Simone Felice is still a Felice Brother because it is his DNA. They are his brothers for better or worse and they will always be in his life, if not in the same band. Simone is a songwriter on a mission and that mission appears to be, based on his material so far, to expose his heart and soul to his audience. Simone has just released his debut solo album and the songs and the lyrics are a mix of love and life found. Simone caught up with Tonedeaf from his barn just north of NYC while he prepared for a long stretch of touring in Europe and the US this upcoming spring and summer.
“My band is here right now and we are burning the candles at both ends bringing this album to life and also some of the old songs from The Felice Brothers Days too. Everyone is camping out in my barn; it is like an early summer camp. We have a five piece band called the Simone Felice Group. All handpicked players that I have played with through the years: Simi Stone on the violin from The Duke and the King; my man Matt Boulter on lap steel and mandolin; Aurora on drums and chimes and Arthur on piano. We are all singing and doing 5 part harmonies so we are spending some time working on the vocal parts. It is amazing to have a band like this,” Simone says.
The energy and life coming through the phone line is a beautiful thing to hear and the music that is on his record is filled with that vigor. Simone (as some of you probably know) suffered a cerebral aneurysm as a youth and an open heart surgery in the last couple of years that nearly took this creative force away from us. But he is here now and his light is shining bright.
“If you listen to the record it was an amazing homecoming for me. My brothers and I got in the studio together again and it has been the first time we have done that in a few years. I was playing drums on ‘Hey Bobby Ray’, ‘Ballad Of Sharon Tate’ and ‘Stormy Eyed Sarah’ and it was neat. We got to record that all live in the original configuration of The Felice Brothers. There are a lot of empty sparse naked songs on the record but there is a forty piece girl’s choir and more to hear on these tracks,” he explains. “If you listen to ‘You And I Belong’ there are some amazing five part harmonies there. We recorded that in London with my friend Ben Lovett from Mumford and Sons producing it. There are whistles and banjos and piano through the record and what we are doing right now is trying to get it all road ready.”
Talking to Simone now you can hear that he is totally focused on this record and delivering it live with a group. As he has been touring as a solo act for a bit, after a brief foray with The Duke And The King, it will be glorious to hear others lend their voices to these soulful tunes.
“The album is sort of half a lonesome guy and the other half is a lonesome guy with his posse. I just wrote it around the time when I had my open heart surgery in 2010 and then a few weeks later my daughter was born. She’s my first child and we had her at home during a summer thunder storm and it was beautiful and sort of like a rebirth for me. That song came from that feeling of ‘let’s give thanks for every new day’. It’s an amazing thing having a child, I mean it is the reason we are here,” says Simone.
“You And I Belong” is the song that Mr. Felice is talking about. This is probably the most up tempo and toe tapping number on this release. Besides the joy of the song, there is a wildly creative video directed by the animator Tobias Stretch that almost recalls Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes.”
“I had seen the Radiohead video that he did and I love them and they are one of my favourite contemporary bands. When I watched that video I was mesmerised how he brought that song to life. When it came time to make a video I told my label I was not going to be in the video but I know this guy who does puppetry and animation and I want him to make it. I reached out to Toby and he loved the song.”
“He had it for about two months and I did not see one clip at all. I said, just do what you do, use your magical power and I am not going to try and dictate it. I was sort of biting my fingernails wondering if this was going to come out good. One morning in London I received the first draft as I woke up and it made me laugh and cry and it really feels the way the song is, if you know what I mean.”
With songs that touch on our humanity such as “New York Times” and “Courtney Love” to elegantly revealing love songs like “Gimme All You Got”, Simone has delivered a range of songs that highlight the best of his vocals and most of all where his consciousness is. The next few months on the road should see these songs take on a different sonic flavour as the Simone Felice Group make them their own. Simone will definitely be in Australia in June with a gig at the Meeniyan Town Hall in Victoria (where Simone said he loved playing in the past due to the fact that the people were fabulous and fed him and looked after him there) and others to be announced very soon. Catch this one Felice Brother when you can.
Simone’s eponymous solo record is out now on Warner/Australia.
