Amen

Howdy y’all,

Just put out this single,

"AMEN"  

Bandcamp: https://mikesim.bandcamp.com/track/amen

video: https://vimeo.com/263078258

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0piRVKQYAez5qvhlzKxJxb

Applemusic: https://music.apple.com/us/album/amen-ep/1474292282

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/mike_sim/amen

(also on most other music streaming services if you use something else) 

CREDITS: 

written, performed & recorded by Mike Sim 

mixing & mastering by Brady Custis 

featuring dancing by WISTY

additional filming by Ari Rejman 

(Amen uses manipulations of the “Amen” drum break for most of the drums: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxZuq57_bYM

(in case you're not familiar & curious: drum break comes in at 1:26 on there))

Amen is from the upcoming album "<3" which should be out later this summer

((which “Fixing a Clock” will also be on: https://vimeo.com/272272501

Much love,

<3 

Mike Sim 

Folked Up on CCTV - Acoustic Set (with Hannah Jay & Windowsill & Ashtray)

Swiper

Spotify

Applemusic 

Bandcamp

Soundcloud
Googleplay

1-Profiles on Tinder
2-Notification
3-Questions from OKCupid
4-Your Song

(Mastering by Brady Custis
all other stuff by Mike Sim)

God Bless America

APPLEMUSIC
SPOTIFY
TIDAL
AMAZON
GOOGLEPLAY
SOUNDCLOUD 
BANDCAMP:

Fall Update 2017

JUST A PHASE

I released an EP of reimaginings called Just a Phase.  It's up for streaming and download on bandcamp & soundcloud.





STREAMING SERVICES:

You can now stream some of my music on Spotify, Apple Music/iTunes, Amazon Music, Google Music, Pandora, & Tidal

SPOTIFY:



Apple Music


UPCOMING SHOWS I'LL BE PLAYING: 

I'll be playing a show on November 17th in JP with Of the Sun & Paul Elrich - it'll be the first show in Boston in a year and I'll be debuting a new piece I've been working on since the summer.

I'll also be playing a similar set at Trendy Shit Town on December 2nd. 

More info on these show to come

UPCOMING RELEASES: 

FULL LENGTH VISUAL ALBUM:

I'm planning on releasing a visual album of original material on the 2018 summer solstice. 

So far two songs are completely recorded - One features choreography by Wisty and drumming by Sound Shaman 

Stoked to say Brady Custis of Coaches (who mixed the "Just a Phase" EP and the later half of "Twin Peaks") will be mixing this record as well.   

This will be the first in a series of 4 visual albums (the other three will be coming out between 2019 and 2021). 

OTHER FUTURE RELEASES: 

-An EP based on dreams I've had

-An EP based on swiping apps and online dating

-Another EP of reimaginings


As always, thanks for listening

Much love,
:::❤️:::

Mike Sim 

Just a Phase (EP)

JUST A PHASE

this is a collection other people’s songs
I changed some of the words - some I didn't really know how they go
this is the most naked and personal I’ve felt on a record so far  - despite the fact that these songs are not my own
(sometimes it’s easier to be yourself in someone else's skin) 

Reimagined, performed, and recorded by Mike Sim
Mixed and Mastered by Brady Custis

bandcamp
soundcloud

Songwriting credits:
She Said:
:::song collage:::
song-writing credit to: The Beatles, Third Eye Blind, Bjork, and the Backstreet Boys & Mike Sim

She Said: 
A reimagining based on the song by Amy Alvey off the album "Big Ten" (2012)

Slide:
 A reimagining based on the song by the Goo Goo Dolls off the album "Dizzy up the Girl" (1998)

Dirty Mind: 
A Reimagining of the song by Prince off the album "Dirty Mind" (1980)

I Wanna Be Your Dog:
A reimagining based on the song by the Stooges off the album "The Stooges" (1969)




Many thanks to Brady Custis - this record would not be what it is if it wasn't for his work shaping the way it sounds in mixing and mastering.  Being able to collaborate with him on it was truly wonderful and I hope to work with him again on future records.  If you haven't checked out his band Coaches - do so - they've got an EP called "Shush" that's super dope and will be coming out with a full length soon.

Also - thanks to my brother Ryan for his eyes / direction in creating the album artwork for this.

And thanks y'all for listening

Much love,
:::<3:::
Mike Sim 

Twin Peaks (Visual Album)

The visual album “Twin Peaks” is out now

The album starts as a rescore of the pilot episode of Twin Peaks and gradually spirals out in Lynchian fashion.  The first half of the album (“Dear Laura Palmer”) is almost entirely taken from live performances at Industry Lab and Jamaica House during the Fall of 2016 and is more raw and improvisational.  The second half of the album (“Fire Walk With Me”) is more composed and produced and was almost entirely created by filming and recordings from after the live performances.

VISUAL ALBUM:

Dear Laura Palmer,

Fire Walk With Me

Audio:

Origins:

One night after seeing a show at the Industry Lab I was talking to Tim Davison about an OST series he was starting through Boston Hassle.  I mentioned that I composed a piece called “Fire Walk With Me” which uses primarily Twin Peaks video samples and lyrically takes a lot of material from dialogue from Twin Peaks as well and how I was thinking about messing with the pilot episode as well.  Before I knew it, the show was set up and billed as an original score to the pilot episode - so I started working on creating more multi-media work in the world of Twin Peaks.

I started by recreating the Angelo Badalamenti scores, and then by rescoring the pilot episode with original music, and then as I became more and more immersed in the world of Twin Peaks I could no longer separate myself from the material I was writing traveled down the lynchian rabbit hole.

Dear Laura Palmer,

I have a Laura Palmer in my life - someone whose life was filled with secrets, died too young, and visits me in my dreams everyone once in a while.  She was actively dying when I first watched the series in high school and passed away shortly after. This played into my obsession with this universe in which one can walk between two worlds that can be tapped into through dreams.  I wanted to communicate with my Laura Palmer, and I feel like in some ways dreams and this music allowed me to do so.

Fire Walk With Me

The second half of this record, “Fire Walk With Me” has been existing in one shape or another for over 7 years:

This song was initially inspired by a near death experience/awakening which became “Hope I Live Before I get Old”, a song I wrote for the band I was playing in at the time, Koala, which ended up on our 2010 album “Xibalba”.

In the Fall of 2014 when the bass player of the Koala’s father took his own life by fire, I began revisiting this material - interweaving it with new material I had been writing and a collage of lyrics taken from a variety of sources (many of which are lines from characters in Twin Peaks).  This song is dedicated to all who grapple with addiction and mental illness - too all those playing with the chance to walk between two worlds - and to all those who have danced too close to the flames.

CREDITS:

Written/reimagined, performed, recorded, and produced by Mike Sim
Mixing for “Falling” (Theme) & “Dear Laura Palmer” by Mike Sim
Mixing for Fire Walk With Me by Brady Custis
Mastering by Brady Custis
Filming by Ariel Rejman & Mike Sim
Photos by Adam Blake

Video and Audio from live performances
-11/19/2016 @ Industry Lab
-12/2/2016 @ Jamaica House

THANKS: 

Thanks to David Lynch and Mark Frost for creating this wonderful and strange world of Twin Peaks that I've been living and working in for the past seven months.
Thanks again to Ari Rejman, Brady Custis, and Adam Blake for helping make this project possible.
Special thanks to Tim Davison & Boston Hassle for inviting me to participate in the OST series and giving me the opportunity to compose and perform this work at Industry Lab.

Vimeo
Bandcamp
Soundcloud
Facebook

 :)\____/(:
{(@)v(@)
:::the owls are not what they seem:::

DRONEZONE

Last December I was part of a show called Dronezone which consisted of two blocks of continuous back to back drone performances. The show was curated by Totem Fahey and he then took some of the live performances from this drone marathon and mixed them together in a new way and mastered them for this release. My performance is the first one on this collaborative record and is followed by Sound Shaman, Obsidian Helix, bothands, Godmouth, and Kar'Nam

The show was in the wake of the Oakland Ghost Ship Warehouse fire and the performances were dedicated to Micah Danemayer - a deep droner / noise maker who was a big part of the Boston electronic music / noise scene who was lost in the fire.

The piece I performed for this collaboration was based on a composition I wrote as part of a Twin Peaks rescore/reimagining (which will be released as a visual album next month) - This composition scores a scene which takes place in a morgue and is a meditation on death / non-being.

I am honored to be a part of the Dronezone project and excited to share this record with you all:

The next Dronezone performance will be June 2nd through June 3rd.

Live at Jamaica House - 3/30/2016 - Visual Album

A year ago I recorded a set at my apartment on my birthday - you can now watch or listen to the full visual album of this live set.

Two of the three videos in this visual album I had released already, but the third ("Time Travel is Dangerous") is new and is the longest of the three pieces.  The pieces in the set flow into one another - so you can watch/listen the visual album in it's entirety or watch/listen to it individually (which are posted below)

VISUAL ALBUM (via vimeo): 

also available on youtube

AUDIO ALBUM: 

BANDCAMP: 

Also available on Soundcloud

ABOUT: 

All audio and video was recorded live on March 30th, 2016 at Jamaica House with the exception of a couple short sections of "Time Travel is Dangerous" which were taken from a performance that took place on July 23rd, 2016 at Jamaica House.

These three pieces will most likely be released in another form in the not so distant future (all within the next 4 years) - but I wanted to release these live versions as they will be different in future reimaginings of them, will not have the longer drone/phasing/noise sections that are present on these recordings, and so they can exist on the interwebs in this form until future versions come to be.

Much love,
<3 

Clock With No Hands - Selected Recordings

I'll be releasing a lot of new music this year - but before I do so, I'll also be sharing some music that hasn't be on the internet for a long time.  Some of this material that I'll be re-releasing has sort of woven it's way into new music I've been making, while some has been more or less left behind.  Folks had been asking me about some of these records which weren't available anymore - So I wanted to share some of these things that I made (and am not ashamed of yet) for anyone who might want to hear them.  I'll post more things as I re-upload/re-release them.  

About 7 years ago I released a couple of records under the moniker Clock With No Hands - here’s some selections from those records:

This was a solo project I started right after I decided I wasn't going to pursue a career as a jazz guitarist - So a lot of this is basically doing the least jazz things I could think of...playing on a lot of acoustic instruments, lots of tremolo picking, and writing stuff that often sounded more like soundscapes rather than a song with a head and different sections.  It was also before I had anything that I wanted to write about - so it was was primarily non-programatic and a lot of these are more like musical portraits rather than musical stories.

1-Do Caged Birds Dream of Flying (featuring Henry - a cockatiel my family used to have)

2-War Song 1935

- Song written & sung by Anna Taglione 

-Flute- Rachel Young 

-Trumpet- Tom Ker-Vanderslice 

-Trombone: Ryan Simonelli

3-Jack-O-Lantern

4-How Small a Thought it Takes to Fill a Whole Life

(artwork by Ryan Simonelli) 

5-Rachel & Goliath

6-Finding Home / Time Travel

Fall Update 2016

NAME CHANGE: 

I've changed the name of my project from my birth name, Mike Simonelli, to Mike Sim in order to separate my art from my personal life.  

I have new websites now:

-Facebook

-Youtube Channel

-Bandcamp
-Soundcloud

I'll be leaving this blog's URL as is for now so older posts will still be googleable and because I also write about things other than my own music on here (like my end of the year lists and music therapy stuff and whatnot).

I'll also be leaving my old websites - so you'll still be able to hear that music if you'd like.  I also might be posting old music on those that I haven't released yet.  

INITIATION : 

As I previously mentioned, I'll be releasing a visual album in pieces.  Last week I released the first of twelve videos - this one is called "Initiation"

Backstory:

I’d rather not talk about the lyrics and get into programatic details - but since there might be some familiar sounds to some folks in this, wanted to say something about those sounds.  In a way this is a song that's evolved for over a decade, and like a lot of the material on the visual album will be - at some moments, it's sort of a collage of sorts from things that I've done before as well as other things and new things.  The first time I publicly played the main melody from this thing somewhere was in 2005 (there's a video of this somewhere on the interwebs which Andy Young filmed from my high school's talent show) and at the time it was called "Portrait of the Invisible".  It then evolved into a piece with more improvisation with a few jazz groups I was in (which sounded like this back in 2006) - and then made it's way onto the first Koala EP in 2009 (with added sections that were co-written with other band members).    

(((The section that was the original thing that I wrote starts around 2:09)))

One of the other things in here that you might recognize is a song I wrote called "All is Swell", which comes up twice in here and was originally on the Kaleidoscope EP which came out in 2012.

There's also a few quotes and some samples used from the recording session I did with the Gypsy Rock Monkeys last fall.

EP: 

I'll be releasing an EP later this year.  It's tentatively titled "Just a Phase" and is made up of reimagingings.  It'll be more stripped down and raw than the recordings on the visual album.  You can check out the tentative tracklist below: 

1-She Said

2-Wishful Thinking

3-Slide 

4-Dirty Mind 

5-I Wanna Be Your Dog 

TWIN PEAKS SET:

I'll be performing a Twin Peaks set at the Industry Lab in Cambridge on November 19th.  I've been writing some new material for this set as well as reworking/reimaginging some of my own material and some music from the show.  It'll be an all alternative soundtracks/multi-media bill. 

I'll be posting some more info about this as it gets closer. 

There's also more upcoming shows here.

As always - thanks for listening and much love, 

Mike Sim 

Initiation (Video)

VIDEO:

AUDIO: 

CREDITS: 

Sun Rad - mastering & additional mixing

Brady Custis - additional audio engineering + additional ears/feedback

Ariel Rejman - Additional filming

Gypsy Rock Monkeys - additional percussion

Mike Sim - all the other video and audio stuff

Eldwood 2016

Lineup:

(flyer by Adam Blake)

Still and Video from my Performance:

(photo by Rich Orini)

Compilation of Artists that Played at Eldwood 2016:

(curated by Totem Fahey)

Video Collage by Soyomyoyo:

"Serenity" Split (Mike Simonelli / Sound Shaman)

As mentioned on here previously - I will be releasing a series of splits with some of my favorite Boston based artists.  My half of these splits will be primarily instrumental and consist of more experimental / improvisational / ambient work than what I typically do.

Today on the Summer Solstice the first of those splits is released.  This split is with minimal / tribal / drone / noise / psyche artist Sound Shaman and the album is called "Serenity".

You can buy the album for $3.00 or listen for free via Bandcamp



There will also be a very limited amount of physical copies made in the near future.  If you are interested in purchasing a physical copy please contact me (or Sound Shaman).

Here's the album artwork created by Adam Canvas Giangregorio:

Spring Update 2016

WEIRD FOLK FEST VI:

On Saturday, April 16th, I'll be playing at the Weird Folk Fest at the Magnolia Loft in Jamaica Plain.  It'll be my first public full set since the beginning of February - and may be my last until the Summer.  I'll explain the reason for this below - but first want to talk about the line up for this event:

Back in the Holiday Mountain days I remember playing a bill with Tom Dowd's group, Strange Changes, and getting my mind melted with their proggy funky awesomeness - excited to see what he does solo.  And Nosy Mangabe are a whimsical pop-oriented art-folk group with two ukuleles, glockenspiel, melodica, and other stuff and are pretty darn wonderful.  I haven't heard Kaeliearle yet - but looking forward to doing so. 

MOAR UPCOMING SHOWS:
I will be playing stripped down sets later this Spring (without visuals and as many electronics) which I'll list on this upcoming shows page.  So far the ones I have scheduled are both PorchFests - the Somerville PorchFest on May 21st (also with Nosy Mangabe) and the Jamaica Plain PorchFest on July 9th.  I am planning on doing my full set up for some Summer festivals (such as Eldwood in Maine and Firefly in Vermont) and will be playing full sets in the Boston area again after that.

RECORDING:
SO - the reason that the Weird Folk Fest on the 16th may be the last full set until then is I've been working on recording and I've realized I'm not able to play shows and record simultaneously because I put all my energy into my live set and keep putting recording on the back burner.

SPLIT WITH SOUND SHAMAN:
The first thing that will be released is a split with Sound Shaman.  I mentioned his record from last year, "Black Feathers", in my list of top albums of 2015.  I'll be doing more experimental ambient/drone oriented music than what I usually do for this and I'm really excited with how it's coming so far.

VISUAL ALBUM: 
I've also been working on the visual album that I previously mentioned on here - The first part of four will be released this year.  It's been a really interesting process in having to come up with a definitive version of how these pieces will go every time someone presses play on the recording (versus in a live setting where it can change every time it's performed and can be what feels like the right way to tell the story in the moment).

Here's some stills from it so far:

And here's my green screened face (:

...aaaaaaaaaand
And I'll be releasing a live video of the piece "Ouroboros" in the near future, which I played at the Telethon and the Halloween eve show Grim Din.

Lastly - I've decided going to start calling this project something other than Mike Simonelli...That name change will hopefully happen soon...

As always - thank you so much for listening

Much love,
<3

Music I've Made in 2015 / Winter Update

in case you missed some of these - here's some stuff I made this year: 

LIVE VIDEOS:

Fire Walk With Me

Oh Death (@ Out of the Blue Too)

Slide (@ Jamaica House - excerpt from "A Story About Love")

TRACKS:
I Can Only Make the Key (Remix) - (from Molt Corps Remix EP)

Ouroboros (from Agewood Compilation)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm also excited to say that I'll be releasing my first record in 2016.  It will be a visual album and the first in a series of four records that go together as one cycle.  Each of them kind of aligns with the season sets I've been playing the past couple years.  The first half of the first record record is already recorded and earlier this month I started mixing with Sun Rad.  It's been strange not playing so many shows this year and instead putting my time into recording - but I'm super pumped with how it's coming so far and cant wait to share it with y'all soon.

Much love,

<3

"Slide" (Goo Goo Dolls Reimagining) - Live @ Jamaica House 8/27/2015

Here's a reimagining of “Slide” (originally by the Goo Goo Dolls) for all you 90s kids out there

And here's the original video by the Goo Goo Dolls if you're unfamiliar (or in case you want some a dose of some serious 90s nostalgia)

Thanks to Rebekah Judson for help filming.

Stills & Video from Out of the Blue Too 9/15 2015

(Photograph taken by Adam Canvas Giangregorio) 

(Photograph taken by Adam Canvas Giangregorio) 

 

(Photograph taken by Adam Canvas Giangregorio) 

Here’s a video of a reimagining of an old American folk tune called “Oh Death” 

AGEWOOD 2015

The Agewood Summer Solstice Festival has had a pretty huge impact on my multi-media project.  Back in 2012 I went to Agewood for the first time and it inspired me to shift what I was doing from just recording songs and releasing them online, into wanting to play live shows with visuals.  Last year I played at Agewood for the first time - and it was pretty much the first show that I would consider my project fully up and running.

This year Agewood was in a new location for the first time - and through the crazy hard work of a lot of some crazy awesome folks the festival was reborn in this new space in Maine.

(photo courtsey of Summer Skeye)

(photo courtesy of Willie Bragg)

Here's the flyer with the full line-up:

(flyer by Adam Blake)

Here's the last few minutes of my set from this year:

Every year there is a compilation that is put together of all the artists who are a part of it.  Here's the track I submitted for it this year, "Ouroboros":

The track uses material from the score I composed for a short film in the Rhode Island 48 Hour Film Festival from 2008 called "Ouroboros" (I made all the music for it - but the part of it that I recycled is from the seance scene which starts at 4:25), a song called "Reflection" which I made under the moniker Clock With No Hands back in 2009ish (I think it's on the interwebs somewhere...but I can't find it), a bit of a children's song called "Here We Go Loopty Loo", and some new stuff.

The whole compilation is available for download and streaming via bandcamp:



Happy Summer,

Mike Simonelli

Acoustic Set from Over Comings 2015

Here's the audio my set from Overcomings last weekend in case you want to check it out.  Keep in mind it's my first acoustic set...so some bits are a bit rocky - the second half is definitely stronger than the first.  

Thanks to Aaron Derman for recording and sharing!

And here's some stills thanks to Mjolnir Productions:

Much love,

Mike