Simz Music
Interviewed By Ankur Sood

“Some say that singers can be made but true artists must be born with it” and this allows me to introduce one of the brightest and most talented upcoming stars today, Simz. This South Asian Toronto native is ready to show the world what she’s got and I had the opportunity to sit down with Simz and discuss what “Simz Music” was all about.

Legend:
Ankur = Red
Simz = Black

You’re a brand new talent that’s jumping to get onto the music market, and from what I’ve heard so far, sound very promising. Could you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into all of this?

I started when I was probably about 4 years old and I’ve always been in the music scene. My parents are both musicians, along with my grandfather and my great grandfather, so I’m a like a fourth-generation artist. Basically, my mom who is my guru trained me classically
and I’ve been performing in Indian languages all my life.
Just recently I decided that I wanted to work on the fusion aspect and since I can sing in English, I’ve got a passion for the hip-hop and R&B kind of beats along with Indian beats also, so I wanted to kind of mix the two. That’s how I got into this kind of scene, but I’ve always been in the music industry, even though people think that I’m new, I’m
actually not!

Well you mentioned that your parents and grandfather were artists, what did they do? Were they singers?

My great grandfather was a “Kirtan Achaya”, meaning he did a lot of religious stuff and traveled all over India and also went to Africa. My grandfather was a poet and so he wrote a lot of the songs that my mom sang. He was also very well known for playing the tabla and there were two instruments that he was renowned for, as in there were articles written on him. One was for the “Jalta Rang” which is like a xylophone with different levels of water and a “Nasta Rang” which was like a wind piped type of instrument. My mom’s got a masters in music; she’s a classically trained singer and is quite well known in the Gujurati community in North America. She wanted to marry someone who was into music, so she married my dad who is a tabla player and also now my brother who also plays the tabla and produces music. So it’s all in the family and even extended family, we’ve got dancers and sitar players, and other instrumentalists.

I guess that kind of answers my next question. I was going to say that there aren’t a lot of South Asian women that get into all of this, they’re told, “Doctor, lawyer, etc”. How did you get away with this? (Laughs)

It was kind of pushed, I wasn’t allowed to do certain things but music was always a priority. It was like, “You can get a C in English, but you better get an A in music or we’re going to see your teacher” (laughs) and so I never had a problem with that. Even education wise, my mom always wanted me to have a backup, I’ve got a science degree, a teaching degree so I’m pretty well versed in things like that. Musically I’ve got a degree in North Indian classical music, I’ve done a bit of piano, and also Bharatnatyam dance. So I’m quite over the place.

Well you’ve got a very strong yet beautiful voice, does anyone or anything inspire you to sing the way that you do?
Any influences?

There are a lot of people I look up to, my mother being one. In Indian music I look up to Lata Mangeshkar of course. I love Ghulam Ali, Anoop Jalota with whom I’ve met and sang with, and also Jagjit Singh who’s one of my favourite Ghazal singers. On the western side, I love Alicia Keys; I listen to U2, so I mean there are a lot of people who I look up to. In terms of influences I have my own unique style and I look to focus on that.

Wow, you’re quite impressive! Now not only do you sing in English obviously, what languages do you sing in?

Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Marathi, French, Swahili. Lots of languages, and there’s 12 languages that I’ve performed in, so there is a lot of variety.

Could you let us know a bit about the tracks that you
have recorded?

The first one is called “Let Me Know” which was produced by Marcus Kane and was written and composed by myself. I wanted some of the Indian influences so my father plays the tabla at the end of the song. Basically it took a while to do because it was my first song that was in English and I’m happy with the final product. It’s gotten a lot of great reviews and is getting airplay in the UK right now and soon in North America. My second single is called “The Vibe” collaborated with Kidd Skilly and co-written and co-composed by both of us. It’s got a laid back vibe, kind of clubby song.

That’s pretty cool! Now you’ve recorded a couple of songs one of which you’ve hooked up with an American rapper by the name of Kidd Skilly, how did that work out? Tell us a bit about the experience.

Well Kidd Skilly and 313 Soundlabs (www.313soundlabs.com) who are his producers; they approached me and said they wanted to work on a track so I went to Michigan. Skilly and I wrote the lyrics out together and composed and recorded it while I was there. It was really nice to work with them, very comfortable and definitely a lot of fun. It’s great to work with people who have different ideas and when you listen to his lyrics, his music has this depth that’s going which many artists don’t have anymore and we plan on working on more stuff together in the future. We got hooked up through my brother who works with 313 Soundlabs with production and they wanted to work with a new female voice and I wanted to work with something different and in the end it just worked out well for both sides.

Well you’re in a country where the music scene isn’t as
big as it is in India, Europe, or even the U.S. How would you rate what’s going on in Canada? What would you like
to see?

I think that everyday that goes by, the Canadian scene is slowly getting bigger. I mean it’s not like it is in India or the UK, but Canada does have the potential to do that. There are a lot of people that unfortunately have to move away and go elsewhere and I’m hoping I don’t have to do that. I’d like to stay here and fulfill all my dreams. People are slowly realizing that there is a lot of talent here and are grabbing it before it goes away.

Now you’re in an industry where we’ve seen some female talent such as Deesha, Chaaya, Sumeet come out but haven’t made an impact to be able to stay on the market, what do you think is the key to first coming out and secondly, maintain
the success?

There’s a difference between making a hit song and staying on the market. There are a lot of people that can sing, but there are not a lot of people who have that diversity in their voice and I think that my classically voice is able to reach high notes for example, I’ve got a great octave range. Also the management team that’s behind you and how you’re promoting and marketing yourself plays a big role and I think that it’s important to get people who are going to back you up 110% rather than something that appears to be attractive initially. I think it’s really hard for female artists rather than male artists because if you look at the music industry, 95% of the time you’re dealing with males in the industry and females really have to prove themselves before they’re given that opportunity which is quite sad. If you’re here to stay, you better have something great to back you up.

Who would you like to one day work with any artist or producer out there already, who would it be and why?

Probably western wise, I’d say Alicia Keys. Obviously she’s relatively recent, but the type of music she produced and the quality in her voice, she’s got amazing potential and I think she’s a very classy person as well. Just the fact that she plays an instrument and knows her music, she writes it,
takes time to write her music. She took over a year to record her last album, it’s not just producing and singing,
she wanted everything to be perfect, and that’s something I would do as well.

What about any Indian or South Asian artists or producers?

(Laughs) oh so many people in India. I’ve met with Udit Narayan, with Adnan Sami, Raghav, so there are a lot of people I would love to work with and just too way many
to name.

Speaking of the future, where are you headed? Where would you like to go? What can we expect?

I think right now I’m focusing on quality music that I’m comfortable music that I could call my own. Hopefully in the near future I have enough tracks to compile into an album and also looking to get signed to a record label or record deal obviously. I don’t mind even if it’s with a small label, because it gives me the flexibility and opportunity to put out my style of music rather be confined to a certain style of music. I’m going to be here for a while and going to keep at it. Just focusing on working with different people and getting the music out.

Now I don’t like to be serious all the time and like to have fun with my interviewees so we’ll play a little game. Basically I’m going to say a phrase and I’d like you to complete it with whatever immediately comes to mind.

a) On a Friday night I am ______?
Usually out with my friends
Doing?
Doing all kinds of things (laughs)
Stuff that can be mentioned?
We like good food; good company and we’ll leave it at that (laughs)

b) If I could meet any one person in the world it would be ______?
Probably someone who’s not here anymore, Mahatma Gandhi.

c) The word used to describe my musical ability is ______?
Amazing

d) The word used to describe my ideal mate is ______?
Funny

e) A word that would be used to describe…I made that one up and obviously didn’t work. Ok how about, I wish I could sing like ______?
Wish I could sing like my mom

Ok well you’re at the beginning stages of a promising musical career. What would you say to the people out there that want to do the same thing or are in the same position?

Persistence, Persistence, Persistence! And good and bad days where you’re going to think you’re not going anywhere. You just have to keep pushing yourself, and there’s going to be people that are going to bring you down unfortunately, but keep patting yourself on the back. Any type of criticism is always good and means that people actually care enough to listening to your music. There’s no such thing as bad criticism or anything like that. So if you really love the music, like a marriage for better and for worse, you’ll still keep at it.

Are there any last words you would like to share with the readers of Mybindi.com or anyone else?

I’d like to thank the people who have supported me so far, it’s been a hard struggle and there are a lot of people who have encouraged me from all over the world. I look forward to soon be able to put my music up and I’m just waiting for that day and hopes everyone likes it.

For more info and to get in contact with Simz, check out: www.simzmusic.com

Music samples:
Simz – Let Me Know
Simz feat. Kidd Skilly – The Vibe