Lena Simon is a wunderkind in the Seattle music scene. She plays several different instruments across five very different bands, including her own project KAIROS. She divides her time between KAIROS, the weirdly rhythmic pop band Pollens, hip hop artist and Stranger Genius shortlister Katie Kate, surf rockers La Luz, and Thunderpussy (a new, all women, classic rock influenced band). She’s also a classically-trained clarinetist, educated at Cornish College.
KAIROS released its debut EP on Fin Records last month, and it’s a diverse, six-song collection of pop songs, and it’s thoroughly enjoyable. My favorite track is “Dirt & Grit,” a guitar-based pop/rock number that accentuates her musical prowess and songwriting. The EP should be remembered as one of the best local releases of 2013. City Arts wrote, it “is simultaneously pensive and direct, deeply melancholy in emotional timbre but sonically buoyant and instrumentally deft.” The Stranger noted, “The juxtaposition of catchy/brainy and heartfelt/heady can bring to mind the Postal Service at their absolute best, and it’s not difficult to imagine Kairos breaking out in the same way.” (Though both were wrong about Pollens no longer being a going concern: they’re playing Capitol Hill Block Party next month.)
I met up with Lena Simon at a Capitol Hill coffee shop a couple of weeks ago to talk about her balancing her various music projects, choosing the right band, what each project offers her.
First things first, let’s talk about your new KAIROS EP. My understanding is that you played every instrument on this record, is this correct?
Pretty much. It was me and Charlie Smith in the studio for a couple of months. I had made all of these bedroom demos. They were fully realized, just using Abelton Live, and using whatever MIDI drum tracks to get the rhythm and the drum tracks out there. It probably didn’t sound too good, but I went to the studio with these fully-realized songs and showed them to Charlie and he said, “They’re great.” I re-demoed all of them with just a keyboard, or something that wasn’t a guitar, and one vocal line. Those became the scratch tracks for us to begin recording: layering all of the drums first, adding more keyboards, guitars, bass, more vocals. It was all an overdub process. It was great, it was easier to think about things as you go along. It was just the two of us, though!
How do you go about fleshing that sound out that you created yourself, to having a full, live band?
I’m lucky to have really talented people in my live band, all of which are in other bands. They just listen to the record. I’ll give them the guitar part, just straight off the record, or their parts straight off the record and they’ll learn it. Then I’ll say to add their flair to it because I want the live show to be different than the record.
How do you balance with so many different projects you’re in, Pollens, Tomten, La Luz, etc…
It’s hard. I’m not actually in Tomten anymore, but there are still four other bands I’m in. It’s difficult to balance but all of the other bands I’m in, they understand that KAIROS is my thing and I’m really going for it. They respect the time I need to take to do it.
It’s hard to find the time sometimes when I’ll be on the road with La Luz and e-mailing Fin Records, figuring all of the press and PR, booking shows while I’m on the road. I do as much as I can when I’m not here, then when I am here, I really do it.
When I interviewed Hanna (Benn, from Pollens) last year, she said that she thought it was “wonderful” if someone in the group had to miss practice for their own project, and said she wanted to encourage everyone to work on their own projects.
Everyone in Pollens has their own projects that they’re doing. It’s the same thing, I guess, with KAIROS too. That’s how I feel Seattle is in general, where everyone is really supportive of people going off and doing what they want to do.
Is there something in the process that differs from composing your own songs, verses working out your parts in the other bands you’re in?
I think it’s different every time I write a song. Sometimes it’s lyrics first, sometimes it’s a piece of something I’ve played on a guitar or a piece of a melody, and sometimes it’s both. That’s ideal. Right now, I have a bunch of small pieces that I’ve been collecting. Hopefully it’s one song, maybe it’s five or ten songs. I don’t know yet. When writing for KAIROS, it’s very much a me-time experience, and then when I’m in other bands, they will bring 50% of a song or 75% of a song and ask, “what’s your part?” and you figure out how you fit into that puzzle. With KAIROS I very much feel in charge, or responsible, I guess. (laughs) I don’t want to give that responsibility to my bandmates, just give them their parts and have them add their flair to it.
It’s also difficult to say because the live band came after the record, so when I’m writing the new material, they might have more of an influence. I don’t know yet. I haven’t shown anything to them yet.
Do you have any expectations for your new record?
I try not to have any expectations. I like to be pleasantly surprised, or hopefully not too disappointed. I want to go into it with a pretty level head. So far, it’s been generated some really organic press and I’m hearing nothing but good things. I hope people buy it and like it.
One thing I find so intriguing is that you pretty much play a different instrument in each band.
I have different roles in every band, for sure. In La Luz, I’m pretty much bass and backup vocals. In Pollens, it’s bass and everyone sings. I play several things with Katie Kate: bass guitar, keyboard, and I do some double drums.
I don’t think I knew that she was playing with a live band now, other than having a drummer.
She just started doing that. I’ve been friends with her for a long time because she’s also from Cornish, as well. She made a new record with Charlie Smith, also. When I heard it, and I think Charlie thought the same thing, that she couldn’t just play with just a DJ, she’d need to pump it up to the next level – and I said I want to do that, and she said okay.
And the other band I’m in is called Thunderpussy. It’s a new thing.
Can you talk a bit about that?
Yeah. It’s all girls, four girls. We like to describe it as Led Zeppelin, or Janis Joplin, channeling the classic rock gods, with a little bit of a burlesque feel. It’s four ladies shredding on stage.
Who else is in the band with you?
Molly Sides is the vocalist and lead performer; I’ll just say (laughs). Whitney Petty from The Grizzled Mighty plays guitar.
She’s the drummer for The Grizzled Mighty, right?
Yeah, she’s so excited to be getting to play guitar, and she’s so good at it. And Leah (Julius) plays bass in Cumulus and drums in Sundries. She plays bass in Thunderpussy and I play drums.
We’ve had one show so far, and it was at Zoe Rain’s birthday party and it was insane. I thought it was going to be fun, but it was way more fun than I thought.
I’m always really intrigued by really creative artists who have a bunch of different creative outlets. Do you when you think of a piece of music, where it’ll best be used?
Well, yeah. Back when I was in Tomten, I only wrote one song. I had been part of the writing process for the rest of the songs, but sang lead vocal and composed, that was “So So So.” When I wrote that at home, I knew that it was obviously a Tomten song: the style, the feel I wanted from it. But that’s the only other band I’ve really written for.
I think I go through this, where it’s hard to narrow down what sound I’m going for. Right now, I have a lot of bits and pieces of new songs. I’m not sure what genre they are, or if they even need to fit into a certain genre. Or sometimes there might be something in my head that will transform into what KAIROS currently is, simply by changing a guitar part to a keyboard part. I definitely recognize what you’re saying.
I’m just find it so fascinating talking to someone like yourself because I have a full time job and writing about arts and culture in Seattle is my creative outlet, but you have so many different creative outlets, that it would seem difficult for someone to find a balance with all of those projects you’re working on.
It gets a little confusing sometimes (laughs). When I’m in the room with a band, it’s easier for me to get in my mindset, like Pollens-Land, or La Luz Land, or KAIROS Land, which is when I’m by myself.
Is there something specific you look for when you’re deciding whether or not to join a band?
I’ve been in and out of a lot of different bands, but I tend to pick projects that I have fun with, and also believe in for one reason or another, and get along with the people. La Luz was different because they asked me and I was taking someone’s place. Pollens is just something that I’ve been in since the beginning and I like it so much and believe in it so much that I haven’t left. I guess it’s also what is speaking to me at the moment. Something that is new and exciting, when it’s approaching me, I can say, “Yes, that sounds interesting, I want to be a part of that.” Like Thunderpussy, that is really new and is not really happening right now. It’s straight up classic rock and isn’t kidding anyone, it’s classic rock. I find that interesting, plus I grew up playing drums to Led Zeppelin, and that’s what I get to do in that band. It’s pure fun. Pollens is the more “musicians band”: heady, complicated, rhythmic insanity. That’s always been interesting to me and it feeds the music nerd inside of me. With Katie Kate, I get to play like five things in her band. She’s also the most aggressive band, so I get to throw my drumsticks after a song, or give some attitude, which I don’t get to do in any other band. Each band feeds me in a different way. That’s kind of what I’m looking for.
