From the Sydney Opera House to Budapest to London’s West End, from arts festivals in Adelaide, Edinburgh and Tasmania, Mikelangelo, the “Nightingale of the Adriatic”, the “Balkan Elvis”, appeared with his new band, the Long Lost Friends, at Petersham Bowlo on March 21 and left the crowd singing, swaying and spellbound.
After building a worldwide following with the Black Sea Gentlemen and releasing 15 independent albums, Mikelangelo (aka Michael Simic) has settled with his young family in the relative wilderness of Braidwood in the NSW Southern Highlands.
Before his Sydney show he spoke with SSH about masculinity, parenthood, community and storytelling.
Over two decades of frenetic touring and performing eased when Michael Simic settled with his family in Braidwood, a creative hub for artists, designers and craftspeople, nestled by the winding Shoalhaven River, now a major influence on his music and on life in general.
Simic had lived in cities for most of his life but said he was a nature boy at heart. Moving to Braidwood seemed like coming home.
“There is something about the river and the landscape is magic.
“Being there with the kids – on bushwalks, visiting the river and the beach, getting out and into it – gets me out of my head and into the moment. The songs have grown out of that.”
When one of his children was born in 2019, he took six months off and the songs just came.
“We had been living in a converted church but Rose, my wife, suggested I get a caravan in the garden and use it as a workspace.
“I wrote there at night and the music flowed out. The beautiful bush landscape brought all those songs.”
Simic found some local musicians to play with. Little by little, in various gigs, people started coming together, eventually forming the new band.
“We had different lives and different histories, but it came together. It was a moment of comfort and I was happy to be playing music.”
A gentle man
Simic has described himself as “a man for all seasons – a singer, a songwriter, a performer, an artist and a gentleman”.
He said, “Being a gentle man is more important than ever. Gentle not as weak – though there are times for weakness – but to have the confidence (or even no confidence) to be gentle with yourself. That’s the hardest thing to learn: not to be hard on yourself. If you are kind to yourself it is easier to be kind to others.
“I do think to some degree men (and the world) are in a crisis of sorts. It’s an opportunity for men to stand up and be the selves they are meant to be; not to be derailed into aggression but to protect people so they can have the life they need.”
But he wondered where a young man could look for a role model; someone who was unapologetic about themselves without attacking others.
“The role of artists is more important than ever,” he said.
Simic said he learned it was more important to be a dad than be an artist in the world.
Covid lockdown was a reprieve. And in 2022 he became a stay-at-home dad, letting go of his younger, constantly performing self, so the family could be happy and thriving.
His songs are still his “children”, but the perspective has changed. There has been a shift. Relationships – all the joy and frustration – are in his songs.
“I hope you like it but, if you don’t, that’s fine.”
Personal story
At the same time as touring with Long Lost Friends, Mikelangelo was breaking out in a solo show called In the Belly of the Whale, which tells how Simic first came face to face with his alter-ego Mikelangelo and how the two are inextricably linked.
The show, created in collaboration with writer/director Tracy Bourne, is about making peace with his dad so he could be a good father himself.
“It allowed me a big emotional scope. It was a personal story that I needed Tracy to help me make.”
The Mikelangelo persona came to Simic three decades ago as if to remind him that he was okay. While he was seriously doubting himself, a voice inside him said, “I believe in you. Everything is not as hopeless as it seems.”
In his late 20s he wrote songs that were quiet and melancholy – beautiful, sad, hopeful songs. He recorded them but had nowhere to use them.
For his debut Sydney show with the Long Lost Friends, Simic pressed a limited run of that solo album – Lost Recordings– recorded in 1999 by Matt Hills at Happy Valley studios in Melbourne.
“The songs from that time are still pertinent and it is good to revisit how I began on this journey: this personal journey of writing songs and this public journey of performing them.”
Storyteller
Mikelangelo’s diverse projects span atmospheric rock and folk, through to large-scale works for theatre. The Long Lost Friends play a mix of roots rock, pop and Euro folk, all delivered with Mikelangelo’s trademark charm, energy, theatrics and banter.
There is no simple answer to what kind of music he plays. He tells people, “I’m a storyteller who tells stories through songs.”
He said, “Johnny Cash said, ‘I’m a folk singer because I play music for folk.’ I feel connected to troubadours from other eras; we are connected to other ancient practices. We tell stories and sing stories in songs, using different tools but doing the same job.”
Simic said because he was a song-man and storyteller, his songs had a relationship with one another. And he had stories that surrounded the songs so people could get into them.
For instance, there are lots of driving and highway songs since he moved to the country, “with the rhythm of driving and being in the landscape, where life is all around you. And being in the car is an internal, metaphysical landscape where life is a journey.”
The stories that emerged were the sum of his influences, beginning with the records of his father. “The songs are informed by a musical landscape and each musical style is a palette of colour.
“Sometimes the listener makes up the story from the drama of the music.”
Simic said his songs weren’t didactic. “Songs that move me allow me the space to enter the songs. I engage deeply in the process of what is going on in the song, getting lost in its world.
“Songs are beautiful, amorphous things, like fairy dust; our subconscious world lives in them. A song helps us connect with the strange magic of the world. People connect differently according to their own journey.”
Loss, beauty and rebirth
While many of Mikelangelo’s performances are known for their humour and hilarity, songs on his albums are often marked by melancholy. But he said melancholy was the best cure for depression.
“There is a sadness of letting go of things, but loss is a part of life, like beauty and rebirth. So part of my response to that is to laugh, to laugh at myself. With a live audience it is an empowered space, a privilege. My energy for everything gets bigger and elevated.”
He said, “Our lives are full of sadness, humour and joy, and Mikelangelo’s shows reflect that. During a show there are quiet moments when people can sink into a different feeling.”
Songs and community
Reflecting on his home in Braidwood and performing in Petersham, Mikelangelo said, community was more important than ever.
“The world now seems fractured. But community is like songs: people have come together forever because we feel like we are part of something. Live music brings people together in a room, partaking of a shared experience. If it is a good show it stays with us the rest of our lives.
“Petersham Bowlo is a community hub; it’s a beautiful thing.”
He said, “I have communities all around the world; musicians and people who come to the shows. All those worlds live in us simultaneously.”
The Long Lost Friends first played live together last September after rehearsing for five months and worked up songs during the current tour before going into the studio.
“We have a lovely repertoire of songs that we’ll take to Old Binda Road Studio at Crookwell, which has a good set-up for a live band. We’re looking forward to it.”
