorous one that was beginning to embrace him in the evenings along side the company of debutantes and artists on the rise.
This tension led to Simmons' debut album Sunburn, a ten-song effort tracked in two days that narrates Simmons' early days a few years later living in Los Angeles. Sunburn sings of days spent with the almost-stars of the new LA and nights spent with junkies, prostitutes, and other street people if only, according to Simmons, because they slept as infrequently as he did.
Currently in Seattle, Winter 2020 will see the release of Simmons sophomore full length release “Defamed”. Made from the comfort of his studio in the attic of an old porn shop “Defamed” is Simmons most defined and intentional release to date, with early buzz comparing songs to a sun soaked psychedelic furs, laurel canyon rock meeting Ride in the best way possible, and a sub pop record if sub pop started in LA in the 70’s and took more acid and ketamine. It is no surprise Mike Simmons continues to prove to be one of the most important emerging songwriters currently working anywhere today. No mere scene-maker, Simmons and his seemingly constant grip on "cool" give the rare ability to recognize things with true staying power, sometimes even before they appear to happen.