Time Off - Pendulum Release December 2006

TARA SIMMONS

LOOK OUT for this girl, Brisbane! Tara Simmons has been sitting right under our noses for quite sometime now and has seemingly appeared from nowhere, armed with her debut EP Pendulum, and is set to shoulder her way to the forefront of BrisPop.

But Simmons explains that this excellent little introduction to her world almost didn’t see the light of day because she didn’t really like it.

I worked for so hard and for so long on the tracks that by the end I had lost perspective on it, she says. So I put it in a cupboard and pretended it didn’t happen. I eventually used it for a successful OzCo grant application so I thought ‘Maybe it’s all right after all’. And then I sent it into Triple J and I started to get some airplay. Then I pressed it. That was about 15 months after it was completed!

Championing a unique sound that she can call her own, Simmons doesn’t play music by the books. Instead she fuses electronic samples and beats with more organic instruments - like cello, piano, clarinet, acoustic guitar and drums - to triumph a new, original and still, ultimately accessible sound.

I really like interesting sounds so they usually form the bed for most of my more electro kind of stuff, she says. A lot of good ideas often come from my stupid mistakes or out of pure frustration. If I’m not writing on the computer I will write on either cello or keys - if I get the shits with one thing I can just go and hang out with another instrument for a while.

I did most of the recording and production on the tracks myself. There was a lot of me swearing at the computer and long, lonely nights in the uni production studio. It pretty much sent me insane - but I learnt a hell of a lot!

Tara Simmons plays The Globe Friday Dec 8 and Ric’s Tuesday Dec 12. Pendulum out now independently.