Simone White

All Music Guide:

Simone White is a singer and songwriter who performs deeply personal and engagingly idiosyncratic music informed by jazz, blues, folk, pop, and electronic influences. Born in Oahu, Hawaii on February 7, 1970, White had, to say the least, a colorful upbringing. Her father was an artist, her mother was a folk musician, her grandmother was a burlesque performer, her grandfather was a poet, her aunt wrote pop songs, and White spent much of her childhood in California living in a commune that was an offshoot of the religious group Fellowship of Friends. Inspired by the teachings of Georges Gurdjieff, the Fellowship shunned most contemporary music, favoring classical music instead, but as a teenager White became fascinated with jazz and it informed her melodic style when she began writing songs. White has told journalists she didn't begin playing guitar until she was 22 years old, and didn't take the instrument seriously until she was 30, but by 2004 she'd become confident enough in her abilities as a performer to record and self-release her first album, The Sincere Recording Co. Presents Simone White.

White continued writing and performing for another three years before she landed her big break. White was quite taken with the album Master and Everyone by Bonnie "Prince" Billy, and wanted to make a record of her own with a similar feel and approach. Through a friend, White was introduced to Mark Nevers, who produced the Bonnie "Prince" Billy album along with recordings by Calexico, Lambchop, and the Silver Jews. Nevers enjoyed White's songs and agreed to produce her next album, and after the sessions were completed for White's I Am the Man, the producer passed along a copy to friends at Honest Jon's Record Company, a British label run by Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz. The staff at Honest Jon's liked what they heard, and I Am the Man became White's first release for the label. The album received enthusiastic reviews, especially in the U.K., and one of the tracks, "The Beep Beep Song," was used in a popular television commercial for Audi. Released in 2009, White's third album, Yakiimo, featured another song that was used in a widely seen TV advert, a spot for Omega's women's watches featuring actress Nicole Kidman. For her fourth album, White explored her interest in electronic music by teaming up with Samuel Bing and Julian Wass from the group Fol Chen; the result, the album Silver Silver, was released in the spring of 2012.

Wikipedia:

Simone White is an American singer-songwriter.

Life and career [edit]

White moved to NYC from London in 2000 where she began to play music onstage. She recorded her first album with producer David Domanich and musician and friend Frank Bango. White released the album, The Sincere Recording Company Presents, in 2003 on Bango's label The Sincere Recording Company. White's albums frequently include covers of songs originally recorded by Frank Bango. Such recordings include Roses Are Not Red, Wrong About You, Worm Was Wood and Bunny In A Bunnysuit.

I Am The Man, her second album, was recorded with producer Mark Nevers, (Lambchop/Calexico/Will Oldham/Silver Jews), in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2006 she was signed to the UK label Honest Jons. I Am The Man was released by Honest Jons/EMI in the UK, Japan, Italy and The Netherlands in 2007 and released in France, Germany and the United States in 2008 through distributors Indigo and Forced Exposure. The album was a favourite with critics from MOJO [“not just a pretty voice but a mesmerizing intelligence… a summer soundtrack of charm and beguiling depths” ****] and Q Magazine ["...a feel of the rarest kind." ****] to the Daily Mail [“a vibrant new talent”].

'The Beep Beep Song', one of the songs from White's second album I Am The Man was used in an Audi R8 advert in the UK, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, South Africa, Sweden and was shown in the half time ad break of the Rugby World Cup Final of 2007.

From 2007 to 2009 White toured in the United Kingdom, Europe and Japan headlining and supporting various bands: Nouvelle Vague, Alela Diane, Teitur, Stephen Fretwell, Little Dragon, Victoria Williams and Shugo Tokumaru. In 2008 she played at the festivals Greenman and WOMAD in the UK.

White was a part of Damon Albarn's critically acclaimed "Honest Jons Revue" which toured in July 2008 to the Barbican Center in London, Les Nuits Fourviere Festival in Lyon, and the Lincoln Center Festival in New York City. The Honest Jons Revue included the artists Tony Allen, The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Damon Albarn, Kokanko Sata Doumbia, Lobi Traore, Afel Bocoum, Candi Staton, Simone White and Victoria Williams.

On 12 June 2009, White's third album, Yakiimo was released digitally, with a physical release following on 22 June 2009. This album was again released through Honest Jons in the UK.

In 2010 and 2011 White opened for Andrew Bird and provided backing vocals for shows at the Largo (Los Angeles) and the Rio (Santa Cruz).

'Bunny In A Bunnysuit', from the album Yakiimo, was used in the Omega Ladymatic watch ad campaign, featuring Nicole Kidman.

White's fourth album, Silver Silver, was released on May 22, 2012 on Honest Jon's and is a collaboration with the producers Samuel Bing and Julian Wass from Fol Chen.

White currently lives in Los Angeles, California.