Harry Luke Mulvany's AS Coursework: February 2011

Guy, Uninterrupted. (1,744 Words)

He’s sitting in his seat at the 53^rd Grammy Awards in the Staples Centre, Los Angeles. Lady GaGa is just finishing performing her eagerly anticipated yet somewhat anti-climactic new single ‘Born This Way’ when the next award is ready to be presented. Kings of Leon appear from backstage in order to present the winner the award, stating their positions behind the intimidatingly stern gold-painted podium. They open the envelope and read out the choices, with ‘Best Indie Pop Artist’ being the category. The names are called; Florence & The Machine, Drake, Justin Bieber, Mumford & Sons, and Daniel Simmons. A few seconds pass, the anticipation is felt throughout the huge stadium, when his name is finally called.

Daniel Simmons. This is the name of a 19 year old who was born and raised in East London on the Isle of Dogs. As a child he was always known for him playing the lead male role in all of his school’s musical productions. However, regardless of how excited and proud he must be about that, he may be slightly better know more recently as a man who managed to reach number 1 with his first ever single ‘Turning My Back’ on just iTunes downloads alone. Not only did he reach number 1, but he managed to stay there for an impressive 11 weeks, blowing any other first time single for an artist right out of the water. This isn’t it though. See, he wasn’t planning on living off his 11 week number 1 single for the rest of his life, and certainly not planning on going back to his school production of Grease, again, however exciting that may be, but was planning to do the impossible for a beginning artist and swing for it a second time. Not only did he throw a damn good swing, but he kept on swinging, and now that little swing in the park that was enjoyed and loved by the local people on the Isle of Dogs is now enjoyed and loved around the world. We know this because, as you probably already knew or have already guessed, Daniel won not only 1 award for ‘Best Indie Pop Artist’, but went on to win an amazing 6 others, joining ranks with the likes of Lady GaGa and Taylor Swift for most awards won in just one ceremony. This makes him one of the most popular artists in the USA at the moment, and much like his number 1 single he’s taking it for all it’s worth, and then some. Ironically, at the Grammy’s (which was held 4 days ago on Monday), he received his award straight after the return of the former queen of Pop, and frankly all things strange Miss Lady GaGa, who only managed to pick up 3 awards, that being small compared to her old record and that of which Daniel has set, yet still a lot for other artists like Nicki Minaj who surprisingly managed to not even get nominated. So why am I telling you this you ask? Well I know the metaphor I explained Daniel’s situation with earlier comparing him to a park swing is physically impossible, but the metaphor is perfect in terms of explaining Mr. Simmons’s sudden rise to success which led to his 7 Grammy win which is also adjacent to the amount of number 1’s he has received, almost like an award for each time he managed to entertain us with his brilliant singer/song-writing abilities. I know what your thinking, why are we using this metaphor to describe him, right? Well, at REVOLUTION we’ve realized that we’ve seen the whole of Daniels story, its unfolded right before our eyes from his surprising, and first ever, shot to number 1, to now, 7 number 1’s including 6 singles and the album in which they fall under. So in our interview with Mr. Simmons’s, will there be anything we can ask that we probably don’t already know? And then we remembered, “Yes, yes there is”. And the one thing we are unsure about, and trust me we did look, something of which if you’re a fan of Simmons’s then you will know that the one thing that has never been mentioned in previous interviews before this would be his childhood. We want to know, and excuse me as I return to my well observed metaphor, is what it was like when he was first created and he realized that he was made to swing, to be enjoyed and to entertain people. What was it like the first time he ever started to swing, and he knew that was exactly what he wanted to do. What is was like the first time you began to swing, what it felt like to entertain people even if it be just his neighbours or his school friends. And also that moment you knew it wasn’t just a hobby, it was a career. These are the things we wanted to know, so when it came to interviewing Simmons we asked these things, minus the metaphorical swing of course. This is Daniel uninterrupted…

“When I was younger I used to be painfully shy. I used to hate getting up in front of people, or having the attention focused on me, back then I wouldn’t have even considered considering doing what I’m doing now, performing a song and it being watched by millions and millions of people. No way in hell. But as I got older, this was when I was about 12, I started to become interested in singing. I would sing casually around the house and my mum would always tell me that I was good, but I never believed her. You always saw those pushy parents on TV saying their child was a brilliant singer but when they open their mouth you can’t tell their voice from a bag of screaming cats!” (laughs).

So how did you finally being to get into singing?

“So I thought nothing of it then, until one day in secondary school, year 8 or 9 it must have been, I was asked to take part in a school production by my drama teacher at the time. I didn’t have a clue why she asked me out of anybody, so I was curious and asked what play it was and what part she would want me to do, and she said that she’s holding a production of Grease and she wanted me to play Danny. I was in total shock, I still didn’t have a clue why she was asking because I knew for a fact she’d never heard me sing before, I wasn’t confident enough at that time, even though I’d come out of my shell much more compared to what I was. So she said there was no pressure and I could just practice a song just in front of her to see if I was ok with doing it, then once that song slowly started creaping out of my mouth there was no bloody way of putting it back in and there never has been since!” (laughs)

So did you find out how she knew you were good in the end?

“Yeah I did, it turns out my mum had rung the school and had been talking to my drama teacher for a while then because she was worried with how shy I was, and she told my teacher that I was a good singer. Obviously she couldn’t just go by my mother’s word alone, especially if she knew my mum (laughs), so I thought back to the day before I was asked and I remember my mum asked me to sing a song just for her cause she wasn’t feeling well, so I sung ‘She’s Out Of my Life’ by Michael Jackson and my mum recorded it and played it to my teacher!”

Now that you had really come into your own, how did you take it that step further and become professional?

“Well like I said before, once I starred in my first school production that was it, the ball started rolling and it only became more and more serious in my head over time. By the time it had come to leave secondary school and the opportunity to temporarily fulfill what I didn’t know then was my future career by singing in school productions was taken away, I knew that I couldn’t just let it slip through my fingers, I felt like I had only just started so there was no way I was ready to already give it up. So I begged my mum to let me go to a college focused on music and all that stuff but I realize now that all the colleges that specialized in music were in the other side of London and my mum just had enough money for me to get food and books let alone paying for a train every morning. So then I knew I had to go about it another way, so one day I saw this advert in the paper for young male singers/actor wanted to try out for a small part in a film that was being shot not far from my area. So I decided to go to it, blissfully unaware of how under-prepared I was for the audition, and tried it out. I got about 30 seconds with the casting director before I pushed aside and told that they’ll ‘Let me know’. So as I’m going to leave I’m approached by a man who says that he liked my voice and I should give him a call, and passed me his card and just walked off. Not forgetting I was about 17 by this time so obviously I’ve gave him a call blah blah blah, then finally after two years I recorded a little song called ‘Turning My Back’ and I still haven’t turned!”

Finally, as the interview came to an end and I shook his hand, he said, ‘Thank You” to me, then started walked backwards out of the hotel room door. I asked him, “What are you doing?”, laughing at the absurd action he was miming, and he replied, “I told you, I never turn my back to things, and that includes people.”, before he reversed himself out of the hotel room door, swinging his arms back and forward until he finally disappeared into the blinding lights of the paparazzi waiting at the door.

By Harry Luke Mulvany

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