It’s with a tune in our hearts and mittens on our hands that we bring you today’s edition of Five Questions and a Song, the weekly column where we pester musicians with a quintette of questions and ask them to share one of their tracks for your listening pleasure.
Today we’re talking to American singer-songwriter Harper Simon. The New York native (and son of musician Paul Simon) left behind the alt-country flavour that characterized his self-titled debut album, focusing instead on electric guitar-driven rock for his sophomore record Division Street. The new album is out on the 1st of April, with another single, “'99” releaed later that month. Get a taste of the album below with “Bonnie Brae”.
Photo: Harper Simon by Charlie Gross
Tell us a bit about yourself.
Grew up in New York. Know something about film and music. A little about art. A little about fiction. Read the New York Times most every day. Meditate most days. Watch 60 Minutes.
How does Division Street differ from your first album?
Louder. More emphasis on my electric guitar playing. More Stones/Velvets, less Americana. No co-writes. Mostly driven by my guitars and vocals and Pete Thomas from the Attractions on drums.
What were your 'best picture' picks for this year's Oscars?
David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook probably. Or The Master. I really liked Beasts of the Southern Wild. I felt like I had never seen that world on film before. I also really enjoyed Moonrise Kingdom, Amour and Rust and Bone. If David O. Russell, Paul Thomas Anderson and Wes Anderson all put out a film, it's a pretty good year at the movies for me. I actually thought Promised Land was really underrated. I thought Dave Eggers did a great job and I thought it had a lot of heart.
If you weren't doing music, can you imagine what you would be doing instead? [asked by previous interviewees San Cisco]
I'd like to be on an ashram right now. I often don't feel like playing music or listening to it. I'd like to be writing something funny, or reading some novel I've been meaning to read or do some intense therapy to get me sorted out. Or go to a tennis camp maybe. Or travel around the middle east.
What can you tell us about this song?
It's about people who aren't ready to be real. Young people running around, sleeping around, being floaty. Hurting people, getting hurt. Working through some difficult feelings and then getting out there again. It's about how sometimes you meet someone, you think you're having a golden moment and that everyone's on the same page. But you never know.
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