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Simone White
http://www.simonewhite.com
[BIOGRAPHY]
[PHOTOS]
[PRESS]
[TOUR DATES]
[AUDIO]
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BIOGRAPHY
"Simone White is already one of the really great American songwriters." - Rolling Stone (German edition)
Yakiimo, Simone White's latest album will be released in November 2009 in the US but is already causing a buzz overseas where Honest Jon's released it in July 2009.
Having traveled extensively and lived abroad, it's ironic that Simone White's music should be so quintessentially American. Drawing from the rich material of an unusual childhood and a head full of stories, intelligence and humor, she has stitched together an utterly whole, utterly original style. Although she follows in the footsteps of classic traditionalists and folk singers, she puts a unique and modern spin on it all, resulting in her own brand of sublime, dream-soaked Americana.
Simone White's biography doesn't just have a built-in story; it's got layers of stories. Born in Hawaii, the singer/songwriter spent a nomadic childhood traveling the States with her folk-singer mother (who is also a brilliant craftswoman) and sculptor father. Her glamorous grandma, Mary Jane, features as a character in one of the most evocative and memorable songs on White's 2007 album I am the Man. Mary Jane was a burlesque performer who undoubtedly had countless tales to regale her granddaughter with over the years. White's aunt was a songwriter and her grandfather a poet. Obviously, the arts ran strong in this family. Carrying on with the tradition, Simone White acted in both films and theater, later becoming a filmmaker as well as a scriptwriter and photographer.
Her artistic endeavors took her from Seattle to Paris to London. All the while, she had been informing her art by playing the guitar and singing in her spare time. She taught herself how to finger pick, and the songs started to flow. It wasn't until she moved to New York in 2000 that she began seriously honing her new craft, making music her main focus. She played live shows all over New York and toured the west coast. In 2004, she ran into a friend who knew music producer Mark Nevers (Lambchop, Calexico, Bonnie Prince Billy). After one phone conversation, Nevers already knew she had a good voice (he said she "talked in tune!"), and invited her down to record at Beechwood, his home studio in Nashville.
The result was I am the Man, her first record to be released on UK label, Honest Jon's. Nevers employed his cadre of musicians to accompany her, and the resulting sound is both spacious and lush, lending itself effortlessly to White's gorgeous, soulful fragility.
After the album's release in 2007, Simone White made a huge connection with both critics and fans across the globe. MOJO championed her, and Audi was so charmed by her "Beep Beep Song" that they used it as the soundtrack to a worldwide award-winning ad campaign. This 90-second ditty saw Simone White's name in the Dutch radio charts and had people humming it on the London Underground. Subsequently, the "Beep Beep girl" toured extensively for the next couple of years, playing at the Lincoln Center in New York, WOMAD UK and the Green Man festival in Wales.
In the autumn of 2008, she went back to Nashville to record Yakiimo. Her voice is even richer and more complex here than before, and her distinctive acoustic guitar playing lends itself exquisitely to this beguiling collection of songs. She recorded along with her original songs, a handful of written by friends, Frank Bango and Ricy Vesecky. She also covers "St Louis Blues" by WC Handy. It's fitting that she includes songs by her contemporaries and a song by the "Father of the Blues." She fuses the modern and the traditional so artfully and originally that she almost creates her own unique genre. And if that sounds like high praise, just listen to this: the German Rolling Stone has declared that Simone White is already one of the great American songwriters.
Simone White is currently on tour in Europe with Victoria Williams. Look for US tour dates early 2010. When not on tour, Simone White lives in Venice, California where she likes to ride her bike along the beach.
For further information, please contact Patrice Fehlen at September Gurl Music, 718.768.3859 or Patrice@septembergurl.com
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PHOTOS
Click on a thumbnail to download that hi-res JPEG (suitable for publication):
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TOUR DATES
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PRESS
Pop Matters
Simone White - Yakiimo (Honest Jon's)
By Christel Loar
For her latest album, Yakiimo, singer-songwriter Simone White again worked with producer Mark Nevers (Lambchop, Calexico, Bonnie Prince Billy, Will Oldham) at his studio in Nashville. The two had previously collaborated on White's 2007 release I am the Man. That album garnered worldwide critical praise, and yielded her best known song to date, the charming and incredibly catchy "The Beep Beep Song", which was featured in the European ad campaign for the Audi R8. While Yakiimo may not feature any single song quite as instantly memorable as "The Beep Beep Song", it does feature other delightfully distinctive traits that make Simone White's music so irresistible.
First, there's the songwriting itself. On the surface, this record would be classified as modern folk, or, given Nevers' involvement, it could be called country. As such, it might be dismissed as simply yet another indie girl with a guitar singing songs about love and loss. However, it would be a crime to sell these songs short like that. True, many of the tracks on Yakiimo touch on those familiar territories, but they do so in a way that recalls—and blends—even earlier musical art forms. It has much in common with classic American roots music; it's filled with a wealth of narrative tradition that is unusual these days. There are the laments, such as "A Girl You Never Met", in which youth long gone is mourned. There are the songs of longing, like Frank Bango and Richy Vesecky's "Your Stop", about stalking your ex's subway stop. "Without A Sound" is a musical wake, of sorts, only it describes finality of the silence that marks the death of a relationship. "Candy Bar Killer", also by Bango and Vesecky, though it may technically be about typical adolescent urges, might as well be a murder ballad.
Of course, many of the songs do cover the more obvious lyrical subjects. Crushes, happy love and sweet childhood memories appear in "Olivia 101", "Victoria Anne" (written for Victoria Williams, with whom White has toured), and "Baby Lie Down with Me", among others, but still often do so in such unexpected, quirky and, to be honest, sometimes disquieting ways, that you will be compelled to listen more closely, and once you do you will be drawn into the deep, often dark storytelling that lies in the lyrics just beneath the breath of White's vocals.
The vocals may be the most alluring aspect of the album, and of White's work in general. Her incomparable voice carries a sense of melancholy even when her words are mirthful, its quality is ethereal and substantial by turns, it seems almost weightless, and yet is anchored fast by the weight of the emotions it conveys. Throughout listening to Yakiimo, you find yourself floating along on the melodies, lulled by the seeming vulnerability of that voice, that as surely as it lures can just as suddenly lunge, plunging you into its depths.
Yakiimo, with its somber undertones and Simone White's singular singing style, may not be for everyone. For those who enjoy great storytelling in songwriting, gorgeous voices employing haunting vocal phrasings and a little mystery behind the music, however, this may be just what you've been waiting for.
Rating: 7 (out of 10)
Billings Gazette
Simone White - Off the charts: White channels folk-jazz influences, adds twang
By Chris Jorgensen
If Joni Mitchell and Rickie Lee Jones got together in Nashville to design the perfect singer, they might come up with someone like Simone White.
The Hawaii-born singer has Mitchell's pure, breathy voice and Jones' odd sense of phrasing. And it's all laced up with the gentle twang of fiddle, organ and harmonica.
For all its prettiness, there's a lot of ache here.
The song "Olivia" details a long unrequited crush on a schoolmate. "I study her all day long/ I memorize every color she wears/ I measure the passage of time by the style of her clothes and the length of her hair," White sings.
In the slightly jazzy "Your Stop," a jilted lover waits outside the home of an ex just to "breathe in the air that you breathe." Even when the songs are about a budding romance, there's a throbbing sadness to them.
When things do brighten up, there's a childlike quality to jaunty songs like "Train Song" and the title cut, a reminiscence of a blissful trip to Japan. In the end, White celebrates her grandmother, who performed in burlesque shows, with a dreamy, slowed-down version of "St. Louis Blues."
Feminist Review
Simone White - Yakiimo
By Abigail Chance
Sitting down with my notebook for a first listen, I adamantly tried not to get caught up in descriptions with romanticized cliché references to Cézanne paintings, sleepy villages, artsy cafes, or train rides home. Alas, I set myself up for inevitable failure listening to Simone White's Yakiimo album riding a train northbound for the holidays on a clear, winter New England morning. Snow had just fallen; I was ending the most significant semester I had had at university; the rhythm of the album tread effortlessly with the speed of the train. It was nauseatingly perfect, and all I could do was laugh and submit to the indulgence of the cliché moment. So, I apologize.
As soon as I pressed play on the first track, "Bunny in a Bunny Suit," as we pulled out of the Providence station, I felt as though it was a soundtrack for my journey home, physically and metaphorically. The song is fittingly about someone who has realized that she has lost herself after years of trying to change for others. For me, I was returning home, finally "pretending to be myself again."
Regarding the sound, do not mistake the pretty vocals and poetic lyrics of the album for being shallow. It is not necessarily edgy, but definitely eccentric as the artist's darkness subtly emerges. The tone of the album may be honest, pure, slightly melancholy, and sweet, but definitely not fragile or playful in a passive way. Its vulnerability is deceiving.
Born into a family of extraordinary creativity, with her folksinger mother, sculptor father, and burlesque-dancer grandmother, White taught herself to play the guitar and writes most of the songs on the album. The album has 12 short tracks, all under four minutes long, with acoustic instrumentation, simple percussion, anecdotes, and the repetitive driving rhythm of a personal journey. Tracks "Victoria Anne," written about the playful memories of a childhood friend, and "Baby Lie Down With Me," influenced by reading Carson McCullers, bring a happy, yet at times, haunting element which is further complemented by the even darker lyrics of "A Girl You Never Met," about someone too tired to keep on living, and "Without A Sound," which gives a detailed description of the final moments of a failed relationship.
The first two tracks, including the one mentioned above and "Candy Bar Killer," are covers of original songs written by friends Frank Bango and Richy Vesecky, which have slightly edgier lyrics focusing more on the awkward experiences and pains of growing up. The album continues with songs about love, despair and longing: longing for an ex-lover in "Your Stop," a school crush in "Olivia."
"Yakiimo," the title of the album, refers to the Yakiimo men she heard singing their "haunting songs" while selling the stone roasted mountain sweet potato, encapsulating the "emotion and subtly" she wanted to capture in her album. Inspired by a children's counting book, "Train Song" adds a lightness to the album. The last two tracks diverge slightly from the style of the previous tracks, particularly with a more country sounding "Let the Cold Wind Blow." White described in an interview childhood memories of her grandma singing "St Louis Blues," the last track of the album, in a "deep throaty voice."
White has had international success since her first album, I Am the Man, playing on stages across the globe and having her track "The Beep Beep Song" featured in an Audi car commercial. Sounding like a female Nick Drake, she also has a Norah Jones aspect to her; however, she is unlike anything else in pop, rock, and folk genres. Her recently released second album is definitely worth a listen.
J!-ENT
Simone White – Yakiimo (a J!-ENT World Groove Album Review)
By Dennis Amith
California-based music artist Simone White is known for her beautiful Indie-folk songs. Born from a performing arts family as her mother is a folksinger, her father a sculptor and her grandmother who was a burlesque dancer, Simone continues the family artistic lineage known for her beautiful vocals, haunting and bittersweet melodies but most of all, lyrics that are so well-written that once you listen to her music or a track, you find yourself zeroing in on her lyrics because she's able to craft almost a story with each song that she has written.
If anything, Simone White is starting to receive a lot of attention. Her music has been featured on the CW show "90210¡È and is well-known in the UK for her song "The Beep Beep Song" featured on a commercial for Audi R8 in Europe. But she also was noticed by Rolling Stone Magazine which proclaimed the singer/songwriter as "one of the great American songwriters". Needless to say that, Simone White is an artist in such a high demand and she performs all over the world, showcasing her enchanting music and captivating listeners with her vocals and music.
Simone White's third full-length album "Yakiimo" (her second through Honest Jons Records) features collaborations with Frank Bango and Richy Vesecky (which she sings a few covers of their songs), while writing seven songs from the album. And yet again, Simone's "Yakiimo" showcases her haunting melodies but within each melody is this beautiful voice that just emerges almost in a storybook style with her well-crafted lyrics.
The album features solid tracks such as the cover of Frank Bango's "Bunny in a Bunny Suit". All that is needed is Simone and her acoustic guitar singing about a person that changes herself for others and now questions those changes and herself. "Candy Bar Killer" is a western, country-folk style of track. "Victoria Anne" is one of those songs that you just zero-in on Simone White's lyrics and just smile.
My favorite track on the album "Baby Lie Down With Me" is an enjoyable, love song featuring wonderful songwriting, a great melody and vocals.
The title track of the album, "Yakiimo" is literally sweet potatoes sold in Japan and Simone White literally sings about the food and purchasing it and reflects on the warmth of the sweet potato and asks "was she Yakiimo?"
While there are some happy tracks on the album, there are some dark tracks as well such as "A Girl You Never Met" as Simone writes about breaking up and getting rid of all those items that a couple shared. Definitely a song that you want to listen to during a breakup. And then there is a track like "Olivia" which is like a track about obsession and the final track "St Louis Blues" about having an affair.
Simone White delivers with "Yakiimo". You get tracks that vary in musical styles that although is guitar-driven, you get a little folk, blues and even western-country/rock. But it's this album that really does showcase Simone White's songwriting ability. She knows how to tell a story through her music and because of that, you don't listen to a song once or twice, you listen as you embrace her vocals and music but then you hear the lyrics and like an artist painting on a canvas to tell a story, Simone White's tracks paints a picture of an individual going through situations which can be happy, self-reflective and dark.
Overall, a wonderful album and an artist worth checking out! Definitely recommended!
Wildy's World
Review: Simone White – Yakiimo
By Wildy Haskell
Simone White was practically born into performing. Her mother a folksinger, her father a sculptor and her grandmother a burlesque performer, the limelight is in White's genes. White was writing songs a Capella in her head for some time before she taught herself to play guitar. In 2000, White moved from London to New York City and found the stage to begin performing her songs. In 2004 she went to Nashville to record with Mark Nevers (Calexico, Lambchop, Will Oldham) and walked away with a record deal with the UK's Honest Jon Records. She's gone on to play major stages all over the world, and even had one tune, The Beep Beep Song, featured in a commercial for Audi. Her latest album, Yakiimo is already out in the UK, and sees a US release date of November 10, 2009.
Simone White is eclectic. Her voice is so soft and pure you'd she's become lost in the wash of instrumentation, but White's sound is so distinctive that she stands out. There's a razor's edge that lies beneath the surface of that soft voice that's full of wit and intelligence and not a little pluck. All of these qualities come dancing through on Yakiimo's opening track, Bunny In A Bunny Suit. The song is all about someone who has trying to change herself for others for so long she doesn't even know who she is anymore. Bunny In A Bunny Suit is compelling, stripped down as it is into bare instrumentation. The honest and vulnerability that emanates from White are made all the more believable by her uncharacteristic vocal sound. On Candy Bar Killer, White tells the tale of a free spirit with a dark side. It's a mellow and serene song with a melody that dances for you. Baby Lie Down With Me is a mellow yet enthusiastically happy love song. Intelligent and sweet, White displays just how good of a songwriter she is right here.
Yakiimo are roasted sweet potatoes sold by street vendors in cities in Japan and elsewhere. The song is a lament of their effect as harbingers of winter. Simone White has an uncanny ability to unnerve listeners at times, using her sweet and out-of-the-ordinary voice to deliver messages with the impact of left hooks at times. A Girl You Never Met shows this ability grandly. It's a mellow yet starkly worded breakup song. The narrator takes on all the responsibility and then turns and tells him/her how happy she was before (s)he came along. The most entertaining song on the CD is Train Song, a fun listen you won't be able to get out of your head. Your Stop sounds like a song of reverie over a lost love, or it might have a darker side in light of the next track, Olivia. Olivia is a vaguely creepy song of obsession. The tone and tenor here and gentle, but the narrator has been following/studying the object of her affection for some time. The story is well told in song with a great melody and arrangement. Let The Cold Wind Blow is another free spirit song, written about a soul who's perfect in her imperfection. White closes out with a cover of St. Louis Blues, a stark tale of adultery done in a wonderful acoustic blues setting. White's voice is the perfect foil for the guitar in this song.
Simone White gets your attention quickly with a sound that's a bit unlike most anyone else in Pop/Rock/Folk music. Yakiimo continues to garner White attention, a trend likely to grow with the November 10, 2009 release of the album in the US. This is one release not to skip out on. It's always possible you won't like it, but it's more likely that you'll be kicking yourself later on for not checking out Simone White.
Rating: 3.5 Stars (Out of 5)
L.A. Music Blog
Simone White, "Yakiimo"
By Kristen Houser
A Hawaii-born singer/songwriter records an album in Nashville and gives it a Japanese name. Such is the cultural complexity that folk artist Simone White brings to the table with her upcoming release, "Yakiimo." While journeying through the U.S. with her folk-singer mother and sculptor father as a child, White must have been bitten by the travel bug because rarely has she stayed in one place for too long, calling Seattle, Pairs, London, New York, and finally, California home at one point or another. Must be hell to try to keep her on your Christmas card list, but at least you never have to worry about the nomadic artist taking too long between tours. She's currently on the road in Europe with Victoria Williams and will be traversing the U.S. in early 2010 in support of "Yakiimo."
The simple, introspective "Bunny in a Bunny Suit" is one of several tracks on "Yakiimo" written by White's friends Frank Bango and Richie Vesecky, but it is the perfect introduction to the album's reoccurring theme of adolescence. White's vocals put into words the awkwardness of trying to figure out who one is while still in the process of transitioning from youth to adulthood. The theme continues with "Victoria Anne," a track that recounts tales of small-town mischief, getting drunk on homemade gin and stripping naked to jump in the river, all sung with clipped, precise vocals reminiscent of Regina Spector. Even "Baby Lie Down With Me," a song with a decidedly grown-up theme, references skinned knees and the games the song's lovers used to play as children.
Another theme White explores on the album is, not-surprisingly, movement, usually away from something (or someone). The narrator in "Without a Sound" arrives home from a trip to Spain only to be forced to leave again, the girl in "A Girl You've Never Met" thinks "it's finally time to go," and the "she" referenced in "Let the Cold Wind Blow" is fine "as long as she's moving." "Yakiimo" is an album filled with both restlessness and nostalgia, a desire to leave and a yearning to return. White's serene vocals and the abrupt endings to many of the songs on the album are dream-like in the sense that they are so full and real and then gone, surviving only in memory. Lucky for me, I can just hit "repeat" and relive the experience from Track 1.
Babysue: LMNOP
Simone White - Yakiimo (CD, Honest Jons, Soft pensive folky pop)
Smooth soft pensive pop from Simone White. On Yakimo, Ms. White sounds something like a cross between early Suzanne Vega and that bizarre stripper in Robert Altman's Nashville film (remember her...?). The tracks on this album feature very simple, straightforward arrangements that allow the listener to focus on Simone's lyrics and melodies. She's a soft singer...almost whispering on many of these tracks. Melodies are what make this album such a solid spin. White writes modern classic folk/pop tunes that are smart and resilient. Several knock down dead great cuts here including "Candy Bar Killer" (an incredible tune), "A Girl You Never Met," and "Let the Cold Wind Blow."
Pen's Eye View
Simone White
By Richie Frieman
I wish we saw more of Simone White over here in the states – the songbird is an absolute pleasure to listen to. Her warm folk harmonies elicit more than just attention – its music you can rest your mind on, allowing hour after hour to slip by. She has become incredibly respected on the international music scene, conquering overseas stops such as Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Switzerland – in fact, her latest record, "Yakiimo" (released this summer in Europe) entered the German Rolling Stone critic's pick at number 5.
"Yakiimo" will be available in the states November 10th, a collection White describes as "Longing, nostalgia for another time. Some fiddle, a little folky, a little country." It's the music on this kind of album that has earned her distinguished praise again from Rolling Stone as "already one of the really great American songwriters." Her sounds stretch, at times so simple, but always focused; filled with purpose.
Simone will be leaving her current local of Spain shortly for Australia and Japan before taking some time to record the next record. While it may require a bit of patience before you're able to catch a live show, when you do get the chance – do not pass it up. White is elegant in her performance description: "Intimacy, quiet, stories, breath, tone, sometimes shyness, sometimes laughter." Check out the record and read on for the answers to the XXQ's.
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AUDIO
Click on a clip of an audio track below to download a mp3:
Simone White - Yakiimo [2009]
Simone White - Victoria Anne [mp3] - 1.35 mb
Simone White - Yakiimo [mp3] - 1.18 mb
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