‘Hollywood $$$’ is the second release following Seraphina Simone’s debut single ‘Cherry <8’, which hit the speakers and earphones of listeners with resounding success. Receiving support from the likes of Gal-dem Magazine, Idolator, The Rodeo, CLOUT, It’s All Indie, Audiofemme, Tongue Tied Magazine and many, many more. ‘Cherry <8’ also found its way into Spotify editorial playlists Fresh Finds, Fresh Finds: Indie and undercurrents.
Now, Seraphina Simone is once again turning her candid voice to the zenith of celebrity, the palm-treed streets where dreams are supposedly made and lives are destroyed, to that place we call Hollywood. As the talented musician shares:
“Hollywood $$$ is about the Lynchian, fame-obsessive undercurrents of tinsel town, with its sirens, starlets, leeches & letches. It’s about that world of smoke and mirrors – where nothing and no one is really as it seems, and the world of celebrity – where we deify or demonise people into these superhumans or arch-villains. It’s about how seductive fame can be, how it’s something we all envision in the back of our minds – the perfect life without money worries where everyone loves us and we can do whatever we want – but it comes at a huge price and can destroy you if you chase it too hard.
Kim Gordon mentions ‘tarantula LA glamour’ in Girl In A Band, and that sums it up perfectly I think – the predatory darkness under the glitz.” – Seraphina Simone.
Seraphina Simone is a beguiling mix. On the one hand, she’s a hard-working London nerd, who studied at Oxford and has done every crap job under the sun to support her music.
On the other, she is a musical aristocracy, although the term makes her cringe. Her father is the musician Terence Trent D’Arby aka Sananda Maitreya. Holidays, when she was a girl, meant long trips through California, brushing shoulders with everyone from George Harrison to Billy Idol, or being babysat by Pamela Des Barres. Some artists might claim their ‘godparents’ were Prince, Miles Davis, Christie Hynde, Pete Townsend and Mary Greenwell. Seraphina’s actually were.
A childhood only takes you so far. From all these influences, from her deep-South pastor grandfather, and a heritage that is black, Greek, Irish and Cherokee, Seraphina Simone has created a sound that’s wholly her own. These are smart, sun-drenched tales of heartbreak and longing, queer sultry odes to the bad decisions you wished you hadn’t made and the ones you wished you had.
If you listen out for BANKS or Lana Del Ray or Bat for Lashes or Lorde, then you might hear traces, as well as the ghosts of Human League, Blondie, New Order and Cyndi Lauper. These are the songs of a young woman finding a path through an impossible 21st century. She is also none of the above: wholly sui generis. In her hands the ordinary becomes uncanny. With her head in London and her heart in California, Seraphina Simone has written the soundtrack to this longest and strangest of summers.
Seraphina Simone is supported by PRS Foundations’ Women Make Music.
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