Simone Felice’s new album “Strangers” is available on all major music sites and in record stores now.
Simone Felice is a natural when it comes to songwriting with many fans following him from his time in groups The Duke & The King and The Felice Brothers. But in 2010, Simone embarked on a solo career following some extraordinary events that changed his life. In a chat with Simone, he talks about life, influences, and his latest album collaborations with members of The Lumineers and more.
It has been a bumpy ride for Simone Felice over the past four years. Following a series of fainting incidents in the summer of 2010, Felice was forced to undergo emergency open-heart surgery for a childhood congenital disorder, which left the thirty-three year old with an irreversible calcification of the aortic valve(leaving only 8% blood-flow to the body and brain).
Two weeks after surgery, he was back on stage with his brothers at a concert to raise awareness for the dumping of industrial waste in New York’s Hudson River. A month later, and Felice welcomes his baby girl into the world. Simone describes it as both, “Amazing and scary”. He adds “Open heart surgery, a dance with the reaper, the birth of a baby girl… a life-changing / painful / inspiring ride it’s been.”
Felice’s artistic talents don’t end at songwriting though, he is also a novelist and poet which encompass many of his creative writing talents. Poetry in particular plays a big part in his artistic influence. One piece of text that particularly inspires him is Walt Whitman’s “When I heard the learn’d astronomer”
When it comes to his earliest memory of wanting to write, he tells me about a time when he watched Pink Floyd’s “Life in Pompeii” at an old hippy’s house, aged just 15 years old and “high as a kite”. But as influences go, there is a pretty eclectic mix in Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, John Lennon and The Violent Femmes.
Irish media have been fond of Felice for some time, which he says, “I’ve been very fortunate that folks who know what the hell they’re talking about have said positive things about my work from time to time, it’s really helped to share it with others, I’ve come to feel truly grateful that and don’t it for granted, not for one minute.”
Having recently completed a number of tour dates in Ireland of all sizes, it is perhaps customary to ask which type of performance he prefers, “wherever folks come together to commune for song and poetry and something meaningful” he replies. For those gigs, if not all of them, there’s one thing that he occasionally has for his half Irish blood and that is Irish Whiskey.
On writing the latest long player, other members of The Felice Brothers, Leah Siegel and Wesley Schultz & Jeremiah Fraites of The Lumineers guest on the new album ‘Strangers’, “(It was) Just like coming home, like being around a fire, surrounded by talent and love, a blessing.” says Felice.
Born in New York and being half Irish, Simone tells me he lives, “Less than a mile from the mountain house I was born in, Palenville, Greene County New York.” In that area, writing takes place in his old barn, “down by the stream, on the tour bus, taking long walks, stuck on a plane, waking from sleep.”
Following his time here, I ask Simone what next for the tour? he says, “50 more dates in UK, EU, USA, hopefully some laughter and tears and the wind at our backs.”
Simone Felice’s new album “Strangers” is available on all major music sites and in record stores now.
– – –
“When I heard the learn’d astronomer”.
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns
before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams , to add,
divide, and measure them,
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he
lectured, much applause in the lecture room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
– Walt Whitman
RobMoro 
Simone Felice is a natural when it comes to songwriting with many fans following him from his time in groups The Duke & The King and The Felice Brothers. But in 2010, Simone embarked on a solo career following some extraordinary events that changed his life. In a chat with Simone, he talks about life, influences, and his latest album collaborations with members of The Lumineers and more.
It has been a bumpy ride for Simone Felice over the past four years. Following a series of fainting incidents in the summer of 2010, Felice was forced to undergo emergency open-heart surgery for a childhood congenital disorder, which left the thirty-three year old with an irreversible calcification of the aortic valve(leaving only 8% blood-flow to the body and brain).
Two weeks after surgery, he was back on stage with his brothers at a concert to raise awareness for the dumping of industrial waste in New York’s Hudson River. A month later, and Felice welcomes his baby girl into the world. Simone describes it as both, “Amazing and scary”. He adds “Open heart surgery, a dance with the reaper, the birth of a baby girl… a life-changing / painful / inspiring ride it’s been.”
Felice’s artistic talents don’t end at songwriting though, he is also a novelist and poet which encompass many of his creative writing talents. Poetry in particular plays a big part in his artistic influence. One piece of text that particularly inspires him is Walt Whitman’s “When I heard the learn’d astronomer”
When it comes to his earliest memory of wanting to write, he tells me about a time when he watched Pink Floyd’s “Life in Pompeii” at an old hippy’s house, aged just 15 years old and “high as a kite”. But as influences go, there is a pretty eclectic mix in Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, John Lennon and The Violent Femmes.
Irish media have been fond of Felice for some time, which he says, “I’ve been very fortunate that folks who know what the hell they’re talking about have said positive things about my work from time to time, it’s really helped to share it with others, I’ve come to feel truly grateful that and don’t it for granted, not for one minute.”
Having recently completed a number of tour dates in Ireland of all sizes, it is perhaps customary to ask which type of performance he prefers, “wherever folks come together to commune for song and poetry and something meaningful” he replies. For those gigs, if not all of them, there’s one thing that he occasionally has for his half Irish blood and that is Irish Whiskey.
On writing the latest long player, other members of The Felice Brothers, Leah Siegel and Wesley Schultz & Jeremiah Fraites of The Lumineers guest on the new album ‘Strangers’, “(It was) Just like coming home, like being around a fire, surrounded by talent and love, a blessing.” says Felice.
Born in New York and being half Irish, Simone tells me he lives, “Less than a mile from the mountain house I was born in, Palenville, Greene County New York.” In that area, writing takes place in his old barn, “down by the stream, on the tour bus, taking long walks, stuck on a plane, waking from sleep.”
Following his time here, I ask Simone what next for the tour? he says, “50 more dates in UK, EU, USA, hopefully some laughter and tears and the wind at our backs.”
Simone Felice’s new album “Strangers” is available on all major music sites and in record stores now.
– – –
“When I heard the learn’d astronomer”.
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns
before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams , to add,
divide, and measure them,
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he
lectured, much applause in the lecture room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
– Walt Whitman
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