{"id":1239,"date":"2011-02-01T00:01:34","date_gmt":"2011-02-01T05:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electronicearth.ca\/syoung\/?p=1239"},"modified":"2025-07-29T16:36:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T20:36:28","slug":"sima","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.electronicearth.ca\/syoung\/sima\/","title":{"rendered":"SIMA"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve just come from another mobile phone mishap and am slightly late arriving at the home of singer and songwriter simA<\/em> for her interview. Shooting off a quick text to her that I will be there in 5 minutes, I get a response back asking if I\u2019d like coffee and cookies – of course! Who doesn\u2019t want cookies!<\/p>\n

This sets the laidback mood of our mostly conversational dialogue.<\/p>\n

Sitting down with the fresh coffee and cookies that simA\u2019s<\/em> partner, Jen, had prepared we dive right into her music, and the parts of her life that have kept her inspired through the ups and downs.<\/p>\n

simA\u2019s<\/em> journey as a musician started as she entered her teenage years – inspired by the music found within Andrew Lloyd Webber\u2019s ‘The Phantom of the Opera\u2019 even though her traditional music of choice at the time was punk rock.<\/p>\n

simA<\/em>, inspired, immediately started experimenting with her voice as a singer in private until she discovered a flare for guitar at the age of 16 which was amalgamated with her self-developed vocals and sound to write her first single \u2018Every Shade of Red\u2019 at the age of 18.<\/p>\n

Not yet understanding how to pursue a career in music, but driven purely by her passion and love of sound and music – simA<\/em> continued writing.<\/p>\n

Her first exposure to encouragement from the music industry came a few years later when simA<\/em> was advised her grandfather\u2019s health was deteriorating and she returned home to her place of birth, Iskenderun, a small town in southern Turkey along the Mediterranean coastline.<\/p>\n

It was there and during this trip to her grandfather\u2019s side that her sound and music was heard by producers who invited her into their studio to record what would be a 4 track demo EP from an entire album\u2019s worth of material that would be shelved and not utilized in her music career due to a loss of inspiration from her grandfather losing his battle with cancer.<\/p>\n

After returning to Canada and taking an extended artistic break to gather herself, simA<\/em> discovered electronic music and immediately fell in love with the synthesized and multi-layered sounds of underground dance music.<\/p>\n

Reinvigorated by Toronto\u2019s underground dance music scene, simA<\/em> started recording custom sounds of her own, and produced an exclusive catalogue of over 700 unique samples to draw from in her work to include in the start of her studio reconstruction.<\/p>\n

Using the custom samples, new technology she had discovered in her research of electronic music production, incorporating acoustic sound, and continuing with the inclusion of her own vocals – simA<\/em> started performing as a one woman show – quickly booking a fundraising benefit to perform alongside Ashley MacIsaac in Toronto.<\/p>\n

In the summer of 2008, simA<\/em> and her partner Jen reunited after a 3 year break from their relationship. Both of them explain to me that they had initially met at Pride in 2005 and instantly fell in love -just from how they looked at the other, \u2018She\u2019s my inspiration\u2019 simA<\/em> says of Jen.<\/p>\n

Since then they\u2019ve both been working at simA\u2019s<\/em> career; collaborating their talents on track production, sharing connections, and continuing to unify through their love of music.<\/p>\n

Together, they\u2019ve managed to position simA<\/em> at a few venues around the city including:
\nDrool Lounge, Just Thai, The Opera House, Hard Luck Bar, as well as been involved in Exquisite Beat Theatre and participating in Long & McQuade\u2019s \u2018Guitar Wars\u2019 showcase of local musicians.<\/p>\n

simA<\/em> has also collaborated with local electronic DJ & Producer, Christian Poulsen (Unabomber), and musicians Pro-Ef and the UK\u2019s David McMillan.<\/p>\n

Also proving her love of Toronto and her local community, simA<\/em> has contributed performances of her talents to Epilepsy Toronto, The Kidney Foundation, and Parents & Friends of Lesbians & Gays [PFLAG] Toronto.<\/p>\n

More recently, simA<\/em> has been working on an EP that she hopes will be released later this year – the first single, \u2018Inadequacy\u2019, was just turned into a music video with the track being available for free download at:
\nhttps:\/\/sima.bandcamp.com\/track\/inadequacy<\/a><\/p>\n

To keep up to date on simA<\/em> and her developing music career, you can find her fan page on facebook at:
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/heysima\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Header Image:
\nSinger and songwriter, simA<\/em>, performs a hybrid acoustic-electronic music performance on the South Stage during World Pride 2014 Festival Weekend.
\nThis photo was taken Q2 during the early summer month of June in 2014.
\n<\/em>Photo Credit: Sean Young <\/em>aka\u00a0SERIAL SEAN<\/a><\/em>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Note:
\nA version of this article was originally written and published online by a Rebel Media publication in February of 2011<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve just come from another mobile phone mishap and am slightly late arriving at the home of singer and songwriter simA for her interview. Shooting off a quick text to her that I will be there in 5 minutes, I get a response back asking if I\u2019d like coffee and cookies – of course! Who doesn\u2019t want cookies! This sets … <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1242,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3,6,9,7],"tags":[310,70,71,134,152,154,194,305,306,307,308,309],"class_list":["post-1239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing","category-photo","category-events","category-music","tag-musician","tag-music","tag-edm","tag-electronic","tag-pride-toronto","tag-world-pride","tag-entertainment","tag-pride","tag-sima","tag-sima-xyn","tag-world-pride-2014","tag-wpto14","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.electronicearth.ca\/syoung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.electronicearth.ca\/syoung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.electronicearth.ca\/syoung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.electronicearth.ca\/syoung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.electronicearth.ca\/syoung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1239"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.electronicearth.ca\/syoung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1249,"href":"http:\/\/www.electronicearth.ca\/syoung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239\/revisions\/1249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.electronicearth.ca\/syoung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.electronicearth.ca\/syoung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.electronicearth.ca\/syoung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.electronicearth.ca\/syoung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}