Interview with AAM -Australian Musician Magazine

Strumming a Christmas gift guitar at five, playing Nashville at 15, touring North America with Tommy Emmanuel at 18, young gun troubadour and Bob Dylan enthusiast Simon Bruce has finally delivered his debut album "Restless Thoughts".

So how was your US jaunt last year with Tommy Emmanuel?

"I toured with him doing acoustic shows and we went around the east and west coasts. I opened his shows and then we get out and played a few songs together at the end. He accompanied me on some of my songs. It was a really good learning experience for me. I really enjoyed it."

Tell us about the "Champagne Sessions" you did in Nashville?

"That was through Tommy and I think he was a big fan of what I was doing at the time. It was pretty mind-blowing. When I was writing songs I never really thought of anything else. It was just me and an acoustic guitar so it opened a lot of doors when we did that recording."

Nashville is almost a second home for you now?

"Somewhat. I've just been going there because it's a great place. It's not as full-on as say New York or LA. It's almost a country town as well and there's lots of writers and it's still laid back ad has a big musical emphasis about it. There's so many songwriters there and you can just feel it. Everyone has a new song and that inspires you to write. Just the songwriters nights and all that kind of stuff, just going out and observing that inspires you."

Can you feel the history there?

"I was in Nashville during September 11 so that was a pretty big shock. A lot of people in Nashville, being in the music industry, knew a lot of people in New York City because they're music towns. So it was definitely felt in Nashville."

Is it true singers suffer respiratory problems in Nashville due to the air pollens?

"Yeah, I've heard about the pollen and the fact that it's down in a valley although I don't think I ever really had a problem with it. I don't really get affected by that sort of stuff."

I guess most 14-year olds would be partial to Slipknot but at that age you read poetry and wrote songs?

"Yeah, all that listening to Dylan and the Beatles. I was a pretty strange cat I guess. I grew up with a lot of music and it just came naturally to me. Songwriters like Dylan opened up a whole new aspect for me. His body of work is really overwhelming, like Shakespeare, one person doing that body of work, it's overwhelming."

Do you watch and learn from other musicians you've toured with ' Tommy Emmanuel and John Hiatt?

"Definitely, just watching in the wings and seeing how they carry themselves and carry the songs and just sponging it all in. I learned a lot of chords from Tommy and a lot of styles of picking in Nashville. Take what you need and leave the rest I guess."

How did you find working with Casey Chambers' brother Nash on the album?

"We just decided to get together and make a record. I'm really proud of it, really happy with it. It was all live in the studio, live to tape, the old reels, which is something I really wanted to do, to capture the moment. It was a lot of fun."

I heard it only took three days?

"This album was all live. The "Champagne Sessions" was just me and Tommy with him doing a lot of overdubs and playing drums and adding stuff later. But this time it was just live and keeping it real. A lot of my favourite records were recorded in the late 60s early 70s when a lot of it was just live and I wanted to do it like that."

You busked a lot as a teenager in Sydney and the UK. Did that spontaneous live mentality come in play when recording?

"I think if you can play on the street you can play anywhere. It's actually a really hard thing to do, it's harder then anything. I'd find it hard to go back on the streets now. It's really full-on but it teaches you to really carry songs and try to be heard. When I was busking I was doing a lot of waltzes and stuff and folk songs. I started in Glebe Point Road in Sydney and that was always a good spot, a good vibe during the markets."

I read you were the youngest musician, at 17, to play Austin's South By Southwest festival.

"The festival was amazing itself, to play to that kind of audience and in front of those people was really good. I've been going back to Austin and Texas ever since because they really love their songwriters and stuff and I think it's more of a performance town than Nashville. In Austin I played an arts thing that they'd named after a Lucinda Williams song, Big Red Sun, and there's this great record store that has a whole shelf of local artists who they really support. They have a great college radio and they really like their music. And the Tex-Mex food's great too."

Did the whole child prodigy role impact on you in hindsight?

"I'm sort of glad that I made the full album when I did because I wasn't really ready back then. I think it would have been premature if I had have done it a bit earlier. I might not have played to the best of my ability."

Can you run through some of your gear?

"On the album I play a J45 Gibson, a reasonably new model and I've been playing a lot of shows with that. It's kind of like my baby. Haha! Just recently, I've also been getting into the Fender Tele, playing with the band, and that's been really cool. It's a 70s model, it was my dad's, a Sunburst, really cool.

"With the Gibson, I've always wanted one, you know, the Beatles and Elvis used a Gibson. It's a songwriter's guitar and it's just a classic. I can see mine right now actually."

I heard your first guitar was a nylon string Le Grande?

"It was a cheapo, I don't even remember what it was called. But that was my first, I've still got it actually. I got it from Santa."

By Steve Tauschke

"Restless Thoughts" is out through Capitol.

New York Reviews

ASCAP's Loretta Muñoz hosted ASCAP night at the New York Songwriter's Circle at the famed club The Bitter End. The audience was treated to an intimate evening of remarkable music from Simon Bruce, Amy Correia, Johnathan Rice and Spottiswoode. Pictured (l-r) are ASCAP's Jenna Derhammer, Spottiswoode, Bruce, Rice, Correia, the Circle's Tina Shafer, Muñoz and the Circle's Caroline Bernard and Julie Henry.

National Art School/TAFE, Darlinghurst

Music history was made today when acoustic guitarist singer songwriter Simon Bruce was - wait for it - closed down for being too loud!

To the "boos" from lunchtime students who had enjoyed half an hour of Simon's original compositions, the campus Operations Manager declared "no more" after a court officer from the nearby Supreme Court claimed the music was interfering with murder trial proceedings. "Not even unplugged" was the Operation Manager's response as organisers tried to negotiate a way around the problem.

Even though the court was about to rise for lunch, the court officer was adamant that the music had to stop. Rather than defending the students' rights to listen to music, the TAFE op manager fell in line with the man in blue - although students later queried what power the court officer was invoking to support his demands.

"I'll be back" said Simon, when asked for his reaction to the furore. "The students liked my music, they bought my CD "The Champagne Sessions", and they want more - I'm booked to return on 24 July."

Don't miss the July gig - but be prepared for more than just music!

The Curtain

Glenn A. Baker on Simon:

"Simon Bruce may well be the most remarkable, in fact the most astonishing unknown opening act I've ever experienced. His performance of "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" at a Bob Dylan tribute night was so intense and so emphatic that you could almost close your eyes and believe it was the young Great White Wonder himself up there. Simon's own songs have an engaging charm about them and display an honest musicality which bodes well for an impressive future. I'll certainly be watching with more than a little interest."

Glenn A. Baker

Folk Australia, July 2001

"Simon has a sensitive poetic quality to his songwriting and his musicianship matches his ability to write and sing. What a find!"

Adelaide Advertiser
Simon Bruce: Restless Thoughts - Adelaide Advertiser, July 2005

Every music fan dreams of discovering the next big thing before superstardom arrives. This just might be the case with Simon Bruce – a sheepish 20-year-old whose debut album is compelling listening. Bruce's command of the acoustic guitar, harmonica and melody belies his years. His music, which he started writing before he hit his teens, echoes a fusion of musical history (Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Mario Lanza, Elvis Presley). Bruce might be raw, even occasionally awkward, but this is simply part of the charm of his emerging career.
Paul Starick

XPress Magazine, Western Australia, July 2005

SIMON BRUCE - Restless Thoughts -
Four out of five stars

One listen to Restless Thoughts, the debut album by twenty year old Sydney performer Simon Bruce, and it will come as no surprise that the talented songsmith is the youngest performer ever to be invited to perform the South By Southwest music festival. It was that fruitful trip that lead to three years of regular touring in the United States, where Bruce came to call Slaid Cleaves, John Hiatt and Keith Urban contemporaries and friends. It is no wonder that Bruce would find himself in good company with tunes like Holy Grail, Too Late Now and Rainbow Hotel embracing the classic songwriting feel of '70s, in a form that would make his heroes Neil Young and Bob Dylan proud. The time Bruce spent in Nashville has played its obvious part in the direction of Restless Thoughts where he has managed to capture the magic of the musical city without its associated cheese. Restless Thoughts is a classy debut from a newcomer who's sure to continue to turn heads with those who like their folk and country of the alt. persuasion.

_CHRIS HAVERCROFT

Simon Bruce
Restless Thoughts
Essence
Country Update - November 2005