British Pop/R&B singer-songwriter Dominique Simone recently talked to ai love music via email about the release of her latest single “Sweater”. British singer-songwriter, Dominique Simone’s velvety tones are what set her apart as one to watch. Creating music within the Neo-Soul, R&B, and Alternative Pop umbrella, her music is comparable to that of Ella Mai, Lianne La Havas, and Kiana Ledé. Dominique Simone is an accomplished artist with an extensive range of writing and performing abilities – each song she writes is clearly unique from her next but is still unmistakably.
Continue to read to find out what kind of feelings you can hear in Dominique Simone’s “Sweater”. And, what time in Simone’s life inspired her to write the song. Also, make sure to listen to the song below and let me know what you think in the comments!
Please introduce yourself!
I am a university student, a mixed-race woman, and an anxious musician. I make music because it feels right, and I can’t imagine my life without it. I hope to create music that feels emotionally relatable, and my audience can identify with. Within my writing during the pandemic and even before, I’ve wanted to explore within my music those lonely and painful parts of life we can all recognize; and offer a comforting reminder that ‘you’re not alone’.
How did you get into music? What has that journey been like?
As a young girl, I was always really interested in music. I would sit at the piano in the house and try to write so many songs. I think I wrote my first attempt at a song when I was about 7 or 8. I still remember it now! There were a couple of songs I wrote when I was probably around 10 or 11 that had decent melodies and lyrics. Although my piano playing at the time was dreadful, I have now managed to reconstruct them, mature them and one of them I have recorded and will be released at one point!
I went to a performing arts weekend school for about 10 years and was in a couple of professional musical theatre productions… but my passion was always music. I was obsessed with being in school choirs and being the one to have the singing solo. I think I always knew that I wanted to be a singer.
Your press release describes your music as a blend of neo-soul, R&B, and alt-pop. Why did you decide to use these genres?
I find it hard to put myself into one specific genre! I know that each song I write is quite different from the next but I feel like I sit nicely between these genres! It definitely wasn’t a choice as I just write and see what the song ends up being like, I feel much freer in the writing process this way.
Let’s talk about your latest release “Sweater”. What is it about?
“Sweater” is about feeling lonely, fed up, and stagnant. It’s about knowing you want more but not quite having the motivation to do anything about it. It is so easy to feel sorry for yourself and think the world is against you. The name “Sweater” came from the chorus ‘I’m stuck here in my sweater, and I can’t get on my feet’. You know when you just feel so fed up that you just want to wear the same cozy jumper and never take it off?
I felt like the title perfectly summed up the emotions of the song.
As the song goes on, I move to a more positive note of feeling gratitude for what you already have ‘I don’t need any company, just a few friends who mean the world to me.’ I am a big believer in manifestation and although I felt awful when writing the song, I knew it was important to trust that everything will be okay and you truly are enough.
What inspired you to write this song?
So “Sweater “was written when I had been at university for about four months (2019) and I seemed to originally have this assumption that going off to university would mean everything in my life was suddenly going to get so much better and I would be motivated and doing everything that I loved, getting to the gym and doing all the things that I didn’t feel like I had time for a while I was in school.
Then I realised that university really wasn’t the big fix that I had hoped for and in some ways, it was even harder because I no longer had someone to wake me up in the morning and tell me to do important things.
What was the process of creating and producing this song?
The song was written when I wasn’t feeling too good, and I just sat at a piano and started singing. I just sang how I was feeling and most of the melodies and lyrics ended up being in the final version of the song.
Generally, the process of recording this song was very fast. I got on my laptop and did my own demo of it! I am in no way a producer, so I got together with the producers at Inspire Music. I’ve worked with them for the other songs I’m releasing so I went in for a couple of days and got the song finished. Within the first day, the song was basically nearly done and by the second day, we’d completed it. It came together very quickly and on my first time sitting and listening to it I nearly cried! It felt like an exact representation of how I was feeling at the moment that I wrote it.
What is the most important thing for listeners to listen for in “Sweater”?
Although the song at first may seem quite sad and depressing, the main takeaway is at the end of the song. Knowing that you are enough and your few friends that you have around is such a great thing to have! It’s hard to appreciate something that seems so normal. When you reflect on your relationships with family and friends you realise that this is what life is all about, being around people you love.
I understand how hard life can be. We all have days where we don’t want to leave our rooms and days where we kind of feel sorry for ourselves and we think that the universe is being unfair to us. I just want the message to be that the first step is getting up and believing that you at that moment are worth it, that you are enough.No matter how bad you feel, whether you want to stay in your room all day or you feel worthless, you are never alone. There are other people that feel like this and you have people that care about you.
Any future plans?
I am releasing more music over the next few months, including “Again” (18/8/21), Never Lasts (9/9/21), and more!
Any final words for the readers?
I want to make music that you are glad you found.
I want my music to mean something I want when people listening to my music to feel hope to feel her feel understood I want to be able to find those complicated feelings and put them into words because it can be so hard to decipher what’s going on in your head so I want my music to show people that those difficult feelings that they can’t describe they are not alone. I hope they feel heard, I hear you.
I want my music to touch your soul, to calm you, and to really make an impact.
