Name:
Simeon Harris

Date of Birth:
06/02/68

Instrument:
Guitar

Influences:
Allan Holdsworth, David Torn, Eivind Aarset, Michael Brook, Robert Fripp

Bands / Projects:
Astrakan, Monkjack, Zillo

Albums:
Realms of Elements (2001)
The Assessment (2003)
Mechanoia (2004)

<captured> (2005)

Other Releases:
Improvising Bass Guitar (Registry Publications - 2001)

Guest Appearances:
Shur-I-Kan - Waypoints (2004)

Biggest Gig:
Supporting Maceo Parker at The Forum in Kentish Town with Mongoose (1999)

Simeon Harris was born in London in 1968.  His first exposure to the guitar came from his father, who was in a skiffle band when he was teenager and still owned a Hagstrom 12-string acoustic, which he would take down out of it’s case once a year and lightly strum while whistling pop tunes.  It wasn’t long before Simeon started playing on it himself, but at the time he was listening to rock music and he knew that proper “rock” guitar noises could only be made on an electric. So after a bit of cajoling, in 1983 his dad took him down to the Maurice Plaquet music shop and as a present bought him a Telecaster copy for the princely sum of £35.  Simeon immediately joined a band with his school friends and started on the lifelong journey that is “being a musician”.  It’s a rocky road at the start, but the personal computer that had occupied his time until then was left untouched after years of heavy use, as Simeon immersed himself in the language of music…

 The Telecaster copy was soon replaced…and replaced…and replaced again with various Washburns, Charvels and Jacksons, which were played through AC30’s, Marshalls and various other amps and as Simeon acquired and exchanged gear, he was also developing an ear for music outside the scope of British Heavy Metal that had originally inspired him to pick up the guitar.  He’d been exposed to fusion via Chick Corea’s Elektric Band album and a whole new world started to open up.  Chick Corea led to Scott Henderson who led to Allan Holdsworth and so on…and fusion led back to jazz via Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams.  Simeon had been playing progressive rock and neo-classical metal up until this point, but an ad in the classifieds led him to meet up with a bassist from Cardiff called Jason Rogers who had moved to London to set up a funk band called Mongoose - which eventually grew to a staggering 15-piece Funk Orchestra.  They had regular gigs at Ronnie Scotts on Sunday nights and then at the 100 Club on Oxford Street, as well as supporting the legendary Maceo Parker at the Forum in Kentish Town.  Mongoose also spawned a smaller version of itself called Monkjack and many of the musicians became part of an improvising collective called Zillo.  It was Zillo and its special ethos of interpretive improvisation that inspired Simeon to delve a little deeper into contemporary jazz and a new thread in the great tapestry was discovered.  ECM led to David Torn, David Sylvian, Jon Hassell, Brian Eno and the whole Norwegian Nu-Jazz scene, especially Nils Petter Molvaer and the extraordinary textural guitar of Eivind Aarset. Simeon had found another new path…

It’s now 2005 and that personal computer that Simeon had been writing games on back in the 80’s now seems like a toy, but the experience paid off, because the computer environment is now where Simeon makes his music.  He’s assimilated the discipline of funk, the energy of rock, the grooves of dance and drum‘n’bass, the texturalism of ambient and the looseness of jazz and has melded them into something unique.  Technology plays a big part in the melding process, as his loops and textures are created and twisted into huge soundscapes and mixed with strong contemporary grooves, while still retaining a strong sense of melody.  “There’s so much opportunity involved in creating music in a computer, the only limit is your imagination”, he says. “I’m always pushing myself to come up with something new, something I’ve never done before.  Successful composition for me will always include something novel - a new texture, a new sound, a new way of working”.  We shouldn’t forget however, that Simeon is a guitar player and all his extraordinary sounds still originate from his fingers and six wires on a piece of wood.  “As a sound source, the guitar is incredibly organic and capable of so much on its own, it’s a fantastic instrument and all the processing in the world can’t really hide that”.  So what next?  “The Assessment for me is a distillation of everything that I was at the time it was made - it’s a landmark showing the way to a particular moment in my life.  The plan now is to grow musically and build on what I learnt from making it and hopefully create something even better in the process”.  This is one particular loop that will never close…