Emilie Simon at (le) Poisson Rouge
Its not every day I answer the phone and hear “Hi its Émilie Simon, do you have time to talk?” On last Sunday’s hot and steamy afternoon while all of you were (hopefully) out enjoying the seasonally appropriate weather (for once) I was chatting with Emilie on the phone. The French song bird kicked off her Summer tour tonight, June 2nd at (le) Poisson Rouge and will come full circle and end at Highline Ballroom on July 23rd.
What inspires you? ”Today? Or in general? I dont know, its my life, people, and feelings its more a communication of a lot of things that make you feel this way or that way.” For Émilie, the writing process happens wherever she is which might be one of the reasons her favorite place to go in New York City is the sidewalks. You live in New York now, do you have any favorite places to go? ”I like walking, so I am just walking in SOHO and the Lower East Side, I walk around alot” The songstress has been on the scene since 2003 when she released her debut album Émilie Simon and claims one of her fondest things about her music career so far is the chance to see the world. ”I get to do lots and lots of traveling for my music, I got to go to Japan and that was really cool.” Do You have a favorite place to play? ”Last year I had a residency at the Cutting Room, and that was really great because you are there every week, it starts to feel like home. I never had a bad experience in New York it is really, really nice every time I play some where.” Where did the concept for “The Flowers” video come from? ”It is very much like Tim Burton, the song is cute but freaky the girl is bringing flowers to the boys grave, I worked with this group called No Brain and it was actually their first music video ever.” What is the last book and/or movie you saw? ”Im actually reading a book from a friend of mine who also wrote some lyrics with me for the next album, actually I dont know, i think its called Memoir of Mousier Frogger, I think, my friend’s name is Graham Joyce, and I don’t really have time to see movies.”
Émilie Simon, the scheduled headliner, opened up at (le) Poisson Rouge for Holiday Shores. She was gracious and blasted out amazing vocals along with her new band. Tonight was their first show together ever. Unfortunately none of the songs off her last album, Flower Book, made it into the set, but the crowd was wowed by the stellar new material. After 45 minutes Emilie Simon called it a night and Holiday shores hit the stage looking fresh out of the van and played to a less than packed, slightly confused crowd. Typical she is not, Emilie’s set felt like a tease. At least she left us yearning for more. To me, that’s a brilliant artist.
