Savoy Brown Interview
with Kim Simmonds

TG- "How did you guys come up with the name of the band?"

Simmonds- "Savoy Brown. I formed the group with an Irishman called John O'Leary. I'm Welsh and he was Irish and we wanted to name the band. We couldn't call it Kim Simmonds blues band or John O'Leary blues band. That would have been to presumptuous and it was a blues band. So we thought we'd take it a fictitious name.

So, Savoy was an old record label from the twenties and thirties. It had a lot of historical connection. Brown was Charles Brown, James Brown, Napie Brown. Lot's of artists. So we just made up the name Savoy Brown blues band. I'm a fictitious person. And later on when the bands music developed away from blues going to blues-rock. We dropped the blues band. Just kept Savoy Brown. That's it."

TG- "Besides the new band members, what's so different about your music on your new CD compared to music you've done in the past?"

Simmonds- "I don't think, hopefully it's not a whole lot different. I mean the whole idea of being really the best music that I've made has always had a continuity to it. It's been blues and rock-n-roll mixed with the right blend. The worst records I've made when they were two way or another. I think I've always tried to get. I think the most successful music period is music that has an authentic base to it with something added on top. And I think that the best Savoy band records have been that. They have an authentic but also with an extra bit of melody of something added. That's what I've tried to continue all of the time.

That's the ingredients I've tried to put together. I've tried to hopefully have the music to be authentic and ah then give it something extra. And if I get the blend right it makes me very happy. And I think I communicate with people that listen to it. Some times I've got it right and some times I've got it wrong. Because that's what I'm trying to do all the time. Trying to express myself like that. Because I'm not an authentic black guy from Mississippi or something. But ,I have those feelings and I have those emotions. And I try to stay true to those emotions. But, at the same time I listen to a lot of other music as well. So, I try to be not afraid to blend them together and hopefully get a mix, a right mix- yeah"

TG- "To be different?"

Simmonds- "Yeah! To be different. But, still, not different for the sake of being different. I listen to a lot of music. It's just different for the sake of it. I want to be different. But I want to keep it authentic base as well. You know. Yeah!" 

TG- "What are you ages?"

Simmonds- "In the band or my age?"

TG- "Yeah!"

Simmonds- "In the band I'm the old guy. I'm 55 (he laughs). And the other guitar player is 47, and the bass player is 47. We're all old timers and the drummer is 33. So he's the youngster. So it's nice. Everybody's got the experience."

TG- "How is it for you recording in the studio now days compared to when you first started recording?"

Simmonds- "Well, I got my own studio now. So that's one thing. Now all I have to do is walk fifty yards behind my house and record. So in the old days and I think that's the case with many musicians now days. Modern technology means you can come to this brewery tonight and sit up here and record here. You could have done that in the past. But it would require a lot of majestic, to make it all work, in the past, when we started like so many of the English bands. We recorded in the big studios. Where we used to record all in the office or office rated music and so forth and Decca Records a famous studio. But, huge studios. I mean- you know- ceilings as big as this place here (Simmonds points up at the tall ceiling of Nimbus Brewery.) So, it seems to me. Perhaps, not but it seems to have it this way best. Because they had a 30 piece orchestra. And they weren't up in a small space. So in the early days. We recorded in that kind of environment. It was fabulous. Those were the great old studios."

TG- "Do you miss that?"

Simmonds- "I think very much so. Because in the same since as I miss that whole time period. Because everybody involved making the Savoy Brown records at the time were super talented and went on to do fantastic things. The engineer that did our first record went on to do produce all Elton John;s records later on. The talent that was around at the time was fantastic. And it was talent that, you know. So, you weren't only in a great environment but you were surrounded by great people, actually. That kind of spoils you really in the end because you sort of start off in really high standards. It's very difficult to maintain those high standards. It just so happens that was the time and place were there was so many talented people in the sixties. So many people that were all around that were wanting to do their own, their thing."

Me- "How does it make you feel when you see the same dedicated fans in the crowd that you've seen over the years?"

Simmonds- "It makes me feel, you know. Some times it seems unreal that I could still be doing this at my age. It's like anything else. You become very familiar with what you do. And there's a tendency to think that what you do isn't in particularly important because your familiar with it. I think that when I do come out and speak to some of the fans I find out how important it is. And that's good for me. It reminds me that this is meaningful in a small way."

TG- "I would think it's very important. You gain your fans and your fans look forward to your new CD every time you bring out a CD you know and for a group to just totally quit. I would think that, that would crush them in a way, because they look forward to the next CD."

Simmonds- "Well, I would think so. I mean I don't like it when I see and hear a lot of modern artists you know that fantastically successful talk about retiring. Because I think what happens is that now a days there's so much money in the business that people could come up be very successful and make a ton of money and be able to retire. That wasn't the case years ago. You had to work quite a few years before you really established yourself. And at that point you were so committed to your career for a long term. I'm sure we all have the greatest admiration for Tony Bennett, for Rolling Stones for anybody, Buddy Guy- for anybody, you know.

I was buying Buddy Guy records as a kid and I'm still buying Buddy guy records. I was buying Rolling Stones records when I was a kid. I'm still buying Rolling Stone records. Same with Tony Bennett. And that is, for me, that's continuity is fantastic. I'm sure it is with Savoy Brown fans. Your right, as well. They bought Savoy Brown records when they were kids and it's probably a thrill to them to buy a new one. Because, yeah! Music is important to us. It's the continuity of our life isn't it? Most of us haven't got marriages that survived 35 years but it's nice to know the music you love has survived that long. Yeah!"

TG- "Have you ever felt like you've just wanted to give it all up?"

Simmonds- "Oh, yes, yes constantly (he laughs). Because this is a very hard business and at 55 years old you've done a lot and you've lived a very fast life. There comes a point were you question yourself as to why you do what you do? And you have to continually ask yourself- is it worth it? I think it goes back to the question you just said -Somebody goes up to you and really appreciates what you do and seems sincere. Then you say it's not just about yourself.

You try to look at it a little bit at a higher respective and say you just pull it pass of a music scene and you contributed to something beyond yourself in a way I'm sure. I make a good living doing this and so forth. I'm trying something that I've always loved. But still having said that it's enormously difficult. I've done this for over 35 years. So anybody that's done anything for 35 years- you're gonna constantly ask yourself on a daily basis- do you want to keep doing this? And the answer is always. Yes! (he laughs again)."

Continued on next page

2003 Entertainment Magazine