Q: Okay, so is Simeon Flick your real name?

A: Yes, that's my real name. I was named in honor of an indian boy my father treated as part of his C.O. (conscientious objector) service at a psychiatric ward during the Vietnam war. My namesake's pituitary caused him to be a full-grown man at the age of 8 years old, so psychologically he was, in effect, a boy trapped inside a man's body. It's funny, but that could speak volumes about the kind of person I grew up to be, depending on how you look at it! I can definitely relate to that indian boy's suffering, on some levels. I feel that my life struggle is at the very least metaphorically similar, if not literaly akin.

Q: What are your influences, who do you sound like, where does your music come from?

A: Well, I feel like I've thoroughly investigated just about every existing genre during my lifetime. I was still in my single digits when I started listening to Sgt. Pepper and Aerosmith's 'Toys In The Attic', 'Wish You Were Here' by Pink Floyd, Zeppelin IV, Kiss Alive, Stevie Wonder's 'Songs In The Key Of Life' and the Knack's 'Get The Knack'. I grew up listening to what was on the radio, disco, new wave, rock n' roll, classic rock, r & b, pop, but then also digging what was happening on a grassroots level with punk and hip hop. I think those musics were probably more influential because they appealed to my developing sense of self awareness as a unique, iconoclastic person. I was attracted to underground music, the music of loners everywhere, from an early age.

I've been compared to a few people, as every artist invariably is during the course of their career...I play guitar a lot like Jimmy Page, Steve Howe, Alex Lifeson, Eric Clapton, B. B. King, Kirk Hammett, Ian McKaye, Carlos Santana, Jerry Garcia, Trey Anastasio, Al DiMeola, and Andres Segovia. I've been told my voice sounds a little like Sting, Dave Matthews, Paul Weller (The Jam, Style Council), Seal, Stevie Wonder, Robert Smith (The Cure), Jeff & Tim Buckley, Cat Stevens, Guy Picciotto (FUGAZI), a male Fiona Apple and/or Joni Mitchell, Paul McCartney, Jack Johnson, J K (Jamiroquai), John Popper (Blues Traveler), the guy from Dexy's Midnight Runners, and Colin Hay (from Men At Work). I play bass like Paul McCartney, Sting and Geddy Lee (RUSH), and I'm trying to learn to play drums like Stewart Copeland (The Police), Matt Cameron (Soundgarden), Brendan Canty (FUGAZI), Tim "Herb" Alexander (Primus), Neil Peart (RUSH) and John Bonham (Led Zeppelin).

My music comes from that place inside all of us that strives to be understood and yearns to enlighten, evolve and transcend.

Q: What kind of music do you play?

A: Ah yes, the perrenial favorite question of musicians everywhere! Well, there's a thing I've heard several people say when they describe the kind(s) of music they enjoy listening to; "I'll listen to anything, as long as it's good." I feel the same is true for the music I write, in that I'm attempting to write stuff that I--or any of those people--would want to hear in whatever genre--or combination of genres--that suits my creative yen. I won't turn my nose up at any style of music...only bad, lazy, substandard songwriting.

With those things said, and along those lines, I play music that blends these genres and timbres together into a new hybrid. I am of the opinion that if an artist has talent and ability, their responsibility to themselves and their chosen craft is to try and further the art form, to help it progress without neglecting the responsibility of reaching the widest possible demographic of aesthetes. I strive for an accessibly innovative balance in my music, pop music with a covertly progressive edge. I'm trying to subtly challenge people's mnds, hearts and souls, not to mention my own. I'm quietly rebelling.

If I had to sum up what I'm aspiring to in my music with one gimmicky phrase, one almighty slogan, it would have to be Alternative R & B. This is very similar to what Pete Townshend was alluding to when he used the phrase Maximum R & B to describe The Who's early sound; groove-oriented, soul-imbued, with some rough edges here and there, with dire aspirations to timelessness. You can see it in the way bands like The Beatles, The Clash, The Police, Led Zeppelin, U2 and FUGAZI have thrown white and black musics into a hot alchemical cauldron and spiked it with a subtly understated--but terribly effective--socio-political agenda. You can see it in the way Marvin Gaye explored love, politics, and the politics of love, sometimes all within the same song(!). I want to be the white version of Andre 3000.

Some of my songs inhabit and pay homage to classic, preestablished genre archetypes: the sardonic, skiffling, depression-era acoustic jubilee ('Can't Wait 'Til I Die'), the epic, pathos-ridden alt-country wilderness adventure ('Black Mare'), the gospel hymn with secuar subject matter ('Too Proud To Love')...Other songs weld together disparate styles and somehow make the best of friends out of strange bedfellows ('Omegajam', which weds the quasi-quasi music of South-Central Africa with the vocal melodies of Motown and the mythology of Ancient Greece).

I think dynamics play an important part in my music; it's this use of dynamics, this musical exaggeration of peaks and valleys, which so effectively accentuates the emotional aspect of storytelling. I'm really just here trying to tell everyone's story through my eyes, serving as a buffer, a shaman, a safe conduit between the listener and the void.

Q: What's happening with your career lately?

A: I just put my second album out a couple months ago and 2004's numbers doubled 2003's which is encouraging(!). I'm learning the business and administrative side of things and balancing that out with being a predominantly creative person with no inkling or flare whatsoever for that other stuff!

I'm at a point where touring the US is imminent and am much more committed (and able!) to book more local engagements. I've got some shows booked at Borders Books for February now, and although I've already played several of the key local acoustic venues as a guest on other people's bills, I've yet to play my own show at these venues! Give me a guitar and I'll write you a song, but tell me to go book a show and I just BALK! It's not my strong suit, but I'm improving.

I'm at this great promontory in my art where all my bad songs are out of the way (I hope!?), I've got two solo albums under my belt, and I finally feel like I've found my voice and have broken free of my influences. I've shed all my false skins and am ready for liftoff on my next record. What's more, my instrumental and vocal skills have imrpoved to the point where I'm going into pre-production on said next album ('Reactive Soul', due out sometime in 2005) with the fully justifiable intention of playing most--if not all--of the instruments myself, and at what I feel to be a world-class level. I have this invincible feeling that no matter what goes wrong during the process of making this record I will come out the other side with a breakthrough album. I feel like the songs are there and the technical ability to effectively translate those songs onto celluloid is there, ergo I can't go wrong.

Q: What's next, what are your long-term goals?

A: My primary goal is to get to the point where I can make a living on my music alone. I'll be 35 soon, and any delusions of grandeur or dreams of stardom went out the window a long time ago(!). I've got a cynical, wary eye trained on the music industry...I'm not adverse to picking up booking and management representatives and possibly signing with an independent label, but that's the extent of my ambition at this point.

I want to go on tour and do the itinerant musician thing, meet new people, garner new fans, meet and connect with other artists I respect and who are on a similar path, and hopefully make enough to sustain my life along the way. I'd like to be able to see other parts of the world as I strive to present my music to it...my big dream is to head over to the United Kingdom and play there...I'm a total Anglophile! I also want to get over to the European mainland and hook up with all the open-minded, zealous music fans I've been hearing about there.

I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing...if there's anything I've learned from my career in music, it's that you have to be persistent, you have to stick it out for as long as you possibly can if you want anything good to happen. You have to make it your life's work. You have to periodically wipe the slate clean and reinvent yourself too, you have to keep changing and growing.

My music isn't necessarily hip to this time, per se, but what if what I'm doing comes back in vogue in five to ten years? If I'm still doing my thing then, there's no telling what could happen. That's why I'm trying to make my songs as timeless as possible so that if things do come back around my way I'll still feel like playing something I wrote ten years before(!). I'm also trying to continue expanding my musical pallette and, above all, continuing to let myself be influenced by new music.

You have to think long-term, and you have to use the interim to just get better at everything you do...become a better performer, songwriter, singer, guitar-bass-drums-keyboard player, self-promoter, businessman, secretary, etc. Virtue is definitely its own reward. But it doesn't always pay the bills(!).

I want to establish a paradigm where I'm consistently putting out albums of stellar quality and sound; I want to make world-class music on an independent level. I also want to weave philanthropy and service into my paradigm as much as possible. It's important to imbue one's creative life with some form of purpose other than just mere entertainment. Hard to be philanthropic when you're struggling to get by, though...

I've been getting a lot of positive response on my literary writing...people are reading my online journal on a regular basis and it seems to be resonating. So I think I'd like to do something with that sideline at some point...I have a couple of book ideas I started a few years ago but backburnered because I needed more time to woodshed and amass other writing experience, not to mention getting a solo career off the ground(!).

We're living in tough times...I just want to survive them somehow and pass on my sensitive/attuned artist's perspective to others so that they may survive as well, and not go mad in the process of living a postmodern life in a crisis era!

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