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If, when you think of folk music, you think of strummed acoustic guitar narratives about maidens waiting for their, probably drowned, sailor lover to come home (and in all likelihood played by a bearded guy in an Arran sweater called Brian (I mean that is the musician’s name, not the garment)), then Sonny Siminski is for you. If the term indie music conjures up images of black-clad, cooler-than-thou, ripped-jeaned purveyors of boisterous style-over-substance music, then again, Sonny is your man. If pop music has long ceased to be the accessible and fun place it once was. Then, well, you know…
“Wishful Thinking” is a song that crosses the boundaries of those three genres. I know that doesn’t make it a crossroads, but you know what I’m saying…taking the best of each and deftly swerving any associated cliche and baggage.
From the a capella opening and the lilting guitars, it runs on some very obvious folk traditions, but it is the buoyancy and bounce of acoustic pop that really drives things along, and the indie groove and chilled, hazy harmonies bring it to life.
There is a deftness and a delicacy to the proceedings, a space and understatement that lets the light pour through the song and allows everything to breathe perfectly. There is something otherworldly about the vocal treatments and timeless about its folk spirit.
It’s new; it’s old; it is backward glancing; it is forward-thinking; it is fresh; it is familiar. It is all that and more. How does Sonny Siminski manage to get all that into one song, especially when there is so much space and atmosphere? I guess if we knew that, we’d all be making music this great!
