from the Information press kit
about Forever (mute 92)
and Everyman (mute 1995)
I promised to myself 20 years ago:-) to use the "information press kit" of Simon Bonney" which means, re-type on Word the Interviews and put them online. It's a lot of work for a full-time librarian but this day I begin with an interview of S.B. and a profile of the artist by Susan Tanner from "Boston Rock # 147. It will be certainly full of mistakes cause I have only a copy of the article, so...
Interview and profile from Susan Tanner from the Boston Rock ! (1995)
[*] New man in town, Australian Simon Bonney's life has led him on an interesting journey. He has called numerous places home over the year (from Sydney to London to Berlin to Los Angeles), recorded live albums as a member of Crime and the City Solution and worked with Wim Wenders on the soundtrack of two films (Until the End of the world and Wings of Desire). But over the past three years, Bonney has ventured into American country - both the land and the music. With 1992's Forever and his upcoming release, Everyman, Bonney explores the landscape of America; the experience which both separate and unite the people and this country.
Everyman is presented to the listener as a song cycle, based upon observations Bonney made while living in the States. A cross-country trip helped to colour in the pictures.
"I wanted to get the details right, the description of the elements rights" he explains, "I'd been on trips before as a part of a band and the experiences you have are very much different from those when you travel on your own. You get off the bus as a group, get back on the bus. You really don't see things. When I was with my wife and daughter, I was much closer to seeing America"
What did Bonney see on his trip?
"Mostly that people all have the same questions in life : where to live, how to raise kids, how to find your place in the world and so on. The have very different answers. The people we met on the road could immediately relate to you, even thought they didn't know you. You had this thing in common, a sense of universal aspiration and hope, but also frustration and fear. I gave me a sense of everyman".
Indeed, Everyman addresses these universal themes : from love "Don't walk away from love") to finding your place in the world "Travelin' on") to being overtaken by frustration. And like many people unfamiliar with Bonney's solo work, I was surprised to hear it all told within a framework of country music. Why country, given his more dramatic work with
Crime?
"This is more related to Crime than you may think at first" he says. "The story of Everyman is very similar to the story of "The Last Dictator" (from 1990's Paradise Discotheque). They're approaching (from a very different perspective, however "The Last Dictator" has a bit more power; power of his circumstances, or his perception of his circumstances.
But Everyman is angry. He shoots up a Shonney's and dies in the end, but he has reached beyond a point where he can go on, I think a lot of people feel that way but not many people act that way.
"Musically, we approached it in a similar way that we approach a Crime records, although it is stylistically different and we use different instruments. We start from a simple basis, and add texture to the tracks, sort of an aural film through the use of instruments. If I have a set of words, I want to have a story that is really identifiable, and I want it to reflect the landscape I'm living in, that I'm looking at. I want to deal with personal issues, but also listen to I as a story from A to Z. So if I am writing a story about someone travelling across America - a lot of the America I've seen is the spacious, sparsely-populated America - it cries out for country instrumentation.
There are a lot of old films, many old Westerns, that are about the old West, but as the same time are about a thousand trillion other things. There's an underlying subtext to them - human endeavour, aspiration, hope - that is totally interchangeable with a hoard of different backdrops".
Indeed, Bonney is a master at creating these aural soundscapes. The country music he creates is vast - you can almost see the sun setting behind a lone figure driving away from Shoney's, dual flying behind the spinning car wheels. A lonely train engine's clacking serves as a constant reminder throughout Everyman as he searches for a place to call home. The first single, "Don't call Walk away from Love" utilises the strength of the Texacali Horns, veteran guitarist J.D. Foster (Dweghi Yoakam, Lucinda Williams- and Violinist Bronwyn Adams (Bonney's wife and former partner in Crime) to create a full, 'big sky'backdrop for Bonney's lyrics. Those lyrics reflect the rich tradition of country music board in the works of Merie Haggard or George Jones."
Bonney was exposed to country music as a child in rural Tasmania, but it has taken many years for the influence to surface. He explains: "I realised when I came to American that my musical influences, what I listen to now - Lou Reed, the Doors, Bob Dylan - they're all lyricist, they all wrote narratives. Bob Dylan is my "in" to country music, even though, he is not renowned for country, but I think he captured some to the same sense of narrative that country music does. At it's very best, country seems to transcend that suffering that so many people associate with it - it's really about accepting yourself as a person. At some level, it's a way of liberating yourself from harsh circumstances."
Anyone who has ever questioned where they are going in life will respond to Everyman. "People my age (early 30s) who have lived a bit can relate to country - the changing face of America, alienation, what the future will bring. That's what Everyman addressed. He no longer feels that when he speaks that anyone hears what's he's saying, or that his voice is worth anything."
Armed with a voice and stories such as his, Bonney need not worry.[*]