I notice your also big into film, what's your favorite style to film and what kind of projects have you worked on most recently?
Anymore, film is not used as the medium for motion picture, but its such a better term than video that i say we should use it in this interview. I studied at a journalism school, and in my four years there produced a number of types of programming and operated handheld camera for fox sports at all our home games for football, basketball, soccer etc. i loved the chill and intimate atmosphere of filming the soccer matches, it was almost meditative. football was amazing; the energy, the running up and down the field and getting nearly destroyed by three-hundred pound line men, getting pelted with snow balls from your own school-mates. i learned a lot about camera work, editing and producing in those four years, and i think if i were to choose a favorite style it would have to be cinema verite, or documentary work. dramatically i love Clint Eastwood's film-making in the last ten years. i relate a lot with his approach, both cinematically and thematically. I've done very little film work recently but have been helping a friends band out a little with camera work and editing. Most recently I am pretty excited about a short script i wrote in college. I pulled it out over Christmas to reread with some folks who loved it. If i can get the money together, i'd love to shoot it, and possibly use the footage for a music video.
It's great your so into helping out different organizations around the world, tell me what got you started?
i really don't know. i've always fought injustice for some reason, its just in my bones. i see things and i can't not say anything. i think for a while i wanted to make sure there was actual truth to what i thought about things, and i stepped back a little, but the more that learn of Truth and the more that i learn of the depravity in this world, the more confident i am to stand for what i believe to be true. it is interesting though, this whole humanitarian thing. there are folks who do it because its cool, or because it makes them feel good. i've literally spoken with these people, and its a whole mind set that i don't relate with. but to look at myself, i've got to say i really feel like i've accomplished very little which i've got to be OK with. i believe there is a time and a season for all things, and that i've been in the prep stages for some time now, learning a ton of things, and shedding off the ugly things of me that won't help anyone down the line.
Your music seems to have a lot of compassion and meaning behind it, how personal are your songs to you?
This is a question that my girlfriend and i have been going over for some time now, in a good way. As a songwriter, there are songs that you write that are extremely personal and there are songs that mean nothing really but are well crafted. There are songs i've written that used to mean one thing, but mean an entirely new thing now. I'm always balancing wether to play a song because its pretty and people like it with not playing a song because its not relevant to the set or this season. To me its about purpose. Why am i playing this song, and is that a beneficial reason?
i feel that we as an audience really expect a lot from our musical artists. Its almost a little creepy at times, when you look at how people treated Dylan early on or the Beattles or Hannah Montana. We have this built in capacity for worship, and music is so attached to this for some reason. its fascinating to me, and people have figured out a way to make money at it. To get all theological and spiritual about it, its totally written about in the Bible, that we will worship God for all time in song, that the stars sing out in praise, which they do... Sound itself physically alters our body. There is so much to music that we don't understand. If i had the ability, i would tour with a fully analogue, tube driven sound system.
Tell us about "THE WELL". Great lyrics, what inspired you to write it?
I would consider "The Well" as being a song about faith amidst an unbelieving world and superficial church. Its a song that comes out of a lot of hurt i've faced within the church as well as with non-believers. So often Christians don't allow for pain to permeate their lives, and yet the scripture says "blessed are those who morn..." Joy sometimes is very hard to come by, and yet my faith and my heart tells me there is hope, and through the hard seasons that i face, it has been proven to me time and time again that Hope is real and true Joy is incredible, but neither are immune from pain.
Your music is very kick back and relax. Who are your influences?
my influences would be God of course and all the amazing and not so amazing people who have crossed my path. Musically i would say, in a torrent of random chronological information, that these are some artists i've listened to over the years that stand out to me for whatever reason... Rachmaninoff, Stephane Grappelli, Benny Goodman, Gerry Mulligan, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Randy Travis, Alabama, Mo-Town, Les Brown and His Band of Renown's live recordings, Alan Lomax, Wynton Marsallis, Van Morrison, Clapton, Credence, Nirvana, New Edition, Aaron Copland, early Chris Isaak, Dwight Yokem, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Hendrix, Los Lobos, Ennio Morricone, 8 track-tapes, Wynton Marsallis, Peter Gabriel, Benny Green, Gillian Welch, Gomez, Jeff Buckley, Charlie Robison, Slaid Cleaves, U2's 'Joshua Tree' and 'Achtung Baby,' Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Beth Orton, Bruce Springsteen, Wilco, Bob Dylan, Lyle Lovett, Radiohead, non-hyped Hillsong United, Josh Ritter, Jason Upton, Joshua Rosen, Wylie And The Wild West, Griffin House, Jacob Dylan, William Fitzsimmons.... and there was a Yeti and a man who claimed to be 110% Cherokee...
I noticed most of your pics are you kick'n back at a coffee shop with your guitar, is this your comfortable zone, or would you rather be up on a stage in front of a large audience?
Long ago i decided i would play to only a bartender if put in that position. I have no problem playing to a wall, or a rambunctious bar, however as a singer-songwriter i prefer venues or audiences that appreciate and listen to the music. i love the sound when playing larger venues, and i do like playing coffee shops. Sometimes having the detachment of a larger venue allows me to isolate more and get in the zone, and i feel i perform better than if i was in a small coffee shop, but then the coffee shop can be so intimate, and you can talk with folks from the mic. its all relative the what's going on in the moment, and being receptive and responsive to that.
Where can we find you next, and tell us what's in the future for Shane Simonsen?
Well i just released two EP's of recordings from the last 6 years, which i can't believe its been that long. I am recording a new studio album which i am very excited about. The future is wide open. I've been receiving a lot of positive feedback on the music, so I hope to start touring and getting the music out there more and more. To make a living doing music would be a dream. I write a bit of prose as well which i've been working on. I'd love to be able to fund humanitarian efforts and continue my education, maybe getting a masters in Public Policy. The idea of the renaissance man is very appealing to me. We'll see how it goes!
February, 1st 2010 Issue #4
Shane Simonsen dishes out his kick back, coffee house style of music that first captures then hypnotizes you until the last chord is strum.
Whats your history in music and how long have you been playing?
My earliest memories of playing music are sitting below my father as he played the accordian. I also remember times of rumbling my fingers across the family piano making what i thought to be thunder storms. i learned some piano as a child and played trumpet in the jazz and symphonic bands through junior high and high school. I took up the euphonium my senior year which was a lot of fun. Musically my dream was to be a jazz musician however i chose not to study music in college and it was hard to keep my chops up which led to me playing more guitar.
My first guitar was an old Kay pressboard acoustic model that my parents gave me for Christmas when i was fifteen or sixteen. The intonation was all off, the strings were rusty, and i didn't know how to change them so i taught myself to play amid some real tough conditions. I bought an acoustic magazine at the Safeway in town which had articles on Ani Difranco's and Dave Matthews' rhythmic approach to guitar. It also had tabs for the picking pattern of "Dust In The Wind." Looking back, I'm pretty sure a lot of my playing was based off that magazine for a while. I began writing right away, and songs like "Summer Dreams Away" and "A False Means" came out of that season. I actually wasn't able to sing and play guitar together for a number of years, but still continued to write.
After college, friends kept encouraging me to play open mics and the like, and so i eventually realized i was pretty good at this and chose to honor the talents i'd been given. I've been legitimately playing out for the last three or four years, and the last two years have made a choice to pursue it as a career.
You seem like a real laid back, down to earth kind of guy...am I catching the right vibe?
Ha! Thats just how i am. A lot of folks make that observation, and i don't really notice me being that way until someone says something. i do prefer the small town vibe or the country a lot more than the city. That said though, i love big cities. I can't stand the in-between-- the box stores and the acres of parking lots. I love community and can get in a deep heated discussion, or can work my butt for a day doing something creative or something physical. I think for me, its gotta be worth it. I don't like busy work. If its not worth the energy or effort, then its better to be at peace with yourself and with others, and sometimes that means taking a week to do a job rather then a day.
