Friday, September 20, 2019

On first day of Global Climate Strike, Simone White releases “Letter to the Last Generation,” an apology to the future, warning that “all the signs were there.”

First all-new album since 2012 features White’s trademark “voice like ether” (NPR), “cathartic intimacy” (MOJO). Hear Andrew Bird collaboration “Tiny Drop” now.

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Simone White (Credit: Self-Portrait)

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Simone White | “Letter to the Last Generation”


Today is the first day of the Global Climate Strike, and songwriter Simone White has released the title track of her upcoming album Letter to the Last Generation to coincide.

Quoting the song’s “environmentally charged” lyrics in its coverage, Americana UK writes, “‘First we weren’t sure / Then we ignored / All the way down’ sings Simone White on this imaginary letter to a future generation enjoying the world we’ve bequeathed them after our concerted efforts to save the environment.  What’s that?  Oh, not so much enjoying as enduring the legacy of our failure to make any real efforts to protect the environment.”

Writer Jonathan Aird continues, “Simone White’s ethereal vocal is damning of inaction ‘all the signs were there, we simply did not care / No-one could be blamed for the lies / Everyone was named at the trials / Those hollow hollow hollow hollow hollow hollow promises.’”

White is currently in production with filmmaker Scott Cohen on a music video for “Letter to the Last Generation,” and is inviting contributions from fans. White is asking participants to “Film someone you love, and/or have them film you, looking directly into the camera lens, thinking about the planet Earth.” More info about how to get involved can be found here.
  

Simone White (feat. Andrew Bird) | “Tiny Drop”


Letter to the Last Generation’s unofficial global theme is also reflected in the song “Tiny Drop,” featuring collaboration with fellow singer-songwriter Andrew Bird on violin, which premiered at UN World Environment Day in 2018.

“I wrote ‘Tiny Drop’ as an anti-war song, but the music video for it focuses on the effects of plastic pollution in the ocean,” White says. “We're all tiny drops that make up the world. Every small action you make, every vibration affects the whole.”

Letter to the Last Generation is an album with an atmosphere, a delicate blend of acoustic instruments and synths, and Simone White’s “sweetly airy and hypnotic” (NPR) voice. A natural evolution from her last studio album Silver Silver, White presents a collection of songs tinged with ache, longing and doubt in an apocalyptic landscape in the not-too-distant future.

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Simone White
Letter to the Last Generation
Oct. 18th, 2019


Track Listing:

01. This Is All You Felt (STREAM | MP3)
02. Letter to the Last Generation (STREAM | MP3)
03. Little Heaven Little Blue
04. So It Goes (STREAM | MP3)
05. Genuine Fake
06. Harvest
07. Tiny Drop (STREAM | MP3 | VIDEO)
08. Rain
09. Shadow Pass
10. Letter to the Last Generation (Demo Version)

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Simone White | More Info

While White’s activist voice is loud, Letter to the Last Generation will remind listeners of the “cathartic intimacy” and “mesmerizing intelligence” (MOJO) of her masterful songwriting, sung with a voice “like ether” (NPR).

‘Letter to the Last Generation’ was originally going to be a one-off song,” White says of the tune that inspired the album. “But that day of recording felt so right. It was so much fun, we were playing live, everyone in the room. I felt excited about making a record for the first time in ages and I only really heard the kind of album I wanted to make on that day.”

That particular group of musicians includes Jebin Bruni (Aimee Mann, Meshell Ndegeocello), producer Pete Min, who co-wrote three of the album’s songs with White, and adored multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter, Andrew Bird. Grammy®-nominated bassist Kaveh Rastegar (Bruno Mars, CeeLo Green) also appears on the album.

Kaveh was asking me how I came up with the melody of the first line of (album track) ‘Genuine Fake,’White recalls. “He was grooving with it, playing it on the bass, and I answered him, ‘I don’t know, it was just suddenly there!’”

While the press has rightly praised White’s vocals and lyrics throughout the years, it is arguably these “suddenly there” melodies that keep people coming back.

Letter to the Last Generation, the sixth album by once again NYC-based (after 15 years in Los Angeles) singer-songwriter Simone White, arrives on October 18th. Simone White is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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Simone White | Links


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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact


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