Tara Simmons

Tara Simmons
Born	March 22, 1984 (1984-03-22)
Origin	Brisbane, Australia
Genres	Folk Pop Alternative Rock Electronica
Years active	2006–present
Labels	Independent
Website	tarasimmons.com

Tara Emily Simmons (born 22 March 1984) is a musician residing in Brisbane, Australia. Simmons is proficient in voice, keys and sometimes cello and is known for her use of bedroom, bathroom and kitchen items to sample extra sounds for her recordings.

History

Tara began to play piano at the age of three and the cello at the age of eight, dabbling in songwriting along the way. Vocal lessons soon followed and she attended a performing arts school that taught her music technology and performance. She then went on to study at university in both production and songwriting at the Queensland University of Technology.

Career

In 2005, Simmons began recording her self-financed, self-produced seven track debut EP Pendulum but quickly shelved it, thinking it wasn't good enough. She eventually sent a copy to Caroline Tran at Australian radio station Triple J radio who took a liking to its lead single 'Everybody Loves You' and played it a number of times. The song also went on to be a finalist at the Q Song Awards 2006 and selected as a feature song for Triple J OzMusic Month. She eventually realized the EP's potential and it was released in August 2006.

Immediately returning to the studio, this time with her cellist Briony Luttrell, Simmons began recording songs for her four track second EP All The Amendments. By the time it was released in February 2007, Simmons had garnered the attention of community and national radio and played as support for My Latest Novel and Home Video.

Triple J radio once again played an important part of the promotion of All The Amendments, playing the EP's lead single 'The Recycling Bin Song'.

In October 2007, Tara had the 11 tracks from her two previous EPs remastered and repackaged onto a single disc compilation entitled EPilation, a term Tara herself created meaning "EP compilation."

Also in October 2007, Tara began work on songs for her debut album with co-producer Briony Luttrell. Recording in the apartment they share, Tara and Briony began work on a track called 'You And Me', which is commonly referred to as "that song with the three cellos" when they perform it live.

In August 2008, a new song from Tara's recent recording sessions called Shake was nominated for a Q Song Award in the Pop Category. On Valentine's Day 2009, Tara once again sold out the Judtih Wright Centre for the launch of her debut album Spilt Milk. She performed the album in its entireity plus "Pendulum" from her first EP and a cover of They Might Be Giants' song Dr. Worm.

In November 2009, Tara released a brand new EP by the name of All You Can. It was a production collaboration between herself and producer Yanto Browning and spawned two radio singles 'All You Can' and 'I Cannot Be Saved'. In May 2010, Tara embarked on her first tour of Vietnam where she played shows to thousands of soldiers.

Most of 2011 was spent in the studio recording with producer Yanto Browning (The Medics, The Jungle Giants) on a full length album. A new song, presumably from these sessions, emerged on YouTube in August called "Honey" though it's not indicated if this will be from the forthcoming release. The first official single was played on Australia's national youth broadcaster triple j on August 11, 2011 on Zan Rowe's show and it was soon after available on iTunes backed with "Honey".

Band members

On stage, Simmons plays with a unique configuration of band including:

• Tara Simmons: vocals, keys, laptap, cello
• Briony Luttrell: cello
• Emma Hales: cello
• Chris O'Neill: drums
• Justin Bliss: double bass

Discography

Albums

• Spilt Milk (February, 2009)

EPs

• Pendulum (August, 2006)
• All The Amendments (February, 2007)
• All You Can (November 2009)

Singles

• "Everybody Loves You" (2006)
• "The Recycling Bin Song" (2007)
• "When You Say That I Don't Care About You" (2009)
• "All You Can" (2009)
• "I Cannot Be Saved" (2010)
• "Be Gone" b/w "Honey" (2011)

Compilations

• EPilation (2008)

Soundtrack Appearances

• All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane (2007)

Track: Everybody Loves You

• SLiDE (2011)

Track: I Cannot Be Saved

Compilation appearances

• Songs Of Applewood (2007)

Track: Go And Stop with Guy Webster

External links

• Official website
• Tara Simmons at MySpace
• Tara Simmons @ Sonic Bids
• Interview with Time Off magazine February 2007
• Review of Pendulum in Time Off magazine November 2006
• Review of All The Amendments in Rave magazine February 2007
• Tara Simmons on Brispop.com
• Interview In Time Off October 2007