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This is the first thing to know: they all came from small places. They
didn't emerge out of the hassle of the big cities. They grew up in towns
and villages tucked away in trees and hills around England. When they were
very young they ran around without getting badly injured.
The big cities came later. First Bristol, Manchester and London. Later,
New York, Paris and the great European capitals. At the moment they travel
in big shiny buses, overnighting the long distances in bunks that hum to
the noise of the engine. They are out on the motorways, visiting your
cities with music they have made for you...
But this is history, and a lot happened in between learning to ride bicycles
and the playing of their songs around the globe. So we should hold hands
and stroll into their pasts, like ghosts knocking on windows overlooking
their infant cradles.
Simon spent his adolescence in a small rural town where drinking and bands
dominated the teenage hours. Long before the pubs and guitars, his dad
built a random analogue sound generator to lull Simon and his sister to
sleep.
James passed time high up in the Peak District, where music and underage
drinking made up the evenings' entertainments. The town had a water-powered
mill and the markets sold fresh produce. He had a drum kit.
Alex and Jas, friends since way before their voices broke, sat talking in
the boughs of an ancient oak tree in Knole Park and played guitars together.
They made songs and played in many bands together, none of which was quite
right. They also went to the pub before they were meant to.
And then all of a sudden they were grown up and still making music. Alex,
Jas and James hooked up in Manchester and moved into a gigantic old primary
school where the toilets had been built in miniature to accommodate very
small people. There was table tennis in the basement, a series of sprawling
parties and a lot of wet weather. And, as always, more music. Mugs in the
kitchen soft-shuffled their way across the drainage board when the bass
kicked in from the basement below. Their friendly housemates learnt to
enjoy the vibrations.
Simon was getting philosophical in Bristol, where the climate is better and
there are many more hills, crouched over his guitar, crafting songs from the
lines, tones and harmonies procreating in his head. There are 170 miles
between Bristol and Manchester, although until a song reel travelled that
distance none of them had really thought about it.
Friendly people brought them together. Simon's songs were sent the 170
miles from the South West to the North West - and the beginnings of Simian
were forged. Simon went to stay in the house with very low toilets and
"Grey" was written. Then they wrote another, just messing and fooling
around to see what they might produce. Soon they had an album, which came
as a happy surprise. There was a very friendly atmosphere. And one
kidnapping of an A&R man later and they had a deal with Source records.
They called the first album "Chemistry Is What We Are". It was released in
July 2001 to critical acclaim, music lovers everywhere were very happy, and
it won awards because it looked so nice.
The Church of Simian grew out of this first record. Old cinemas, empty
docklands warehouses and retired church buildings were filled with music,
films and dancing people singing from the same hymn sheet. The ICA invited
Simian to play a live soundtrack to the film of their choice: they chose
Microcosmos, and people sat spellbound while the melodies soared and dipped
as slugs made love, dung beetles toiled with dirtballs and grasshoppers
sawed rhythms with their back legs. Europe met Simian, the Mobile Disco
was born in the summer months as they barbecued sausages above the Hackney
rooftops.
But then soon it was time to begin again. New things, new records, new
ideas. The band were now immersed in the city, living in and around the
East End of London, working in the heart of things, leaving London only to
travel into other cities - the old soft sounds had taken a battering. The
music that flowed out of them now was rougher, a little dirtier and hard-edged.
The sound of people who have been stressed, pressed and dressed for the drizzle
but have still been delighted by the vast sprawling energies of twelve million
people living crowded together.
If the first record was almost innocent, then this announced their dive
into city living: a frenetic record stuffed with dozens of urban musical
influences, informed by travel between cities and all their favourite
things, and the urge to see all the power of those places harnessed for
good, friendly ends. The record they made was "We are your Friends". You
may listen to it here.
These days they travel far and wide, taking their music across different
continents, spreading the sounds you need to accompany the urge towards
friendship. You can follow their movements on this site, but while they are
away from your parts of the world please don't feel low. Give the songs
away to people you like or wish to make happy. Send the music to unfriendly
parties who've missed out on the joy elsewhere. Simian are friendly folk
and there isn't enough time to wallow in misery. Go with them instead.