Hawaii-born singer-songwriter Simone White has released eight albums spanning simple acoustic folk, Americana and electronic indie. Her latest release, Letter To The Last Generation, is one mired in the uncertainty and restlessness of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Brought back to life with its re-release, Letter is a testament to hope in the darkest times, adorned with string arrangements, synths, piano, and fingerpicked guitar that showcase White’s deft songwriting abilities and diversity of range. I asked White ten questions to chart her post-pandemic ruminations.
THE ARGUS FAR FIVE
How would you describe the sound of Simone White?
I always just say folk music/singer-songwriter.
When I play live, it’s usually just me on acoustic guitar. My recordings span a lot of different styles and instrumentation, electronic ambient, indie, Americana pop, psychedelic rock, neo-classical.
What are your biggest non-music influences?
Psychology, art, day dreams, nature, ancestors. And language – overheard conversation, the rhythm of spoken words.
Are there any songs that you are yet to cover but want to?
I love covering songs. I don’t have any on my to-do list but I’ll take suggestions. I mainly choose based on the lyrics. If they’re bad or meaningless, I won’t do it – I can’t find my way into the song.
Recently, I was super excited thinking I wanted to cover Led Zeppelin’s ‘Good Times Bad Times’, but then I read the full lyrics and I was like, oh well.
What is your earliest memory of music?
My mother singing. She was a folk singer in the early 60s, and when I was little, she was always singing around the house, singing me lullabies and folk songs.
What does the rest of 2026 have in store for Simone White?
I’m working on recording a new album, Semaphores. Also working making light sculptures. My father was an artist and I took over his business when he retired three years ago, it’s my full time day job.
THE SIMONE WHITE FIVE
‘Semaphores’ is your latest single in five years. What has happened in that time, and how did it inspire the song?
I originally put out Letter To The Last Generation right before Covid. Then, everything fell off the cliff. We were living in NYC and it felt insanely dark and like many, maybe everyone, I was really depressed. I couldn’t see a future or reason for anything. I didn’t want to promote my own music. The only music I was doing was little video recordings of classic songs from the 60s/70s, a kind of comfort food. I put out some of those songs as an album, Dream Comfort Memory in 2022, but only because Tim Guy from Fetch Happened Records asked me to.
Later, I didn’t really feel inspired to make music, to try to put more noise out into the world. The process of promoting oneself and one’s music online in this oversaturated, attention-deficit time is completely daunting.
Then, two years ago Daniel Benyamin from Ghost Palace Records in Germany contacted me about touring and putting out some new music and that gave me a reason.
My partner and I had moved to the countryside and I’ve never lived anywhere where no one could hear me, no neighbors right there. So all day I’m singing and when I started writing these new songs they came out kind of punk, huge and powerful. So loud and different I had to ‘cover’ them as Simone White songs, change them from angry bombastic strumming to fingerpicking so I could play them live without being like a maniac.
When I went in the studio to record the first single ‘Semaphores’, the intensity of the song came out with the production – huge drums, synths, electric guitars – and it turned into this rocket ship taking off.
You’re releasing an acoustic EP, Hold On, later this year. Which song are you most excited for fans to hear, and why?
Playing these new songs live on tour, they were all really powerful, but I’d say the one that was most intense for me was ‘Devil’. I love the songs barebones live and the acoustic EP, but I’m excited for what they’ll become when I record in the studio.
You are rereleasing Letter To The Last Generation, an LP that you describe as ‘a bit of a forgotten album’. How was it to revisit these songs, and what are the biggest changes you have made?
I changed the order, added some bonus tracks. And I swapped out two production songs for their acoustic versions. I think starting the album with ‘Shadow Pass’, simple piano and vocal, is like stating the naked truth right up front.
I love the title of Letter To The Last Generation, because I can’t figure out whether ‘last’ means ‘previous’, ‘final’, both or neither. Which one do you think it should be, and why have you written them a letter in the form of this album?
It’s last as in last one, final, that’s it, no more, we’re done. It’s an apology to the future. That’s what the title track is about, and I felt the collection of the rest of the album could be seen through that post-apocalyptic lens as well, though the other songs were not necessarily written with that in mind.
You’ve made a choice to sell your upcoming LP only at your live shows or independent record stores. How important are the grassroot and the independent?
I think we’ve really lost our way. People mindlessly buy from enormous corporations thinking they’re saving money but the price they’re paying is far greater and what they’re losing is irreplaceable.
Do you remember what it used to be like to go to a record store and talk to people about music, get a recommendation from a person?
My favorite local bookstore just closed because they couldn’t pay the rent. I wept when they told me. It was a genuine lifeline to community and human connection. They’d have poetry readings and art shows and everyone that went in there said it was the best bookstore they ever saw but then those same people would leave and go buy their books from Amazon because they thought they’d save some money, and hey, free shipping!
It’s huge, it’s everything. My little protest might not be much but it’s adding to the vibration. If we all do it, that’s how change happens.
Join our (free) mailing list to support the site and never miss an article again!
Argus Far 
Leave a comment