Simeon Flick, studio hermit

“The album title is indicative of the bent of the material,” says soulful troubadour Simeon Flick of his upcoming full-length Sub Rosa. “It’s Latin for ‘under the rose,’ so all the songs reveal something of my seamy underbelly. It’s also a tribute to my favorite Pixies album, Surfer Rosa, and, if you say the words together, it sounds a bit like the Spanish word ‘sabrosa,’ which means tasty, flavorful, and delicious.”

DIY is the new order of the day for this, his fifth studio album. “I wrote, performed, engineered, and produced the record myself. It’ll be self-released and only available digitally since CDs, with the exception of their lingering utility at live shows, are now obsolete. I’m also designing the album cover myself this time. That’s the main newness.”

Recorded at his own Blue Chair Studio, Flick says, “Paul Abbott handled the mastering at his ZenMastering facility, putting the final sonic polish on what I honestly feel is my best work to date in all its DIY facets: tighter songs, better production, and more proficient engineering with a clearer result that should inspire a stronger emotional response. Unless you’re a zombie. And, hopefully, it’ll garner some more lucrative career developments on the interwebs and other media.”

Fifteen songs were recorded for the album (with one possibility carried over from the sessions for his previous release Piquant), 11 of which made the final cut. “Of the five outtakes,” says Flick, “there were two I felt could still go out in some capacity, namely as free [preview] downloads, as they struck me as strong aural statements, albeit on the rawer side of my genre spectrum.” The two free outtakes, “Manifesto” and “The Dark Side,” can be downloaded from SoundCloud.

Flick says there probably won’t be a local release party. “I’ve been a studio hermit, and I’ve been gigging a lot with my cover band, Scratch.” That group, formed in early 2010 and featuring Eric Oberschmidt and Mike Strawbridge, has supplanted most public performances of Flick’s own music. “The truth is that people know what they like, and they like what they know, so it’s been a wonderful change of pace to have the easy connection and instant gratification of an approving crowd through playing well-established covers.

“It’s also nice to actually get paid for the pleasure.”