Meet Tristan Simone

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tristan Simone. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tristan below.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
My name is Tristan Simone and I was born in the Kingdom of Spain. I am a singer-songwriter and performer from our capital, Madrid, but have been moving around all my life. From a young age, I knew music and entertainment were going to be my future. I’ve been writing records and performing since I was twelve. In many ways, one thing I’ve been very lucky about is knowing early on what I wanted and didn’t. That much was clear to me the day music hit my soul for the first time.

I have always loved Hip-Hop, and inside the pool of different things I do, Hip-Hop has always been there for me and opened the doors to musical curiosity. Through Hip-Hop, I fell in love with Jazz, Gospel, Flamenco, Folklore and Indie music. Growing up, I never felt there was a rapper that told my story, and it inspired me to take it upon myself to share my unique experience through music. I felt it as an obligation to myself and any other kids out there who were told they couldn’t do things based on their gender, race, location, family values, or orientation. It opened doors to business, entrepreneurship, creative thinking, politics, international relations, and some amazing collaborations within the industry.

After launching my career in the United States, I decided to expand the boarders of my art and started jumping back and forth from the Kingdom of Spain into the United States, Costa Rica, Italy, Portugal, and other Latin American and European territories. I realised that I had good friends in every corner, so why limit my art to my geography? What happens if you fuse the best of the places and people you know into your art? That is the era of my life I find myself in. And trust me when I say, lots of new music is coming.

The thing I am most excited about my project at the moment, is the new music we’ve been working on. I have a really fun project coming up with my dear friend and producer of the project, Luis Soto. We’ve been working on a concept surrounding themes of living under the rule of a Kingdom in the 21st Century. Who am I, a rapper or musician, under the system of a monarchy? My whole life I grew up in republics with presidents, but what does my story sound like or differ from, when I submerge myself in a country built over castles and complex heritage? How do my lyrical responsibilities change? What is my role? It’s a fascinating topic that I’ve been exploring in what we’ve been creating lately.

Things in Europe move slower, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I see the humanity of my American counterparts suppressed by excessive capitalism, dream chasing and overworking. Yes, they get results quickly, but they lose themselves in the process. I’m grateful to have a balance and foot inside the United States and Europe. Funny, I had never felt like an “Artist” until I found myself running barefoot through castles in northern Spain.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Looking back, I think my greatest quality is the amount of times I fail. I don’t mean this in a negative way, but in a character-building way. I anticipate a lot of failure during the execution of my ideas, and I learn quickly from them. I embarrass myself fast and in front of whoever needs to see it, because the sooner I make all my mistakes, the sooner I will polish my future work. People waste their whole lives being embarrassed and fearful of what others might say. They value popularity over self-excellence. I don’t have time for these people. And trust me when I say those are the people that are going to come for you. They cannot stand to see you fail, get up, and try again. I might sound a little hostile while saying this, but stay away from cowards. They wish to have your heart.

Use disadvantages to your advantage. What I mean by this is always to try to find light of a dark situation. I have struggled with depression for a long portion of my life. I learned to work around it instead of letting it take over me. I often anticipate it, so I figured out ways of still taking steps forward even in my bad days. I allow it to manifest in my lyrics and other art forms instead of letting it win. Even if all I get to do in a day is write a small poem or train of thought, I’ve done something. And that matters, specially in the long run.

The most impactful thing to me in my years of music was liberating myself from the rules and expectations life and the industry places over artists. If my music works, great, if it doesn’t, great. If the quality of your life is good or you have found your people, there isn’t a need for fame. As a matter of fact, fame only ruins lives. Seldom have I seen happy people in music. And most of the unhappy people are that way because they conflate their feelings of wanting to be perceived as successful, with feelings of genuine internal success. If you learn to separate and articulate the kind of success you want, life gets better.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
The most important thing to me in times of great stress or added weight, is to find small moments where I can touch grass or have a good view of the city from a cliff. We get so caught up in meetings, studio time, work, answering texts and calls, etc, that we forget we are human. Quite delicate beings. Small moments of airplane mode and wind hitting my face during dusk, those are my favorite moments. It’s a reminder that I get to decide how much I want to engage with the madness that is the world. While living from music is a sincere and very real struggle, a good perk it that we are pretty self-aware and work hard on not losing that. I can’t speak for others, but certainly me and my circles.

Organisation is also a huge stress reliever for me. When I feel tense or overwhelmed, I start mapping out the rest of my month in detail, I clean my room, I call my manager, I space out the work as best as I can, and find moments of social time and interaction. A social life outside of music is absolutely crucial to my happiness and stability.

My ways of dealing with being overwhelmed are particular to my experience. Everyone handles it differently, but I encourage everyone who feels like they can’t think straight due to stress, to walk to a cliff and sit at the top while the city lights turn on.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Images with the band are by SoFar Sounds Madrid and the rest are owned by me.

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