were made in this building. Gary, who oversees the House of Blues complex here in Nashville, wanted to move the whole building up from Memphis, and they let him do it. It’ s a great sounding room. Obviously, there’ s a million choices here in Nashville, and it was important to us to make the record here in Nashville this time. We went and looked at a bunch of different studios, and this one seemed to be the most natural. We go to Prince’ s quite a bit, get hot chicken, and come in here and work, and we start late as you see( 2pm studio start time usually). I’ m enjoying being off the road for a bit and being in one place for a minute.
[ CG ] Do you have any advice for Collectible Guitar readers and players?
[ J. D.] As a player, take every opportunity you can to play with other people in front of people, because you’ re going to learn more from that than by being by yourself. On a human level I just think that we live in a very heavy time right now, and I think that there’ s a way for us all to voice ourselves in union in a way that is not divisive, in a way that is peaceful and compassionate. I think inherently, and I quote John F. Kennedy,“ We all breathe the same air.” I’ ll end that quote with mine.“ We all breathe the same air and I feel, having traveled around the globe and having met every race, every age group, every socio-economic background, we all want to lay our head down at night in a safe place. We all want food in our stomach. We all want a better place for our children.” There isn’ t a human being walking the planet that doesn’ t want to be liked and that doesn’ t want to be loved. We are so different … yet we are so the same. I pray for what is going on at the moment; that we can find a way to realize that we do all truly want the same thing. Hopefully we can find a way to stop focusing on things that are in some way devised to keep us at each other’ s throats.
Catching up with J. D. Simo for this interview was enlightening. Seeing how he has evolved as a musician and artist over the years is impressive. He has a renewed passion and a laser focus on the music he wants to create and the messages he seeks to share.
Our own Eric Dahl interviewing J. D.
The title for the new album hasn’ t been determined yet, but a late summer or early fall release is expected. A new direction and beginning for Simo, the band and the man, promises to be refreshing for a music scene that sometimes swims in a shallow pool.
Mar � Apr 2017 CollectibleGuitar. com
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