Simi Sernaker

Early years

Simi Sernaker, born Simantha Sernaker in 1979 and also known as Simi Stone, is the frontwoman of the rock band Suffrajett. Sernaker was born and raised in Woodstock, New York, by her mother Dorothy Sernaker and a Jamaican-born father, Ernest Bledsoe, whose mother traveled on the blues circuit playing piano in the south. At seven, Sernaker took up the classical violin and at ten, was admitted to The New York Conservatory for the Arts, where she studied musical theatre, dance, and voice and all the while, continued to write songs of her own. Upon graduating high school, she moved to New York City and pursued a degree in acting at Marymount College, while she performed in musical theater and off-Broadway plays.

Contents

• Early years
• Music career
• Art
• References

Music career

Soon, Sernaker was using her well-honed theater skills to front a rock band. Along with her electric violin and guitar, she was a founding member of the Afro-punk movement. She experimented with a more gritty rock ‘n roll sound, forming Suffrajett with sideman Jason Chasko. They performed in numerous NYC venues including Bowery Ballroom, CBGBs, and Irving Plaza, and played several Summer Stage events with Joan Jett, The Roots, Erykah Badu, and others. With Suffrajett, she released two records, Suffrajett and Black Glitter on indie labels In Music We Trust and Giant Step Records, which garnered considerable critical acclaim from magazines such as Rolling Stone and Esquire, and earned five stars from The Chicago Sun Times. Suffrajett had their first major tour out of Chicago. They went on numerous cross-country tours playing many different venues from Detroit to the House of Blues in LA. Leading her band, Sernaker continued touring with acts like Local H, Urge Overkill, Cheap Trick, Eagles of Death Metal, and Juliette and the Licks.

Time Out Chicago said of Suffrajett: “This New York via Chicago band has justifiably gained a rep for Detroit style whiplash rock and roll without acting like it’s a low down dirty shame…When she’s not sounding like The Shangri Las' Mary Weiss, she’s summoning the ghost of T-Rex’s Marc Bolan, who knew how to make a whisper sound like a threat.” Around this time, the Suffrajett took a long hiatus.

Sernaker returned to her native Woodstock home in 2009 and reconnected with Simone Felice, Nowell Haskins and Bobby Burke, and The Duke and the King, while opening for their band as a solo artist. With the Duke and the King, Sernaker began touring in Europe and all over the UK. The band was featured on Jools Holland in London, Saturday with Brendan O’Conner, the biggest late night talk show in Ireland, and in Paris, appeared on the popular show Canal Plus. Sernaker sang her song “No Easy Way Out” on Belfast’s biggest radio station and on BBC Radio’s “Loose End” in London. Mojo magazine gave the Duke and the King four stars. Allen Jones from Uncut magazine called her "The sensational Simi Stone" and calls her voice "striking" and her violin "a thing of mournful beauty."

Sernaker finished her first solo recordings self titled Simi Stone and will be releasing a record very soon called The Rescue with musical partner David Baron (Michael Jackson, Lenny Kravitz, and Meghan Trainor, with her band of players...including Zachary Alford, Sara Lee, Gail Ann Dorsey and others). She also has spent time working with artists such as Simone Felice, Natalie Merchant, Conor Oberst, Tracy Bonham, David Byrne at Carnegie Hall, Amy Helm, Dan Zanes, and many more. Beginning in 2015, she joined The New Pornographers as a touring member.

Art

Sernaker's career had initially mostly focused on music, until visual art announced itself after a heartbreaking split with a young sculptor. She suffered a breakdown. The pain from her whole life, it seemed, had been waiting for this moment to emerge. Crying for ten straight days followed by another ten days with stomach flu, she emerged transformed. She slowly started to come back to the world. Everything looked different: the colors in the sky, the trees, even the way the mountains towered over Woodstock's valleys seemed different. She was raw. Writing, singing, and performing music had always been her lifeboat, but now whispers in the wind awakened her vision, summoning her to an as yet unknown new place. At the same time, noted Woodstock artist Richard Segelman came into her life and asked to paint her. He called her his muse.They talked, and he worked. She related to the struggle of the artist and the incredible love of the craft. The smell of the studio was both foreign and healing. Visual art soon became her constant companion. She fell asleep clutching Van Gogh and Gauguin books. She was able to write perform and record, but any down time alone proved quite painful. There was laughter around the pain, yet she was still plagued with episodes of obsession and what she could only describe as psychosis.

Months later, Sernaker's musical partner David Baron was scoring a film in NYC. She began making trips from Woodstock down to sing and work on the soundtrack. During one of these stints, she became close with the filmmaker and his companion Alexandra, a philosophy student. With them, she stumbled onto some peace, surrounded by masterful art and intellectual discussions. On one such trip to the city in September 2015, she was hit with a bout of the "psychosis." When she arrived at the studio, Alexandra could see she was not well. Alex asked her: "What do you need darling, what do you need?" Tears rolling down her face, Simi replied: "I need to draw." Alexandra discovered a large drawing pad and a beautiful antique box filled with pastels in a drawer in the filmmaker's studio, the origins of which no one knew. With these simple materials, Sernaker started to maniacally draw. After awhile, she was hit with great calm, a soothing respite. For the next 48 hours, she drew while Alex read to her about Carl Jung's split from Freud, which became a great point of identification. She related to the crushing abandonment Jung had to contend with. Sernaker was in a peaceful state for long periods of time that weekend with her new friends. When the obsession came back, she would retreat to the pad and draw, easing the pain. Alexandra gave Sernaker the pad and pastels to take home to Woodstock. Sernaker thinks drawing may have saved her life.

Events:

Exhibitions: 2016, The Visual Works of Simi Stone at the Ardnaglass gallery in Woodstock, New York. May 14th- June 30th. Curated by Allison Reynolds.