So you feel that REV is very misunderstood.

I feel like I’ve always been misunderstood, that’s not new.

You are quite full of contradictions. One has to be quick on one’s feet to understand you. There’s a kind of foreign balance with you, and you have to just live it, or otherwise seeing it from the outside, it doesn’t make sense.

I don’t know, I’m just myself man, I don’t feel like a contradiction. I feel like I’m quite consistent.

You do have a balance, but within that balance there is a lot of movement. The cycles of what you can go through regularly, which is completely normal for you, are very extreme cycles. It’s like you have four seasons, and most artists stick to one.

I guess what you mean is that I change a bit faster than average. And it’s true that for some people it’s hard to follow because they don’t change that fast. I’m always looking forward to the next phase somehow, I’m always trying to improve myself. Since I’m a kid I’ve been told that I was doing things wrong, I was an issue, I have problems, I needed to change. At first I rejected that, and I still do.

But I’ve also tried to change and improve, not for other people, just for myself. It created this habit of moving forward, changing, trying things out. And that goes from the next sound, the next outfit, the next tour, the next friendship, you know? But I also have a core that does not change.

And what is at that core?

I think the core of my personality is... I’m a sensitive, good hearted person trying to embetter himself. That does not change. I do also have bad traits... like a form of impatience, and revolt, anger and sadness in me. But it’s not my driving force, it’s actually something I rather struggle with.

In conversation w/ Aime Simone

OCTOBER 19, 2025
WORDS SONJA FIX

Aime Simone is an unusual character in the European music scene. The Paris-born artist’s path has been blessed by serendipity and miraculous moments, as well as fraught with difficult twists and deep lows of personal struggle. That complexity is reflected in the way he plays with the codes of genres, mixing things up in a fusion that exists somewhere between enlightened alt-pop and gothic rage. Soulful and angry, it’s the kind of music that could soundtrack a revolution. 

In this intimate interview with his creative and life partner, the American artist Sonja Fix, we got an insight into where he is at right now and what might be coming next.

Aime Simone will be in Berlin for a show at Kantine am Berghain on October 24th with special guests GDA, as well as headlining the legendary Olympia in Paris on November 20th.

Sonja Fix: What do you think has changed in you in the last year?

Aime Simone: I guess... I’ve learned to be more satisfied with what I have and I have also become stronger.

In what way?

Well first of all physically, because of the back issues, the herniated disc coming back, and managing to fix that just through physical therapy, rather than surgery like the first time. That built a strong mentality and a strong body, and confidence also, and trust. I think it gave me more trust in the process and I feel less scared because I feel more able to overcome challenges.

Do you think that you have let go of any opinions or positions recently, or do you feel that you are more solidified in your beliefs than ever?

I’ve had a bit of a shift of perspective in the last year, because we’ve been through a lot. Making the album REV was a challenge in itself, a mental one but also a physical one, because it was made in a lot of pain, and we put so much into it. And when it came out it felt very misunderstood by the people we were around, and the French industry, which just set us up for more challenges. But also it created this beautiful thing where it revealed who was a true supporter and who really understands us.

I feel like I expect less from other people now. I am more focused on what I can do, what I can feel, what’s meaningful to me, and not so much on how people are gonna understand it or help me with it. It’s not so much about people’s reaction, it’s more about the initial intention that I have with it, and the initial meaning it has for me.

With REV we kind of made a choice to go against what would have made us more successful.

I don’t think we went against anything, we just went for something that we felt was truer to us. We didn’t go against, it was just like, ok we don’t want to make more of that, we want to make more of this. We were just trying to be more genuine with what we liked.

So you feel that REV is very misunderstood.

I feel like I’ve always been misunderstood, that’s not new.

You are quite full of contradictions. One has to be quick on one’s feet to understand you. There’s a kind of foreign balance with you, and you have to just live it, or otherwise seeing it from the outside, it doesn’t make sense.

I don’t know, I’m just myself man, I don’t feel like a contradiction. I feel like I’m quite consistent.

You do have a balance, but within that balance there is a lot of movement. The cycles of what you can go through regularly, which is completely normal for you, are very extreme cycles. It’s like you have four seasons, and most artists stick to one.

I guess what you mean is that I change a bit faster than average. And it’s true that for some people it’s hard to follow because they don’t change that fast. I’m always looking forward to the next phase somehow, I’m always trying to improve myself. Since I’m a kid I’ve been told that I was doing things wrong, I was an issue, I have problems, I needed to change. At first I rejected that, and I still do.

But I’ve also tried to change and improve, not for other people, just for myself. It created this habit of moving forward, changing, trying things out. And that goes from the next sound, the next outfit, the next tour, the next friendship, you know? But I also have a core that does not change.

And what is at that core?

I think the core of my personality is... I’m a sensitive, good hearted person trying to embetter himself. That does not change. I do also have bad traits... like a form of impatience, and revolt, anger and sadness in me. But it’s not my driving force, it’s actually something I rather struggle with.

This album REV has a lot of anger in it.

But it’s not about destruction and chaos. It’s about channeling the anger into something you believe in. 

REV is a fictional album so the idea was, how far can the character go? That character is gonna lose himself, he’s gonna lose his humanity, he’s gonna go too far, and then he’s gonna come back and understand himself better.

Do you think there is some kind of parallel with you and your experience in the music industry?

No I’m gonna be honest with you, the industry does not affect me. I don’t care about the industry.

You think that’s really genuine? It doesn’t, and it has never affected you? I don’t know about that.

It doesn’t affect my core. It doesn’t affect me, me.

Yeah ok, I get it. It doesn’t change you.

I’ve always been who I am, at my core I mean, on the surface level I have changed like crazy but at my core I’m the same person.

See, I didn’t understand, and then I understood.

(Laughs) Story of my life.

Soon we’re going back to do a show in Berlin. It’s been a couple years. Do you think that your Berlin era has taken on some kind of mythological quality with the distance? How does it feel looking back on that versus where you are today?

Berlin was formative, formative years. It’s where a major shift happened in me, that is where I started to make the music that I’m making today.

It unlocked something in you.

Not just artistically, but also on a very personal level.

What are your hopes for the next year?

More connection to the music and the people around me.

More connection to the music? What does that mean for you?

It means like, you know we went to Peter [Doherty] ’s house to do something. That was a full circle moment, that’s a crazy connection. Music is not just about the next song you’re doing, the next production, how well it’s mixed, how well you sing. It’s not just that. It’s much more about... what does it mean for you to write this song in that place, with that person, and how does it feel to do that.

I want things to have much more meaning.

I feel like the problem with the industry is the meaninglessness of it all, where you go through so much bullshit, but in the end it’s like, for what? For a bit of money? For a bit of success? And when it’s not huge amounts of money and huge amount of success, and even if it is, it’s not why you started making music in the first place. It’s not what feeds you, it’s not what fulfils you.

What fulfils you is to have a strong connection to the music you’re making and the people supporting it, and that’s it, you know.

Isn’t it?

WEARING RICK OWENS, GIVENCHY, ARCHIVE HELMUT LANG, CUSTOM LE CHEMIN DES MAQUETTES, CUSTOM COUCOU BEBE 75018