Sarina Simoom

Sarina simoom is the name of a Denver based band. Consisting of Jenna Herbst, on guitar and lead vocals, Tim Eggert on bass and backup vocals, and Todd Bills on drums. Sarina simoom’s music is as enchanting as it is dark and haunting.

I recently had a chance to catch up with Jenna. Here’s what she said:

FEMMUSIC: The name Sarina simoom is unique, how did the name come about?

JH: When I was little I read this book called Behind the Attic Wall. In it… The little girl in it had a spirit that she spoke to, and she wrote to in her diary that sort of watched over her, gave her advice, and helped her with her life. I just really wanted one so I gave her a name, Sarina, and I wrote to her in my diary. So that’s Sarina.

And then…simoom is just the name that I gave to Sarina which actually means a sand wind, in the African Desert. So that’s where I got the name.

FEMMUSIC: How would you classify the music that you play?

JH: I would classify it…I guess my goal is that it be classified as unclassifiable because I really yearn in my art to do something new and different. I just find a lot of satisfaction in trying to explore new styles. Unfortunately..not unfortunately..Fortunately there’s so much out there, and there’s so much going on that what I end up doing is fusing things that I’ve heard or that have influenced me. Different styles. So I really hope it’s not classifiable, that’s really my goal. But I’m sure there are other people that would classify it.

FEMMUSIC: What sort of things do you fuse?

JH: Well..I grew up on punk rock. So my especially my earlier music which I don’t even know if you’ve really heard cause I haven’t played you that stuff and I don’t play a lot of it anymore, has a lot of edge to it. And I definitely think I’ve been influenced by the intensity of punk rock. And the emotion, and the emotional response to life. You know that , that’s influenced my music. And just music with an edge. You know I tend to not write really happy songs as you, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. But as I’ve grown I got really into Latin music. So a lot of the rhythms I use with the full band is based on flamenco guitar that I’ve listened to. I’ve never taken guitar lessons so it’s not something that I really know formally. But it’s definitely influenced my music a lot. Jazz has influenced my vocal style a lot. Cause I listen to mainly jazz at home. Jazz and Latin and classical music and things. I think classical music has influenced my music greatly. because that was my first instrument was violin so I studied classical music as a child. and um I think that’s BIG in there. Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and Vivaldi and . I think that’s in there. I can feel it at least.

FEMMUSIC: That leads me to the next question, you said you play violin, as well as guitar, do you play anything else?

JH: Not really. I learned piano as a very small child, like three years old. But I didn’t stay with it. Actually I’m taking piano right now so so talk to me in a few months so maybe I’ll feel more comfortable about it. Saying that I play it, I wouldn’t saying that I play piano right now. I play cello, but I’ve never been able to really own one so that’s a bit frustrating. The voice is really, I do dabble in drums..I do play a little of the kit but again I’ve never owned a drum set so I wouldn’t say a drummer. I really think voice is my favorite instrument.

FEMMUSIC: Where are you from originally, and how long have you been in Colorado?

JH: Well I guess I consider myself to be from the Washington, D.C. area. I moved there when I was twelve, so I did a lot of growing up there. And that’s where I did all of my playing out. On the East Coast in NY, and Philadelphia and Washington D.C. before I moved here. I moved here right before, probably about six months before you saw me play. So a year ago last August.

FEMMUSIC: I Didn’t realize it was that recently.

JH: On yeah I consider myself to have just moved here. That’s how I feel. And I’m new to Denver, and I just moved to Denver this August so. Boy it’s coming up on two years, that’s scary.

FEMMUSIC: You’re in college now? What is your major & minor?   What are your plans when you graduate?

JH: God..Mom…That’s funny…well up until this semester…I was biology major and that’s what I’ve done part time for the past three years actually. This semester, I’m a violin major.

FEMMUSIC: Wow!

JH: I just changed my majors. So now I’m a violin major. It remains to be seen whether I will ever graduate. But I’m learning, and I just really enjoying learning I have to be stimulated, and I really think I might have to double major in Anthropology actually, because I took a biological anthropology class last semester that just blew my mind so I might have to do that. I don’t know. I’m interested in just about everything so..so I don’t know..we’ll see what I end up with.

And as far as goals after graduation…I really don’t have any. My main is my focus is my music and being an artist…My goals are really being an artist..a good artist and following my spiritual path. Those are my goals. Beyond that..nothing really specific.

FEMMUSIC: You mentioned that punk rock influenced you, jazz has influenced you which artists specifically?

JH: So many. Tom Waits was a huge influence on me as a teenager. I just rhythmically, and the instrumentation that he would employ in his albums. The diversity of his music just impressed me. And the darkness of it really, really appealed to me. So he was a huge influence on me.

Latin music …. Strungz & Farah. New one I just got Oscar Lopez, saw him at the Winnepeg Folk Festival. He was great.I go Salsa dancing every week. (laugh) I think it’s in my head you know.

Jazz, oh..god Sarah Vaughn. Charles Mingus has been a huge influence on me. I think just the avant-guard nature of his his music is really appealing to me within the jazz context. God I know I’m forgetting

billions of people. And every day I’m introduced to something new that blows my mind. So it’s a never-ending list there really.

Certainly all the jazz vocalists..all the greats…Ella, Billie Holiday I mean, gosh so many..I’ll get back to you on that. (laugh) Just kidding.

FEMMUSIC: Where do you get your ideas for songs?

JH: Generally emotional response to life. I tend not to think of my songs as ideas,though I guess they are in a sense. But really it’s the way I respond to life is to write music. I think that we sort of have the ebb and flow of emotion that’s very fluid. We go from a happy morning, to a mellow afternoon, sad evening a content night. We have these different feelings that are changing moment to moment and I sometimes become inspired to translate those into music. As far as words go I guess there’s sort of an organization of that of that emotion. As you’ve probably noticed I don’t write in story form , so it generally comes to me while I’m actually playing , playing an instrument words will come, melody sort of comes in one package usually

Occasionally I write a poem and put it to music but that’s rare.

FEMMUSIC:What is your favorite song (of all the things you’ve written) , and why?

JH: (long pause) You know…I don’t have one. I would say that I had one but it just happens to be the one I just wrote but it’s always the one I just wrote. Cause I feel the most connected to it. I get tired of my songs very quickly and I don’t want to play them anymore. Luckily I have people around me who encourage to keep playing them, and that’s the only reason they get played, like my band …But I don’t really have a favorite song because really it is the one I feel most connected to which is the one I’ve written most recently. You know.

FEMMUSIC: “No Momma” is a very powerful song about abortion

JH: It’s actually called “Lost in the Bushes.” Which is from a Barbara Kingsolver book..god which one is it..I can’t remember…I’ve read all her books. Except the new one. I haven’t read the new one yet.

But she’s a great writer. And in it a young woman, the song not about that young woman, the song is personal song. But is also song that mirrors the experience of so many women. The one, this character has a child which she rejects. She kills it. She throws it in the bushes behind her house. It’s a powerful book. It was a powerful scene. And the emotion of being pregnant of giving birth I think was represented so well in that in that scene there. So I named that, “Lost in the Bushes.” Did you have a question about the song?

FEMMUSIC: How did you come up with the song, and how do you feel personally about abortion?

JH: Well I had one. And how I feel how I personally and how I feel politically are though connected, slightly different. I feel very sad about my experience. It was very sad experience. I felt when I was pregnant, extremely joyous. I don’t know if other women have this experience but I was only pregnant for twelve weeks or less than that probably. They make you wait I think 8-12 weeks before you have an abortion cause you can have an incomplete procedure if they don’t. So I was pregnant you know for a good amount of weeks that during that time I felt joyous. And and the contrast on the experience of the abortion was profound for me. And I don’t feel abortion is wrong in any sense. I don’t believe you are killing a life. I think that abortion is a lesson for the mother, given to the mother by that embryo, by that fertilized egg. That is a lesson..that is such an invaluable lesson that I will carry with me to my death in this life.

I’m thankful that I don’t have a child now because I’ve been given this life to lead , and I wasn’t ready at that time in my life. I was heavy into drug use, and was not at all fit to be a mother. Not emotionally or situationally prepared. And I think that freedom to have an abortion is an absolutely necessary. I also know that there are some women, including my mother who had an abortion when I was a child, who don’t feel saddened by it at all. That .aren’t affected by it. I think it’s an individual experience but I though it was profound for me, and I was compelled to write that song and to have this emotional response. I still believe it’s absolutely an intrinsic and necessary that abortion be available to all women. So that’s how I feel about abortion.

FEMMUSIC: Tell me about the band, and how you’ve met?

JH: How we met. That’s kind of funny actually. (Pause for break)

And how I met them was actually I moved to Boulder last year and I got job working full time at the Ideal Market. Todd worked in produce and I worked in the deli. (laugh) And he heard that I played music, and I’d moved to Colorado, in part to long break from music since I, I just needed a break for many different reasons and wasn’t ready to have another band and getting going again. But he heard that I wrote songs, and was a musician and he approached me one day at work, and we didn’t even really know each other, and asked me if I would play him some of my stuff.

And I said, “Yeah maybe.” Maybe, and I don’t know, and I kinda blew him off. And he bugged me for over a month and then finally showed up at my house and made me play for him. So I played for him. And a we just connected. And he showed up with Tim, a week later, and we jammed in the living room and since then we’ve been a trio so. We’re hoping to add, possibly a keyboardist, who would sing backup as well. Tim actually sings backup as well. But I want to get a third vocalist, another woman, and cause I believe a female voice would add something to it and would like another melodic instrument in the band so. So we’re kinda playing around with that idea right now.

FEMMUSIC: How do you feel Sarina simoon works as group? How are you functioning with it?

JH: I think (how are we functioning) I think we work really well together. Great chemistry. It’s very positive experience. We all love to practice, and we do it as much as possible. Very dedicated members which I feel lucky about since they’re also great players. …. a really good lineup right now. I feel actually much more positive about this lineup than I did about my lineup in DC.

We had had more personality difficulties I should say. (nervous laughter) Actually I was dating one of the members for three years. That really strained stuff. You could say there were some personality conflicts. But it’s really great. They’re great guys. They’re beautiful people and great players so it’s really very nice.

FEMMUSIC: How else do you spend your free time when not at school, or with the band? Hobbies?

JH: Oh, there’s not much there. God I’m a notoriously busy person. I really do fill up my day a little too much. Ah, but I try to fit in yoga and meditation daily. I do Vipassana mediation which is Buddhist meditation which is from the Theravadin tradition. Early Buddhism. I do a lot of reading it that area, as much as I can, being in school, and doing all sorts of other things. Boy my music takes up a lot of my time cause I play a lot.

I’m really a people person. I really enjoy having a sense of community in my life so that means I talk on the phone a lot. (laugh) I talk to my mom. She’s my soulmate. We talk probably at least every day, if not every other day. That takes up a lot of time.

That’s it I guess. I cook a lot. I love to cook. Love to cook , so I cook as much as I can. Got Millions of cookbooks.

FEMMUSIC: Do you have any specialties?

JH: Well I’m a vegetarian and I don’t eat milk products cause I’m lactose intolerant. So my specialty is finding ways to make really tasty food without any of those ingredients. Which is actually not hard at all. There’s actually a lot of literature out nowadays as to how to do that.

FEMMUSIC: You’re involved in Women from Mars, how did that come about?

JH: Well actually I know Jude (Singer of Junis Ponds, a founding member of Women from Mars) because the guys that I play with actually played with her for a little while. She needed a bass player and a drummer so they helped her out for about ten shows. They’re not playing with her now, but that’s how I know her.

And actually I also know Libby Kirkpatrick. She’s a friend of mine. We’ve played shows together, so that was another connection in. I just knew the people running it so they just called me.

FEMMUSIC: Are you planning any recordings in the future, either solo, with the band, or part of Women from Mars?

JH: The recording we have planned are the following: we are going to be doing a recording actually in a few weeks, probably just a couple of songs. I want to get a demo together with my present lineup. The one I have is not really representative of how we sound now. So we’re going to do that in a couple of weeks and then we’re hoping to record a CD over the summer. That is a tentative plan so I know this on tape, that’s definitely tentative. We’ll have to see how the funds work out but it’s looking good so that’s the plan  

FEMMUSIC: Where do you see yourself in five years?

JH: Um living in Barcelona, in a flat. Which they probably wouldn’t call that there but “un apartamento” Playing out as much as I can, writing tons of music. Honesty I don’t tend to think about the future. I’m not a future thinker. I try to as much as I can to live in the present. Cause I feel like the future is just the abyss. I’m a person who stresses out a lot. I have a lot of stress. It’s better for me if I just stay here and now. It works better for me. I tend to create expectations if I viewfind the future too much in my head. Then I create expectations…

I do feel like I would like to be living out of the country that’s really a goal of mine. I’m not sure if it will really happen in five years but it’s definitely a goal.

FEMMUSIC: If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it, and why?

JH: (Sigh) What would I do with it? Well, first of all, I must say the first thing that pops into my mind is my mother. This wouldn’t take up that much money but I would definitely get her out of employment immediately. She has, she has two auto-immune diseases and I find it appalling that this society expects her to work. I really do. She should be on disability but unfortunately disability does not recognize um auto-immune diseases, chronic illness so she has to work for a living. So I would definitely support her and the rest of my family. My father doesn’t really need my help but my sister I would offer her help.

And I think my loyalty, there’s so much in the world that needs assistance. And boy if you really think about all the things, a million dollars is just very little. But I find little inclination to do much more than support myself in a just adequate fashion. I don’t have a real desire to be wealthy. I feel like I have just about everything I need right now. And I don’t have any money.

I think I would try my hardest to just offer it to offer it really to the world. I don’t know how I would do it. I’ve never really thought about that what I would actually do with money. But I definitely think feel my family would be my first priority.

FEMMUSIC: What else would you like to tell our readers’ about you and Sarina simoon?

JH: I guess I would say, I want to verbally express my support to all the women out there since this is a women’s ‘zine. Which I think is beautiful because I think musically women have so much to offer. It’s been more recent that they’ve of , god I mean it hasn’t been long that we’ve been able to vote. No less express ourselves in the arts in a really prominent way.

And that’ s starting to really happen, and I support all those women who are attempting to to find a venue for themselves to be heard in a way to that doesn’t contribute to the massive commercialization of just about everything in this country. And people like Ani DiFranco who have shown that there is such incredible beauty in conducting your musical business in a way that exudes integrity that. And small ‘zines like this are another example, and I feel lucky to be a part of it. And that’s how I want to contribute, not just musically , but politically in the way that I conduct my musical business. So I feel lucky to be a part of this ‘zine, and to be a part of Women From Mars and all the other positive things I’m behind.

FEMMUSIC: Thank you.

Sarina simoon can be reached at Sarina8@aol.com