It's always been about music and writing
For more than 20 years, Julie Simmons has written for numerous national and international publications, including the Chicago Tribune, UTNE Reader, Paste, Harp, Reverb, DRUM!, Clash Music, and Tom-Tom magazine. Throughout her writing career, she's interviewed music video / film directors and musicians including Josh Dun (twenty one pilots), Peter Gabriel, Suzanne Vega, Neyla Pekarek (f. The Lumineers), Joey Valence & Brae, M Ward (She & Him), David Lovering (Pixies), and Jeff Bridges (Academy Award winning actor / singer).
Her passion for music and writing began in the seventh grade when her language arts teacher would close the blinds, turn off the lights, put on symphonic music and tell his students to write what they saw. What her mind conjured was a fantasy world of musicians and instruments.
Years later, at the University of Notre Dame, Simmons organized concerts, managed hospitality and worked load in and tear down for Tracy Chapman, The Indigo Girls, Gin Blossoms, Blues Travelers, They Might Be Giants and more. As an undergraduate, she took graduate-level writing courses and was invited to stand in for Pulitzer Prize Winner, Edward Albee, at the university's 26th annual Sophomore Literary Festival. She spent weekends deejaying global music at WSND-FM. And on weekdays, she helped research the difference between musicians' and nonmusicians' cognitive reliance on timbre. Results from the study were published in the University of California Berkeley's "Music Perception Journal."
After graduation and in the midst of a successful advertising career, Simmons spent years moonlighting as a music journalist in Chicago. But after undergoing an 11-hour spinal fusion surgery for idiopathic scoliosis in 2010, she went on a hiatus from writing and interviewing. Although her spine was structurally sound, she suffered from chronic pain.
While being treated at the Mayo Clinic and other academic medical centers, Simmons left advertising and started her own consulting business. Four and a half years after surgery, she took up the drums. After a few months of weekly lessons, her brain rewired itself and her pain finally vanished completely and permanently.
Once pain-free, Simmons launched Music Makes You Think (MMYT) and started interviewing musicians again. She was named an Industry Icon by Hit Like a Girl for her articles about the drumming world.
MMYT recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. The Facebook group has posted more than 3,650 non-recurring, daily questions about music which have been transcribed into discussion cards. Simmons continues to write, interview musicians, attend concerts and run her consulting business, Simmons Healthcare Advisory.
