Simi Sohota - Healing Potpourri Interview
Born and raised in Toronto, Sohota and his family moved to Northern California at just the age of four. He was influenced early on by Bollywood music his parents would listen too. He would later find the music that one of his sisters was listening to quickly sharpening his musical pallet and by the time he was in middle school, he was fully submerged. Prior to Healing Potpourri, Sohota participated in groups such as Produce Produce, Monterey Babe Aquarium, Gaarth, Burgers and G. Green. In 2013 he moved to San Fran to further pursue his music and find a community of like minded folks. During the pandemic Sohota released “Blanket Of Calm”, and “Paradise” and has been paving a way for HP ever since!
When and where were you born? When did you first begin to fall in love with music? Was this something that was relevant around your households growing up? Do you have any siblings?
I was born in ‘89 in a suburb of Toronto, but I only spent the first few years of my life there. From age 4 on I’ve lived in northern California. I’ve been obsessed with music from a young age, probably first influenced by the Bollywood music my parents listened to from the 60s to the 90s. Then stealing my older sister’s CDs and getting into alternative rock. By middle school and high school I was full blown obsessed, learning about bands from allmusic and blogs and downloading stuff off of Soulseek. I have two sisters and a brother, we’re all pretty interested in music.
Who were some of your earliest influences? When and where did you see your first concert and when did it dawn on you that you wanted to be a musician? An artist. When and where did you play your first gig and what was that experience like for you?
My first concert was seeing Tool at the Oakland Arena the summer after 7th grade, my older sister took me and my brother. I was obsessed with them! The first gig I ever played was at a coffee shop called Panama Bay in downtown Livermore when I was in high school. My friend Taso and I started our first band where we played classical duets on nylon string guitars, a few instrumental lounge versions of classic rock songs and some flamenco style originals. I remember being so nervous that my hands were shaking and I just stopped playing in the middle of a duet. At the end of the song everyone clapped and didn’t even realize it, I think. I still get terribly nervous playing live, but I can usually finish at least a whole song now, haha.
Did you participate in any groups, or projects prior to Healing Potpourri? What inspired the very unique name? Tell me about writing and recording the group’s 2013 debut “The Way Water Bends Light”. What was the process of creating this album as well as some background to songs such as “Lucky Music”, “Shivering Hands Touching Fingers” and “Breezy Glistening”. How did the deal with Brad Grammar come about?
When I was in college at UC Davis I lived in a pretty creative house full of other college radio DJs and musicians. We had a hobby of starting short-lived bands of all genres to open for touring bands we’d book to play at our house the “Villanova House'', or “Chillanova.” I was in tons of bands before starting Healing Potpourri. A pop band called Produce Produce with my brother, a synth trio called Monterey Babe Aquarium, a lo-fi black metal band called Gaarth, a no-wave band called Burgers, a punk band from Sacramento called G. Green. By around 2011 I wanted to create an outlet for my interest in making ambient and new age stuff, which is how Healing Potpourri started. I got the name from a bag of potpourri I saw at a thrift store that was sort of glowing from a shimmering ray of light on it pouring through a skylight. Those early songs were all made from loops I’d make on cheap thrift store keyboards through guitar pedals, along with sampling on an SP-303. Brad Grammar was an experimental art collective I was a part of at the time that participated in group shows, collaborations, performances and parties. It also sort of acted as our group record label, where we released all of our projects, some cassette tapes, records, and digital-only releases.
Tell me about writing the group’s 2016 follow up. How did you want to go about bringing this album of songs to life that differed from the approach and overall process of your debut? What was the overall vision for this album and what did you want to express with this work?
I moved to San Francisco in 2013 and dove into the local scene of weirdo pop bands and started writing more pop songs of my own. I met a ton of people by going to shows all the time and started recruiting a live band. That tape is sort of at the end of a purely ambient phase and the start of my pop phase, and contains elements of both. Up until that album I was still doing most everything myself, including all the recording and artwork.
2020-2022 was a busy few years for you with the release of “Blanket Of Calm”, and “Paradise” during a rather difficult time to say the least. Tell me about writing and recording these albums and all the influence, perspective and emotion that went into these works. How did the deal with Run For Cover Records come about?
Once I had a steady band I got much more into pop songwriting and collaborations. Blanket of Calm marked a huge step up for me in songwriting, adding much more complexity and harmony. The writing and recording of that album was a very happy and busy time for me. It was co-produced by my friends Jack Brown and Jason Kick who really helped kick HP up a notch. I toured with the band Turnover in Europe for a month in 2019, where we became good friends. I sent them some of the Healing Potpourri stuff I was working on and they sent it to their label, Run For Cover, who signed us pretty quickly after that. Blanket of Calm came out at the beginning of the pandemic so we didn’t really get to promote it as much as we’d have liked to. The next few years were a little darker for me and I think as a result our next album Paradise has a bit more of that as well. However, I did get to collaborate on that album with one of my musical heroes, Sean O’Hagan of the High Llamas, Stereolab, and Microdisney. That collaboration is something I treasure a lot and am very proud of.
I’m curious to know some of the fine details behind songs such as “Dream Vacay”, Dustin’s Rain Tape”, “Free” and “Paradise”. What is most important to you when preparing for a new project? What elements do you find yourself drawing from the most?
Dream Vacay stemmed from a chord progression I wrote when I was around 15, or so. I’d often end up mindlessly playing it when I picked up my guitar and decided to make it into a song. It’s acted as sort of our “Healing Potpourri Theme” over the years, often using it as an intro or outro for our live shows. It was the first song I imagined breaking out of the normal rock band instrumentation with, I was excited to introduce horns and latin percussion on the version for “Blanket of Calm.” Dustin’s Rain Tape is a song taken from a cherished elementary school memory of sleepovers with one of my childhood best friends. He used to play a tape of rain sounds while we slept and I think the song does a good job of capturing that feeling of childhood innocence and nostalgia. “Free” is the first song we presented to Sean O’Hagan for the collaboration on our last album. It was a pretty straight ahead sunshine pop song before Sean got to it, it probably changed the most of anything we sent him and really set the tone for the experimental electronic soundscape that the album would form. The title track from “Paradise” came from my reaction to the brutal public murder of George Floyd. I wanted to make sure I was using my platform to uplift marginalized voices. It’s a really sad song, but full of hope too, I think. I wanted to write a song about the kind of Paradise the world could be if we found it in our hearts to be kinder and more tolerant of one another. I find myself pulling inspiration from things I find beautiful around me, and often drawing from nostalgia for simpler times in my life, childlike wonder and awe at the miraculous world.
What have you been up to more recently? Are you currently working on any new material/projects/gigs for Spring and Summer? Is there anything else you would like to further share with readers?
I actually just got laid off from my biotech job that I’ve held for the last 14 years so I’ve been finding myself doing a lot of soul searching. I’ve been trying to make a full time job of taking care of my body and mind, it’s going to be a journey, but it’s one I’m excited to start. I have been keeping really busy with music. I just finished a covers EP for Aquarium Drunkard and I’m nearly done with a remix I was commissioned for recently that I’m excited about. I’m also starting to really dive into recording the next full album. I have some interesting collaborations percolating that will be pretty exciting, but no official news yet. Hopefully with my recent layoff I’ll be playing a lot more shows and getting out of town a bit more. Thank you to anyone reading this, your interest in our music is something that is truly baffling and heart warming to me. Please reach out if you’d like to collaborate on music, tours, remixes, interviews, film, or photo stuff… I’m feeling pretty inspired!
