Fun video as musician offers distraction in worrying times

For musicians everywhere, the shutdown has wiped all their gigs from their diaries.

But Simon believes in making the best of it as he releases his second single in three years – Away Boy

“I think it is a great time for musicians if they try to take advantage of the situation,” Simon says.

“Everyone is stuck at home and lots of people are getting a little bit bored.

“This is a good time for musicians to try to catch people’s attention.

“Usually people are really busy in their own lives, and it is really difficult, but it might be easier now.

“You can’t push music too hard. People either like it or they don’t.

“But perhaps now if you are putting your music out, there is more chance. It will be a source of entertainment for people. Musicians just need to try to take advantage of what is happening. You can’t play gigs, but you can certainly share on the internet.”

And for Simon, it comes at a good time.

He admits that for the past couple of years he “climbed the wrong mountain musically” pursuing avenues which didn’t work for him. He is now back doing music the way he feels he wants to.

Also he is now four years sober: “I did have a drink problem. I was having major problems. I thought I could deal with it on my own. I stopped drinking for seven months and that was when I started writing all these songs, but towards the Christmas, I could feel myself slipping. It made me powerless, and by Christmas, I was a full-on all-day drinker again. After the Christmas, I had had enough. I went to an AA meeting, and I thought it was fantastic. I realised it was great, hearing other people’s stories. But I did four months and then I started drinking again. But I managed to stop… and now it will be four years sober next month. I have got my life back and the music has been great for me. And I have changed the way I am doing it. I am no longer going down avenues that didn’t work for me.

“I am always very positive. One of my greatest assets is my philosophy. It doesn’t matter what happens in life, whether it is good or bad, you have just got to know that it is right at that time. And even in the negative situations, you can manage to find a light in the darkness.”

The new single is Away Boy: “Music can be perceived in many ways. What it is for me might be something else for other people.

“But with this song, we have all had friends that end up with someone where love is perhaps blind, especially when you are young, and you can see that perhaps they are with the wrong sort of person for them, the wrong sort of lover and they can’t see it for themselves.

“And that’s what this song is all about really. I had a relationship in my teenage years, and I thought it was great, but I can see now that it wasn’t the best person for me. But really the song is just a bit of fun, nothing too serious.”

It comes with a fun video: “I don’t plan too much about the video. We just go out with a camera and see where it takes us.

“We just go out and see how we feel. That’s the great thing about creativity. It doesn’t matter what you do; you can usually find something good that you can use in it.”

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