SPILL FEATURE: IT’S A DARK & DIRTY WORLD – A CONVERSATION WITH TED SIMMONS

IT’S A DARK & DIRTY WORLD

A CONVERSATION WITH TED SIMMONS

Ted Simmons is an East Coast kind of a guy. Born in Newfoundland, he now calls Dartmouth, Nova Scotia home. He has also see a pretty sizable chunk of the world. He made his recording debut in 2008 with an EP, Inside Ted’s Lounge and released his debut album, Lucky’s Blues in 2017. He is back with a new album, Dark And Dirty World, and he kindly answered some questions about his new album, inspirations and the themes in which he writes.

It has been a bit of time between albums, so enquiring minds want to know what he has been up to since 2017.

“Lucky’s Blues was release in 2017 and Dark And Dirty World in 2023, that’s a big gap, however, I did start working on a new album right after Lucky’s Blues came out, I made all the demos for the songs and started thinking about how I would do the recording, but when I listened to the demos, I didn’t like all the songs and I didn’t feel like it was what I wanted to do. The songs were all in a similar vein to the previous album, the demos were me playing acoustic guitar and harmonica, so I started writing some new ones on a piano, and thinking about how I could make this album different. I started making some new demos. Then unfortunately I had some health problems, and I wasn’t sold on the new ones completely either.. So, the whole operation had one sort of roadblock after the other.”

Even though the blocks were a bit frustrating, Simmons manages to find the golden lining in that dark cloud.

“I had time to work out songs one at a time, so that’s what I did.  I methodically arranged all the songs I wanted to record, one or two at a time, and decided what musicians I would get to play on them.  Through that collaboration, the songs grew bigger, and I knew I had something.”

It also didn’t mean that Simmons was just sitting around at home. Fans will know that during that time he managed to release some singles, perform live (once he was able) and in his words, “I also spent that time focusing more on the business side of things, I wanted a fresh approach to get my music out there more for people to hear.”

Dark and Dirty World gave Simmons a chance to stretch out his music ability by making a more rock record, than a folk album.

“I wanted an album that was bigger and louder than my previous work, something more rock ‘n’ roll, and I wanted something that was like a Dylan album from the 70’s, or like a Heartbreakers record, something straight kind of rock ‘n’ roll, with thoughtful lyrics and with a modern flavour.  With that in mind, some of the songs are social commentary, and then some of the songs are more reflective of an internal struggle, and some are just fun.  The real inspiration came from looking around and seeing what was happening in the world, I felt I wanted to describe what I saw as the bigger picture and I wanted to make something “radical”, or provocative, I felt that approach was unconventional and would make a bigger impact than if I just kept it safe and kept politics out of it. I also wanted to make something that was reflective of the lives of regular people and how that bigger picture stuff may or may not be impacting their lives. While at the same time, life goes on, and people do regular stuff, hang out on the weekends, feel love and loss, I wanted to bring both things together to tell a story.”

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As he mentioned, the songs do have a social commentary element to them. Although not overtly political, there is a social-politcal side to many of the songs.

“I had a subset of the songs that are on it, but they made for a good foundation.  One of those was “Runnin’ Into the Fire”, which deals with the economic displacement of the working class, and others were more along the lines of some internal struggle, so I decided I needed to bring it all under one umbrella so to speak, that’s when I wrote the title track “Dark And Dirty World”, then I could bring the listener along from the bigger picture ideas of that song to the more personal songs that deal with individual loss and longing.  Then I figured people are going to need a break, so I added “Ain’t it A Shame” and “Rainy Day April”, which are actually older songs but I worked out fun arrangements for them and when I put that all together I had the full album.”

‘Some of it wasn’t that premeditated, there was a lot of experimenting going on.  For example, “Susanna”, I wasn’t 100% sure that it was going to work, what I had in mind, a laid-back groovy kind of romp, but the musicians involved were all talented and they made something special, and it worked.’

Dark And Dirty World contains some very personal things. Events that make for an interesting and human tale. For example, the song “Some Things Are Never The Same”. A song that Simmons is very rightfully proud of and one of his own favourite songs.

“This is one of my favourite songs I ever wrote.  I originally wrote it on the piano, in a different key than the version that is on the album.  I wrote it in one night. I had been working on a chord progression and I decided to take a break and walk down the road for a beer to get out of my head a bit. The place was empty except for the bartender and one other person, a girl named Miranda.  So, I sat at the bar and talked with the bartender and Miranda and then went home, sat at the piano, and the words just came out “I sat at a bar talkin’ to Miranda all night, but something was missing something wasn’t right” I later changed it to “sat on a train” because I talk about bars too much. Then I wrote the whole thing straight through.  After I had the first line the idea came that it would be about two people who are unable to be together, in this case it is more of an acceptance of the situation, we can’t make it work but sometimes that is just how it goes. I never saw Miranda again, and I am confident she has no idea that she is the inspiration for a great song.”

Many artists will talk about their home and the places in which they reside and how that influences their work. Lou Reed, for example, often discussed the impact of living in New York City and how that found its way into his music. For Simmons, it is a bit more complicated but growing up in the East Coast of Canada did form an impression in his music.

“I want to immediately jump to, it doesn’t, but that would be an oversimplification, I think.  I grew up in Newfoundland, and now I live in Dartmouth in Nova Scotia, but in between all that there were a lot of places, people, and things.  Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to me are not very similar, Nova Scotia is more like the Northeastern US and Newfoundland is its own thing, so I don’t feel a part of some overarching East Coast culture or anything like that.  During my time living in Newfoundland, I lived in a suburb, not some village, there was no real culture to speak of really, there was a lot going around and outside of that, but I didn’t feel that connected to it, so in that way I was a blank slate, open to anything, so I took my musical influences from other places.

“However, I suppose things do seep in there somehow.  Growing up I did see how disadvantaged people were, how people worked very hard for very little, and I was constantly looking around at all the nature in wonder. I saw similar things when I moved to Nova Scotia, and in both places, I could see impacts to the environment caused by human activity.

“So lyrically, I never had to look very far for inspiration, and I guess while I wouldn’t say I take anything directly from it musically, there was/is a tradition of the singer/songwriter poet, and the idea of songs about heartache, and loss, and happiness and joy.”

Now that Dark And Dirty World he does have hopes as to how it will land with fans, old and new alike.

“I hope they enjoy it, it is the number one thing, it was a long time in the making, and I really worked hard on it.  I hope the listener feels the urgency of Dark and Dirty World, or they belt out the chorus of “Ain’t It a Shame” in the shower. When you listen to the album end to end it takes you on a bit of a journey, from the dark imagery of the title track to the more lighthearted blues tracks, and then the soft landing at the end, I tried to make something that made people think, laugh and cry, like a great movie.”

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