{{Short description|Canadian singer and songwriter}}
'''Simone Schmidt''' (born 1984) is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer and composer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Schmidt has helmed One Hundred Dollars (2007–11), psych-rock outfit The Highest Order (2011-2016?), and solo project Fiver (2012–present). Schmidt has earned widespread recognition.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fiver: Fiver With the Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/fiver-fiver-with-the-atlantic-school-of-spontaneous-composition/ |access-date=2024-01-31 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Star |first=Ben Rayner Special to the |date=2013-12-20 |title=Simone Schmidt: the haunting voice behind two of 2013's best albums |url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/simone-schmidt-the-haunting-voice-behind-two-of-2013-s-best-albums/article_489b7c24-d707-5874-88fc-075f05ef57fe.html |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=Toronto Star |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Boles |first=Benjamin |date=2016-06-01 |title=>>> Album of the week: The Highest Order - NOW Magazine |url=https://nowtoronto.com/music/album-of-the-week-the-highest-order-still-holding/ |access-date=2024-01-31 |website=NOW Toronto |language=en-US}}</ref>
== Collaborations == Schmidt has worked in varying capacities with musicians hailing from diverse musical traditions such as Destroyer,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Redfern |first=Mark |title=Destroyer Announces New Album, Shares Video for New Song "Bologna" (Feat. Fiver's Simone Schmidt) |url=https://www.undertheradarmag.com/news/destroyer_announces_new_album_shares_video_for_new_song_bologna_feat_fiver |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=Under the Radar Magazine |language=en}}</ref> writing with hardcore punk band Fucked Up, as singer, songwriter and guitarist with bluegrass veteran Chris Coole;<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Tumbling River |url=https://chriscoole.com/home |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=chriscoole.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Reuben's Train by Chris Coole |url=https://chriscoole.com/home |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=chriscoole.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Stone Walls and Steel Bars by Chris Coole |url=https://chriscoole.com/home |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=chriscoole.com}}</ref> producing for singer songwriter Ansley Simpson<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ansley Simpson Announces New Album 'She Fell from the Sky' {{!}} Exclaim! |url=https://exclaim.ca/music/article/ansley_simpson_announces_new_album_she_fell_from_the_sky |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=Ansley Simpson Announces New Album 'She Fell from the Sky' {{!}} Exclaim! |language=en}}</ref> and creating their latest full length with improvisational unit The Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition (Bianca Palmer, Jeremy Costello and Nick Dourado).
== Critical reception and award nominations == Schmidt's work has obtained widespread critical acclaim. In 2017, Slate magazine named Audibles Sounds from Rockwood as one of the best albums of the year.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wilson |first=Carl |date=2017-12-26 |title=The best albums of the year. |url=https://slate.com/culture/2017/12/the-best-albums-of-the-year.html |access-date=2024-02-01 |work=Slate |language=en-US |issn=1091-2339}}</ref> Their 2021 release, Fiver with the Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition was lauded by the Guardian newspaper as one the best albums of the year<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Beaumont-Thomas |first1=Ben |last2=Petridis |first2=Alexis |last3=Snapes |first3=Laura |date=2021-06-14 |title=The best albums of 2021 so far |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/jun/14/the-best-albums-of-2021 |access-date=2024-01-30 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> and received positive reviews from Pitchfork Magazine.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fiver: Fiver With the Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/fiver-fiver-with-the-atlantic-school-of-spontaneous-composition/ |access-date=2024-02-01 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}}</ref>
Featuring Schmidt on the cover, the Summer 2023 issue of Music Works magazine, described their work: <blockquote>Simone Schmidt is a visionary artist who consistently finds new possibilities for the country song form. In the Toronto psychedelic country bands One Hundred Dollars and The Highest Order and as Fiver, Schmidt has created some of the most original and vibrant music of the last decade.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What's Inside Musicworks 145 {{!}} Musicworks magazine |url=https://www.musicworks.ca/whats-inside-musicworks-145 |access-date=2024-02-01 |website=www.musicworks.ca}}</ref></blockquote>They have been nominated for the Polaris Music Prize in 2009 for One Hundred Dollars- Forest of Tears;<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-06-11 |title=2009 Nominees - Polaris Music Prize |url=https://polarismusicprize.ca/2009-nominees/ |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=Polaris Music Prize - |language=en}}</ref> in 2011 for One Hundred Dollars- Songs Of Man;<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-06-11 |title=Songs Of Man - Polaris Music Prize |url=https://polarismusicprize.ca/album/songs-of-man/ |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=Polaris Music Prize - |language=en}}</ref> in 2017 for Fiver- Audible Songs From Rockwood<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brophy |first=Aaron |date=2017-06-13 |title=The 2017 Polaris Music Prize Long List Is Here - Polaris Music Prize |url=https://polarismusicprize.ca/blog/2017-polaris-music-prize-long-list/ |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=Polaris Music Prize - |language=en}}</ref> and 2021 for Fiver with the Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-04-26 |title=Fiver with the Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition - Polaris Music Prize |url=https://polarismusicprize.ca/album/fiver-with-the-atlantic-school-of-spontaneous-composition/ |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=Polaris Music Prize - |language=en}}</ref>
== Audible Sounds of Rockwood == Fiver's ''Audible Songs From Rockwood'' (2017) is research-based album based on archival case records from the Rockwood Asylum for the Criminally Insane.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Songwriter Gives Voice To The Silenced Women Of Rockwood Asylum |website=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/2017/05/14/528159983/a-songwriter-gives-voice-to-the-silenced-women-of-rockwood-asylum}}</ref> Schmidt spent three years delving into primary sources like patient case files, superintendents' diaries, newspaper articles and secondary historical sources to write from the perspective of women incarcerated at the Rockwood Asylum for the Criminally Insane in Kingston during the nineteenth century.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Greene |first=Sarah |date=2017-05-24 |title=Local hero: Simone Schmidt brings Fiver's Audible Songs From Rockwood to three Toronto venues - NOW Magazine |url=https://nowtoronto.com/music/local-hero-simone-schmidt-brings-fivers-audible-songs-from-rockwood-to-three-toronto-venues/ |access-date=2024-02-02 |website=NOW Toronto |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Critic |first=Ben Rayner Pop Music |date=2017-05-25 |title=New Fiver album speaks for long-dead female inmates in Victorian-era asylum |url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/new-fiver-album-speaks-for-long-dead-female-inmates-in-victorian-era-asylum/article_9813acf1-5b62-500f-8285-a87fc66aba15.html |access-date=2024-02-02 |website=Toronto Star |language=en}}</ref> The songs are performed under the pseudonym Fiver Fines, who interprets the songs "found" by another alias, fictional ethnomusicologist named Simone Carver.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2017-04-13 |title=Toronto musician Simone Schmidt's new album a meditation on mental health |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/toronto-musician-simone-schmidts-new-album-a-meditation-on-mental-health/article34704858/ |access-date=2024-02-02 |work=The Globe and Mail |language=en-CA}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Schmidt |first=Simone E. |title=Songs from Rockwood Asylum |url=https://canadianart.ca/features/songs-rockwood-asylum/ |access-date=2024-02-02 |website=Canadian Art |language=en-US}}</ref> The album was recorded by Fiver with the Lonesome Ace String Band. Referencing Smithsonian Folkways Archives, the album is accompanied by extensive liner notes written in the voice of Simone Carver, who frames the historical, colonial and institutional contexts for these "found" songs.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-08-02 |title=The New Historian {{!}} The Walrus |url=https://thewalrus.ca/the-new-historian/ |access-date=2024-02-02 |language=en-US}}</ref>
In 2019, Schmidt worked with theatre director Frank Cox-O'Connell to tell the stories of the Rockwood inmates on stage as part of Summerworks Performance Festival.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Audible Songs from Rockwood {{!}} SummerWorks |url=https://summerworks.ca/show/audible-songs-from-rockwood/ |access-date=2024-02-02}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Fiver Turn 'Audible Songs From Rockwood' Into a Theatrical Production {{!}} Exclaim! |url=https://exclaim.ca/music/article/fiver_turn_audible_songs_from_rockwood_into_a_theatrical_production-summerworks_toronto_on_august_10 |access-date=2024-02-02 |website=Fiver Turn 'Audible Songs From Rockwood' Into a Theatrical Production {{!}} Exclaim! |language=en}}</ref>
The research and the form of Audible Songs from Rockwood has been the subject of academic interest.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shuvera |first=Ryan |date=2020 |title="New Life" into Old Sounds: Listening to Simone Schmidt's Audible Songs from Rockwood |url=https://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article/32/2/178/110776/New-Life-into-Old-SoundsListening-to-Simone |access-date=2024-02-02 |website=online.ucpress.edu|volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=178–190 |doi=10.1525/jpms.2020.32.2.178 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Free School 2023: Against the Grain |url=https://www.torontomu.ca/social-innovation/initiatives/programs/free-school-2023-against-the-grain/ |access-date=2024-02-02 |website=Toronto Metropolitan University |language=en}}</ref>
== Covers == Their songs have been admired and covered by other musicians in a variety of genres: in 2018 their song Rage of Plastics [from Fiver- Lost the Plot (2013)] was popularized by U.S. Girls,<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Hsu |first=Hua |date=2018-02-26 |title=U.S. Girls' Collection of Characters |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/05/us-girls-collection-of-characters |access-date=2024-01-31 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}</ref> and in 2020, their song Juice and Sage [One Hundred Dollars- Forest of Tears (2008)] was covered by Stripmall Ballads.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harry |date=2020-06-05 |title=Stripmall Ballads - Distant |url=https://www.bluestownmusic.nl/stripmall-ballads-distant/ |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=Bluestown Music |language=nl-NL}}</ref>
== Soundtracks == ''Land of Destiny<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.bunburyfilms.com/land-of-destiny | title=Land of Destiny }}</ref> (dir. Brett Story, 2010)''
''Gerontophilia (dir. Bruce La Bruce, 2013)''
''World Famous Gopher Hole Museum (dir. Chelsea McMullan + Douglas Nayler, 2015)''
''Circle of Steel (dir Gillian McKercher, 2018)''
''The Joe Wallace Mixtape: Soundtrack to A More Radiant Sphere (dir. Sarah Wylie, 2022)''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ling |first=Steff Hui Ci |date= |title=On Mediocrity, risk, and proletarian realism in Sara Wylie's A More Radiant Sphere |url=https://reissue.pub/articles/on-mediocrity-risk-and-proletarian-realism-in-sara-wylies-a-more-radiant-sphere/ |access-date=2024-05-05 |website=ReIssue |language=en-US}}</ref>
== Discography == ''LSDoubleDcup (2008)''
== One Hundred Dollar == ''Hold it Together (2007)''
''Forest of Tears (2008)''
''"Fourteenth Floor" Regional 7" Part 1 (2009)''
''My Father's House" - Regional 7" Part 2 (2010)''
''Songs of Man (2011)''
== The Highest Order == ''If It's Real (2013)''
''Rainbow of Blues B/W The Crying Game (2013)''
''Still Holding (2016)''
== Fiver == ''Two Songs From Fiver (2012)''
''Home Wreckordings: Running Through A Twin (2012)''
''Lost the Plot (2013)''
''Audible Songs From Rockwood (2017)''
''You Wanted Country? Vol.1 (2020)''
''Fiver with the Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition (2021)''
''Cleaning House'' ''(2026)''<ref>{{Cite news |date=11 May 2026 |title=Fiver to Take New Album 'Cleaning House' on Canadian Tour |url=https://exclaim.ca/music/article/fiver-to-take-new-album-cleaning-house-on-canadian-tour |access-date=13 May 2026 |work=Exclaim!}}</ref>
== Splitter == ''What Do You Want To Hear? (Digital Release, 2023)''
== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Simone}} Category:Canadian singer-songwriters Category:1984 births Category:Living people {{Improve categories|date=April 2025}}