written by Chris Familton

Children of famous musicians from the 60s and 70s have been making their names in the industry for many years now. The most successful like Sean Lennon, Jakob Dylan, Justin Townes Earle and recently Charlotte Gainsbourg have all chosen to accept and embrace the legacy of their parent in one way or another. At 38, Harper Simon (son of Paul) is the latest to move into the spotlight with his debut, self-titled album and until now his musical path has involved playing in bands and side-projects and a general reluctance to trade off his family name.

I’m assuming you’ve written a lot of songs over the years, what has stopped you recording a solo record before now?

Well I hadn’t really written any songs that I thought were good enough and no one was offering me any real money or anything so I just didn’t make an album. I was involved in various types of side projects and been in some bands and different things. I’ve made things that went unreleased and some things that went almost released and ultimately to put something out in the world and do it right – it just takes a lot of effort from quite a large team of people and a lot of money to hire a press team and a marketing team and go on tour and record something and hire musicians – its all quite a big deal you know – unless someone is throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars at you its pretty hard to make it all work. It’s under my own name and I had a lot of psychological problems. It took lot to get over the psychological issues and get my skill set up enough in areas to produce something, to write it, to play it and go out a perform it – to be the representative of the project is a lot of work and so it took me a long time. I was always reluctant to go in the spotlight anyway, I was always reticent about the media and what not but I worked hard on this and tried to make an honest record with great players and honest lyrics and do the best i could to make it a classy project.

I’ve seen footage of you online playing guitar as an 18 year old, what were your musical aspirations at that age?

I guess I probably just wanted to be Keith Richards or be in some punk rock club and getting high and being paid off in beer. I was just a normal kid form the counter-culture who loved rock n roll.

You are the same age as me, did you grow up listening to new wave, then alternative and indie music and americana or did your parent’s record collection steer you elsewhere?

My dad had a pretty good record collection he had more esoteric stuff like classical, gospel and blues and stuff he likes. I grew up listening to a lot of punk rock and then country music from the 50s and 60s and then counter-culture or psychedelic music form any time. Whether it be The Beach Boys, Rolling Stones, Television, Iggy Pop, Richard Hell and Neil Young. I did grow up in that alternative era with Pixes, Pavement and The Smiths. Those bands had a big impact on me.

You have an amazing line-up of players and Bob Johnston producing your album, was that a daunting experience working with them, knowing their history?

Just for a minute and then you just start to work. I was really excited and I treated everybody with a lot of reverence respect and they in turn were very generous and supportive of me and I think they enjoyed it. In many ways I was under prepared and that is maybe why it took me so long to usher the album into some form of completion. Those guys were great with me, musicians are musicians. My guitar playing level and knowledge as a player is pretty high so I know to communicate with musicians pretty well.

I was reading about some of the other projects you’ve done like Menlo Park and Heavy Circles with Edie Brickell, collaboration seems to be a real strength for you…

Less and less really… I like a good collaboration with someone that excites me. If somebody comes along where I’m interested in their work and they turn me on then I’d be interested in collaborating with them. This album was quite collaboration heavy in a sense and I don’t know that my next album would have so many collaborations.

The mix and production is gorgeous, its really warm and intimate. How much of that comes from the songs and musicians themselves vs studio techniques?

Stuff was recorded in different studios, some was recorded in big grand studios but most was recorded in little punk rock dives and some was recorded in home studios. A lot of it was due to Tom Rothrock who came in at the end and mixed the record. He brought a lot to the record and the creative process. That probably had more to do with it in a way than the studios and players.

Your dad contributes both guitar and lyrics to the album, growing up was he more of an influence on your guitar playing or your singing/songwriting?

I can do a lot of things with my guitar playing that I didn’t actually employ for this album. This album doesn’t really showcase my guitar playing very well but maybe the next one will. I can fingerpick on acoustic guitar that sounds very reminiscent of my father’s approach but I can also do a lot of other things. Mostly on this album I played rhythm and was solid behind the band because there were so many great players. I mostly gave the solos away to other people.

I picked up a nostalgic and romantic feel to many of your songs, is that generally a theme in your writing or was that something you wanted for this record?

There weren’t a lot of angry songs I guess, I can write angry songs. maybe on the next one I will. Some people may be going down on the next album. It was meant to be a reflection on what was gong on for me in my life and the people around me. There are some old girlfriends and some old and new friends. Even the lyrics I didn’t write myself I wouldn’t have included if they didn’t resonate with me in some emotional way.

You’ve talked about you love for the LP and your desire to create a cohesive album, are there any recent releases that you’ve heard that you feel do justice to the LP as a format?

I hear good all albums all the time. I like King Khan & The Shrines, Dr Dog made a good album. Of course Radiohead make really interesting long playing albums. I hope that in a way the spirit of Wilco is on my record, maybe I didn’t succeed in the same way though. They do something that I aspire to do – take traditional americana type foundation and advance it into some kind of psychedelic modern rock n roll. I tried to achieve that with this record but I don’t think I quite succeeded really. Hopefully on the next one.

What touring plans do you have for the album and any chance you might get down to Australia sometime?

I think I’m going to, I hope I’m going to. Now that I know the album is being released there I’m going to try and get down there definitely.

An edited version of this interview first appeared in The Brag