In Conversation With Aime Simone

Aime Simone’s music is a gorgeous juxtaposition to the demeanor one might assume he brings to the world. A thoughtful songwriter carrying immense emotion and depth, the Paris based artist is very much in touch with his feelings and his surroundings but in a way that we don’t see quite that often. He champions his growing years on the internet and is an ally to the ever-evolving technological advancements we are witnessing with the rise of AI playing a prominent role in his music. Most importantly, he is the epitome of rocking young fatherhood with a fresh sense of self-awareness and style that puts Dadcore to utter utter shame.

It’s a family affair for Simone – with his partner playing an integral role in the making of his tracks, it’s not only a dreamy collaboration but a life project they are working towards. “It’s the idea of making our life into artwork, I always wanted us to create together. From day one, we started creating, now we do it all together. You know, it’s very intimate, the creative process.” When I asked if the nature of the collaboration ever gets in the way of his music-making his answer was: “There’s no ego. It’s just the best idea wins. You know? It’s very natural and organic. It’s almost like we have the same brain you know? I think what would be hard would be to involve more collaborative minds. I think that would be difficult because then you don’t know how to balance it out.”

The intimacy of the music is not lost. The intimacy in the music is what sheds light to a side of Simone that his fans yearn to see. Under the hard exterior, Simone is nothing less than a romantic, “For us, it’s really important to keep that intimacy because we really want the music to be as true to ourselves as possible as real as possible. I think nowadays, most of music is made with a lot of producers, songwriters and mixing engineers, there’s so many layers of people involved between the artists’ initial idea and the listener that gets the final product. So for us, we really want to get the music almost straight to the listener and not lose any emotion in the process.”

The fight of having full artistic freedom and integrity, is a tale as old as time. With the industry curbing the creativity of artists more and more, it’s difficult to find a space that protects one’s interests wholeheartedly. “The challenge for us and it’s been the hardest has been to convince people to let us do that in the industry.” While Simone is no stranger to the ways of the industry, he expressed the inevitable battle of ownership a young artist faces at the doors of the industry, “People discover you, they just see you and your potential and what you could become and they project their own ideas on to you and I think it’s a little bit difficult to be confronted to this.” With having a team that built a trustful environment, Simone did not have to compromise anything and that is very well evident in the music he puts out.

His mesmerizing single ‘Baby Don’t Quit’ is a beautiful affirmation of that. Simone doesn’t deny that he is a bit hardened by life but that doesn’t take away from the romance he has to offer. Simone describes himself as ‘romantic but with attitude’ and that’s probably the best thing I heard in that interview. The single is a delicate homage to his partner with complimenting ethereal sounds and a subtle sub-base. “I just wanted to write a song that kind of gives back you know, that hope and that light that she wants, like she gave me and the song is really about saying, I know you’re going through something and be patient, I believe in you and I know that the future is going to be glorious. That’s really the message of the song.”

I asked Aime what he was hoping to evoke in his listeners, is it love? Comfort? Hope? His answer was: “I want them to feel glory, an optimism towards the future. I feel like nowadays there’s this sense of doom towards the future. Especially in the youth, in terms of climate in terms of war being so close. There’s a kind of ongoing anxiety about the world and the future and I hope that my music can touch some people to just be more optimistic and hopeful and be strong, you know, to retain that light within.”

Following the release of ‘Baby Don’t Quit,’ Simone’s single ‘New World’ is a complete contrast to what we had heard before. Giving more alternative pop anthem-like energy, the track is covered in deep-basslines with his signature guitar specks. The track is accompanied by a mesmerizing AI-generated visual morphing Simone into visuals of a futuristic human-machine figure.

Now with his highly anticipated album “Oh Glory” finally out the introspective and emotional body of work is set across eleven tracks, Oh Glory captures core moments and emotions from Aime’s travels between Berlin, Los Angeles, Vienna and Paris. With a career nurtured by decisive artistic encounters and his close relationship with Berlin – a city he called home for several years – Aime has distilled it into an album that combines his brand of subtle pop with a thoughtful and flamboyant DIY ethos. An album that we suspect will do exactly as he plans and fill listeners with Glory just like it has us.