Bay Harbour: March 03, 2021

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Bay Harbour News Wednesday March 3 2021 14 OUR PEOPLE – SIMON THOMAS Rockanteur settles into harbour scene Musician Simon Thomas has drifted around the world writing songs for much of his life until Covid-19 put a halt to his travels and he found himself settled in Corsair Bay. He talks to Samantha Mythen Tell me about yourself. I was born in Sydney and I got out of there as soon as I could at 20. I didn’t like the big city. I travelled around for 3-4 years. I spent a couple of years in Asia and in Europe with a Kombi van, playing music all over the place and selling Indian clothes at festivals. I later married a German girl and we came back to Australia to have a family. We bought a piece of land out in the wilderness in northern NSW, inland from Byron Bay at a Buddhist retreat centre. I raised my kids In the Buddhist community and then in 2014, my youngest left home. I’d already split up with his mum by then, so then I went back to drifting around the world again. And so I’ve more or less had no fixed address since then. I spent a lot of time in Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Guatemala. I do volunteer work, play music, write stories, whatever else takes my fancy. This was until Covid-19 hit. I was in Kathmandu as the screws started to tighten in March last year and I thought it would all blow over by June. But then I suddenly realised as all the borders were closing and all of the airlines were shutting down, I’d have to get out. So I made a dash. I’ve been with my partner Kim for two years. She has a lovely house in Corsair Bay. It seemed like the best place to go and it still seems like a very good place to be in the pandemic. When I got onto the plane, the lockdown hadn’t been announced and then when I got off the plane, they told me everyone was self-isolating, not just me. We did a big shop and then hunkered down in Corsair. And now I’m here until further notice. Had you been in NZ much before now? No, I had brought my kids over for holidays twice and then I spent a few months in Corsair Bay in 2019 and 2020, so I’m pretty new here. After being, as you said, adrift for so long, how is it being in one place? It’s fine, I don’t really get homesick. Although I have two grandsons and I can’t see them at the moment which is the only thing. I write and play my music and I have a lovely little room overlooking the bay. I don’t think very much about what I haven’t got, it’s quite a rich existence already. ARTISTIC: Simon Thomas tells stories through music. PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN So you’re a musician, what drew you to this creative scene? I first of all played violin when I was a kid and I used to do lessons before school. I often did not do as I was told and so I never held my hand in the correct position. One day my teacher got so angry at me, she took the belt off her gown and tied my hand to the back of the violin. This turned me off the violin and I then got started on the guitar. When my kids were growing up, I couldn’t really make a living in the bush from music, so I sold solar panels and did solar installations. Now I’m a singer-songwriter. Sometimes I play with a band or a duo. What’s your why for your music? It’s not really a why, you just have to do it. If you don’t play for a few days then you get this kind of feeling inside that you really need to play. There’s a certain satisfaction to delivering a song and there’s delivering for your own satisfaction and then there’s the communication with the audience. There’s this drive to be able to play something that you hear in your head or that you’ve heard on the radio. The ideas for my songs just come up and then they bounce around me inside and I have to get them out one way or another. What is your preferred style of music? Mainly rock, folk and blues. I find wood, strings and steel resonate in my heart. To a pretty big extent this comes from what you grow up with. Most people gravitate towards what they experienced as a teenager I think. So when you were a teenager, what inspired your music taste? Bowie is probably the biggest. Queen, Led Zeppelin. You’ve recently written an album of songs for children based around Buddhism. What draws you to Buddhism? The first interest I had was through Jungian psychology and he would refer to some Buddhism principals. What he was saying resonated with me as being authentic. The way that I’ve since learned Buddhism is you tend to study and practice as two wings of the bird and then you fly. So if you’re practising those in a certain balance, you find its incredibly enriching in your life. I’ve found a lot of joy in my life that wouldn’t be there otherwise. You call yourself a rockanteur, what does that mean to you? Well a raconteur is a theatrical storyteller. So a rockanteur is a theatrical storyteller who does it through rock music. What is your favourite part of performing live? The connection with the audience is what it is all about. When you deliver a song and there’s an emotional connection that happens between the people and they understand not just the words but the feeling. You mentioned Kathmandu, tell me about your time there? The first time I visited was in 1989, and the last seven years, I’ve been spending between three and five months living in different parts of Kathmandu NO FIXED ABODE: Thomas has spent much of his life travelling. He has been to places such as Cuba and Kathmandu. writing and playing music. It’s a very, very old place and there’s still a sense of magic that is imbued into the place. There are buildings that have been there for literally thousands of years and people have lived generation after generation in the same place. And of course, there is the Himalayas. There’s an interesting bar owner that I work with there, doing gigs for him once or twice a week. His name is Ram and his bar is called Ramsterdam. What do you think of the Christchurch music scene? I particularly know Banks Peninsula and Lyttelton and it’s great, I’m very impressed. I think Lyttelton is a centre for artistic activity and there are quite a few really accomplished musicians there. How does Lyttelton compare with Ramsterdam? Wunderbar and Ramsterdam have quite a bit in common, they’re both quite crazy. It’s a great scene here, I’ve loved the festivals – the Banks Peninsula Festival and Nostalgia. Deva Mahal at the latter was great, a huge voice. Do you have a favourite subject to write about for your songs? My latest album, Blue Lion, was unusual as it was commissioned by a Buddhist school in Singapore. Each one of the songs were supposed to fit into a particular niche in their curriculum, such as traditional Buddhist teachings like refuge prayer and Manjushri, a mantra – making these relevant to the children. Then there was transitions during the day like lining up, good mornings and meal times. Then specific thing they study like harmony, changes and community. Usually I see a situation or get a feeling and think I’d like to put it in to a song. Another of my album’s is called Love Me Tinder. I wanted to write a song about internet dating as I thought it would be fun. I particularly like songs that are a little bit funny. You’ve spoken out about with other Banks Peninsula residents recently about concerns about fire risks, why is this issue important to you? For about 10 years I was a member of the Australian bush fire brigade and we went to many fires and also we had two big fires on the property that I lived on. These fires would sometimes last a week to 10 days. Right across the road from our place in Corsair are these big eucalyptus trees which can be so volatile in heat and fire. Do you have aany plans for the next few months? I’ve got a couple of novels in the final drafts. Then also I have this project called the Dharma Kids Collective. It’s a hub for artists creating wholesome content from children influenced by Buddhist wisdom.
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Bay Harbour: March 03, 2021

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