Recently releasing her new EP called ‘Make It Romantic‘, country singer song writer Simeon Hammond Dallas discusses her love of music, the process of creating her new EP and her career so far.
Born and raised in London’s Camden Town, the “fun, passionate and romantic” Simeon had a passion for music from a young age. While growing up in a musical household, her inspirations came from Joni Mitchell, Alanis Morisette and Ella Fitzgerald. These influences of songs made Simeon have courage to write songs, describing herself as a “sponge, picking up different ideas from the music I listen to.”
While having a love for science and music, Simeon always had a “one-way tunnel vision” for studying music, which led her to take up the desired subject at university from 2012 until 2015. Although, some judgements held her back from starting her career as a singer, feeling that having this career would portray her as being “dumb and stupid because ideas of people who wanna be a pop star must be unintelligent”. But this stereotype didn’t stop the country star from achieving her dreams.
Progressing through her dreams of being a star, Simeon adopted a unique music style of country and blues, the star summarises it as soulful, and we can tell this just by listening to one of her headlining tracks called ‘Make It Romantic‘. Altogether Simeon brings a powerful stride to her songs, delivering emotions of love and inspiration.
Since releasing her debut single in January 2019 called ‘Wild Woman‘, the sensational star is back at it again with her brand-new 5-track EP, ‘Make It Romantic‘, containing songs about love and relationships.
Speaking Excitedly on her EP, the singer explains it is
“experiences in music in general and the music industry, my life, being a woman and being a black woman in places that are likely taken over primarily by white dudes.”
By having this ep for her fans, Simeon hopes to convey “that we can be everything, like we don’t have to be one thing or another, some of the tracks are upbeat and fun, and some of them are like slower and introverted. I want it to communicate the experience of being a whole human.”
Writing this over the pandemic was difficult for Simeon as her process is usually like “break up with a man, go and travel around the world, having an adventure and then writing a song about it.” Unfortunately, in the lockdown, Simeon couldn’t do that, so instead, it was time to think differently and have her own space to “think about the experience rather than being in the experience.”
Discussing the empowering track on her EP, ‘The Blues Is A Game‘. the singer describes it was written in lockdown prior to the Black Lives Matter movement, “in response to people on social media posting the black squares, and honestly, I was looking at a couple of people who had posted the black squares, and thinking ‘you are a hypocrite’.”
“I think it is important to also include songs that have a message that is truth, and I think that is important as a fun song.”
Talking about the highlights in her career so far, Simeon reflects how “the one thing that came good out of lockdown was I started working on lead guitar, so everything on the record was all the guitars played by me, so that was my first time writing and playing solo. It was personally one of my favourite achievements which I was proud of.”
After finishing her tour at The Lexington on the 22nd of August, the Camden Town singer believes it is about time she starts to relax before being a support act on another tour, “I’ve got a support tour in October around the UK with Lady Nade, and then I think I will take a rest and while I was working on this EP, I was so focused on it that I didn’t really sit down to write at any time, but now we are coming to the end of the EP, my brain is able to focus on more ideas about songwriting.”
Thank you, Simeon, for talking to us and what an epic EP you have produced. Why not take time to listen to Simeon’s ‘Make it Romantic’ EP now?