Name: Brian Allen Simon aka Anenon
Nationality: American
Occupation: Composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer
Current Release: Anenon's Moons Melt Milk Light LP is out November 17th 2023 via Tonal Union.
Recommendations: A few books:
Bresson on Bresson, Interviews 1943-1983
My Mother Laughs by Chantal Akerman Sitt Marie Rose by Etel Adnan

If you enjoyed this Anenon interview and would like to stay up to date on his music, visit him on Instagram, and Soundcloud.



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

I really have no idea where the impulse comes from. But I suspect an openness to the divine in my heart helps.

I'm not the type of artist who is in the studio every day creating, and I find that life experiences, travel, and relationships are more important than ever for me.

I love art of certain periods, but I don't take much inspiration from it anymore, at least in terms of my own work, and for better or worse, I don't remember many dreams.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

I never have a visual of what the finished work will be. For me that would deaden the excitement of creating the work. There is never any concrete planning, and I'm not sure there's much chance either.

Destiny seems like the wrong word, but the end results speak for themselves.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

It depends on the project. For Moons Melt Milk Light I decided on a strict palate of tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, piano, and field recordings.

There was no research into the sounds, other than years of practice on said instruments, and there were no early versions or b-sides either.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

Perhaps I'm difficult, but every day I require a nice cup of coffee, food made by me or someone that I trust, and sourced from ingredients by farmers that care, a bottle of beautiful sans-soufre French, Italian, or Catalan natural wine, soft lighting, and ideally a yoga class in the morning.

I read both poetry and prose consistently, but reading manifests more as soft long term influences on my mindset. When it comes down to creating, I don't want to be thinking at all, only feeling into the moment.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

I start with one note, which is easy. The second, third, fourth notes are the more difficult ones.

To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

I have no idea who Bruce Duffie is, but I don't think musicians create anything, but rather, at their best share concise and chiseled versions of their interior selves. Sound is a tool of expression for where words stop. Notes exist as vibrations in the air.

All arrangements have already happened on this planet, or some other one. We as musicians find our styles and voices, and work within a universe of sound that already exists. I believe that we are just conduits.

From your experience, are there things you're doing differently than most or many other artists when it comes to writing music?

You'd have to ask the other artists—I don't know what anyone else does.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

Trying to keep strict control over anything in my life has only led to problems.

In art, I have the skills to know when something is working, and I simply follow the flow. The expertise is knowing when to sit back, and when to mold.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

Sure, it happens, but I stay open to the flow, and have deep confidence in my creative decisions.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

I would describe it as a flow state wherein I'm simply watching. When I'm at my best as a saxophonist, I'm watching every single note happen before and after in my mind's eye.

Yes, through a practice of yoga and a much more fledgling meditation practice, spirituality has crept into my work more and more as an artist. But I don't see spirituality as some overt message or dogma, it's more part of a nuanced fabric of my sound, my feel.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?

It depends on the piece. Some pieces feel finished immediately, while others take time to congeal to my heart.

These days I don't like to refine anything—everything on Moons Melt Milk Light happened in one or two takes, and with zero editing. Though honestly, it feels pretty refined as-is.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? In terms of what they contribute to a song, what is the balance between the composition and the arrangement (performance)?

Mixing and mastering have always been important, and mixing has been part of my own process of composition in the past. I've always outsourced mastering as it requires a set of fresh ears, in my opinion.

On my new record, John Roberts handled the mixing, which I found extremely difficult and tricky, with most songs being comprised of minimal layers, three to four at most.

[Read our John Roberts interview]

Oddly enough, I found these stripped down songs more difficult to mix than more dense tracks in the past, like pieces that contained up to 100 layers from my record, Petrol — somehow those were an easy mix.



After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

I used to feel more empty about releasing and letting music go in the past, but now life is just too busy to feel that way. I have other things happening besides music, and for the best!

Regardless, I try to practice at least one instrument every day, which keeps me in a relaxed creative state.

Music is a language, but like any language, it can lead to misunderstandings. In which way has your own work – or perhaps the work of artists you like or admire - been misunderstood? How do you deal with this?

I think if you're understood immediately, then you're doing something wrong. All great work shows itself over time, or maybe it doesn't. Most artists I look up to never found instant success, and some never found it at all. I think that having a success focused mindset in terms of sales or popularity of one's music is a disease, and that the work is already infected if that's the case.

I'm at a stage in my artistic career where I just don't care what other people think. At the end of the day, I have to like it to share it, and that's all that matters.

I'm super fortunate to have people who do want to work with my music, and who don't influence me in terms of my own processes.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Making music is extremely different than making a great cup of coffee, though I wouldn't say much different than crafting a beautiful dinner, or selecting the perfect wine to accompany it.

I personally don't find much emotion in coffee as it feels too procedural, too closed off, but in food and wine I feel a certain emotional freedom.