Mark Sims seeks solace in a world in darkness – Matter News

Mark Sims fills out the new album Take me faster with references to a planet and people fighting endless wars and an economic system that continues to bleed the lower and middle classes, making daily survival a constant struggle. And yet, at the core, there is a sense that a better future is worth fighting for, with Sims constantly finding solace in the small circle of friends and family in which he moves.

I can work a million hours/and still be powerless when I die, he sings in the meditative Hold on to Me, then spins. So I can also have a good time / spend it with the ones I love.

It's very hard not to want to base everything on the global situation, Sims said in an interview in late June. But for me, I spend most of my time at home with my wife and children, and it's important to remember that I have my most immediate impact on my family and the people around me and with whom I work. Looking back, Ive tried to write songs about bigger issues. I tried for months to write a George Floyd song and couldn't find a way to talk about it that felt valid or necessary. But I don't mind writing about things I actually do, like my relationship with my wife or watching my kids grow up.

This sense of intimacy is pervasive Take me faster, now digitally on Carousel Horse Records/Old 3-C Label Group, with Sims taking a measured assessment of his surroundings against a finger-picked musical backdrop steeped heavily in folk, country and acoustic blues.

Sims said the personal re-evaluation that occurs in this particular set of songs stemmed in part from his entering a period of intense transformation. A bricklayer by trade, Sims is in the early stages of a career change prompted by the nonstop physical nature of the job (he cited a bad hip and two hernias in addition to surgeries on his wrist and shoulder) and the increasingly tight economy. severe. the realities of the profession, in which wages have not kept pace with inflation. At the same time, his home life is undergoing change, with one child leaving for college and the other just a year behind.

To think that one of us is leaving is quite emotional and kind of intense, said Sims, who added that part of the desire to better appreciate where he fits in these songs is leftover from the loss of his parents, who died inside. a year with each other about five years ago. Whether I write about it directly or indirectly, I'm still trying to process the death of my parents and the reality that there is no elderly person to help me in my life. And that's something I think about all the time, because things will change in the world, or some piece of art or culture will come out, and I'll think to myself, Oh, I want to talk to my dad about this. I still try to replace this kind of conversation I would have with my parents about the world. I guess I wasn't ready for this to be over yet.

And so, these conversations are carried over into Sims' music, with the singer-songwriter and guitarist making observations that begin in his front yard (he watches cars drive by in Sitting on the Porch ) and then expand leagues outside. Witness this beautiful world take a darker turn informed by the unrelenting violence currently unfolding in both Gaza and Ukraine.

Although shaped by his perspective, Sims rarely takes center stage in his stories. Rather, he embraces his attitude as a way to begin to sort out his surroundings, turning Columbus' memories of a long dive into a reflection on the relentless nature of change (The Blue Dube) and expanding his sense of the trap you feel navigating the capitalist. system into a larger view of the growing class divide (Sitting on the Porch). In the latter, the musician gradually progresses from a series of personal reflections (I'm trapped inside a system; I don't feel free) to something infinitely more external. How can anyone justify holding so much gold? the musician sings. While other people are starving and living outside in the cold?

I don't need to rework it to be the hero of my story all the time, if that makes sense, Sims said. I think that might be a byproduct of age, and it's definitely a byproduct of being a father. Most of what I do in my life is getting my kids ready for something. Like right now, I'm doing all these things with the FAFSA and student loans for my kids. And then, in our society, aging makes you leave. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is another conversation. But just being in my mid-40s and raising kids, if I didn't retire, it would feel weird to me.

Currently, Sims said he is working to find similar satisfaction within his chosen creative space, admitting that he has long struggled to reconcile the desire to find commercial success with the sense of personal release that comes from making music. “I'm actively trying to work on it because one of my shortcomings is that I have a hard time separating the joy I get from playing music from the business of making it,” said Sims, who traced this mental gap back to his early days. early playing. in rough and beautiful. But I have to divorce myself from that idea because I keep ruining my experience by focusing on things I can't control. Now I'm just trying really hard to make the best music I can and enjoy it for that.