Williams, Exposed embracing punk spirit
The spirit of punk rock, past and present, will always live in the soil of the Antelope Valley. The nature of our community allows our local scene to be passed on to future generations. It also attracts wandering punks of the same ilk.
Singer/songwriter Sim Williams is one of those individuals. Recently, he performed for the first time in Lancaster at “One More Round,” a local songwriter’s round. Originally from Portsmouth, England, he started his musical career as a prominent guitarist in the UK’s punk scene.
“I knew from an early age, around 9 or 10, that I wanted to be in a band,” Williams recalled. “After seeing bands such as Rancid and The Offspring on TV and seeing the audience throwing themselves off the stage onto each other, I just knew that was exactly the kind of music I wanted to play.”
He and his friend formed The Exposed in the early 2000s. During his recent debut performance in Lancaster, he quipped that in conjunction with the band’s aggressive sound, the band had to “look good and have good melodies.”
“This is something that we’d joke about in our later years as a band,” Williams said. “Don’t get me wrong. When we first started out we were all still a bunch of scruffy punk rock teenagers, but as we matured as individuals and as a band, our sound started to develop and become more melodic.”
The Exposed were signed to Headcase Records and hit the ground running. Williams describes the hustle of that era.
“Between 2009 and 2011 were our busiest years for sure, especially 2011,” he said. “We used to tour and play a lot of shows/festivals around the UK and mainland Europe in the early years, but it was when we started coming out to the US to play the Vans Warped Tour that things really started
to pick up. We would usually spend the summers traveling across the US and then we’d hit the UK and Europe in the spring and fall. We certainly paid our dues in that regard. Especially as we were a totally independent band with no management, techs, tour manager or merch person when we were doing these tours. Just four guys in a van.”
As time went on, Williams began to broaden his musical taste and the notion of starting a solo project began to grow. While Williams was influenced by punk, he was also inspired by songwriters like Paul Simon. When the Exposed stopped touring in 2013, he released his debut EP, “Devil on Your Back” in February 2015.
He is promoting his second, most recent, album “Whites of The Eyes” released in 2021. The record blends his gravely, punk rock vocals with musical sensibilities drawn from Americana, Folk Music and Alternative.
“I wrote a majority of the record during the pandemic, with maybe four songs that were written prior to that,” Williams said. I guess a lot of the songs were written about the uncertainty and unrest that myself and the majority of the world was feeling during that time. That said, I don’t tend to write upbeat songs at the best of times.”
Having emigrated here from the UK, Williams would make another substantial move in his life.
“I officially made the move in November of 2017,” he said. “One of my main goals when I started this solo project was to come back out to the US and book a monthlong tour from California to Texas and back again. I spent the tail end of 2015 booking a tour from mid May to mid June of 2016.
“It was during this tour that I was introduced to my now wife, Cora, whilst staying with mutual friends in Burbank. We now currently live in a small mountain community within the Los Padres National Forest where we’ve been for five years now. We really just wanted to get away from the toxicity of city living. It has certainly helped me in regards to creativity.”
After over a decade of an intense touring schedule, settling into his marriage and mountain changed his perspective on life. Finding joy in a new chapter in his story.
“I used to have a more ‘quantity over quality’ attitude when it came to booking tours and playing shows” Williams said. “It’s taken me a while, but I’ve really learned that I don’t have to accept every show or tour that gets offered, especially if it’s not financially viable. In recent years I’ve certainly gotten more picky about what it is that I do musically. I’ve found that setting these boundaries for myself has worked wonders for me mentally, financially and most importantly, creatively. I don’t think I would have ever gotten to that place if it wasn’t for my wife.”