Occhi Featured Artist: Singer Songwriter Fae Simon

We had the pleasure of catching up with featured artist Fae Simon as part of our series of YouTube interviews during the COVID lockdown.

Born and raised in North West London; Fae Simon is a soulful jazz singer, a gifted songwriter, and a vocal performance instructor with over 20 years of on-stage experience. Formally trained in Opera and Jazz, Fae’s performance style fuses these traditional genres with Hip-hop, Rare Groove, Soul and Dub – a unique sound that electrifies audiences when she performs with her live band. Her debut album, ‘Mellowdrama’, was released via online download in 2009 – and established a solid following among underground soul clubs in the UK,  France, Spain, Germany, and Greece.

This gave audiences their first glimpse of a songwriting talent that had already been many years in the making.
Over the years Fae has supported, collaborated, performed, and toured with a broad range of successful artists across the UK and Europe – including N’Dambi, Yarah Bravo, Jehst, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, Pharoah Monche, MF Doom & Madlib and The legendary Beatnuts. Her second album ‘Outrospective’, released in February 2015 on BBE Music, a critique on the tensions between art and industry, communities and authorities, past and present, balance and imbalance. Fae’s debut single ‘Magic City’ taken from the LP – with remixes by Mr. Bird, Inkswel and Paragons of Goodness, was a welcome introduction to BBE; which was followed by ‘The One That Got Away’ (2016) – remixed by DJ’s Raw Sugar, Beyond Tone, and Shaun Ashby. Both House and Afro-Beat remixes charted in the top 10 and top 100 of the Traxsource charts, respectively.

2017 brought new experiences with international collaborations from Europe to Asia, while exploring a new genre. ‘ I Love You All’ (Makin Moves UK) Fae’s first House single, produced by Mr. Loft Soul himself: DJ Uchikawa, charted at no.13 on the Traxsource charts. This was swiftly followed by the soulful ‘You Are Me’ the debut single from Doc  TMK’s album ‘Jus Do !t’ (Radio Krimi Records FR). With the release of a second DJ Uchikawa collaboration; ‘See Line Woman’ (L oft Soul, JN), a contemporary take on the Nina Simone classic, a track which Fae performed for the Nina Simone Tribute at the Jazz Cafe with Black Voices; was a great way to end the year.

2018 began with the release of collaborations ‘Sometimes’ on Lyric L’s new album ‘UneqiVocal’ (Tokyo Dawn, DE) and Jonas McCloud’s title track from new album ‘Back to Basics’ (Pop Dukes  Records, US) as well as fresh House EP ‘Upendo’ produced by Shaun Ashby (We Go Deep, SA), and new video and release ‘Show Me Love’ from Dj Phast’s ‘Creatures from the Black Lagoon’ (HHV, DE) also featuring Ty & Blak Twang, released on vinyl & digital platforms, as well as latest single ‘Fae’s Groove’ the Soulful banger from Pascal Morais’ ‘World Traveller’ Album (Arrecha Records, NE) which she performed live at the album launch at Nacarat, Amsterdam.

Fae launched 2019 with a feature on ‘Da Doom’ by Stan Zeff & Lyric L (Tambor Music) and signed to Westbury Music Publishing,  and 2 limited edition vinyl releases: See Line Womanby DJ Uchikawa, with Dominic Dawson’s remix, sold out in Japan (Jazzy Sport)  and The Alchemist (Tru Thoughts) on gold vinyl by Gawd Status (Kashmere & Jokerstarr,) and a soulful emotive track called Actions Speak Louder produced by Doc TMK on Pimp Poetry Records (Fr).

Despite the 2020 COVID crisis Fae is still busy and is looking forward to sharing news on what she’s working on. Check out the video!