3:AM: For our readers could you give a little bit of background about yourself.

Alina Simone: Well, I’m an indie rock singer and author, based in Brooklyn, NY. I was born in Kharkov, Ukraine, (in what was then the Soviet Union) and came to the US with my family, as political refugees. I grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts.

3:AM: Your dad is a pretty amazing physicist I believe?

AS: Yes, my father has become a very well known physicist. I’m very proud of him. My parents came to this country with only $100 and no family or friends. My father’s certainly come a long way since working as a nightwatchman at the Kharkov city zoo.

3:AM: So your music is really beautiful …

AS: Thank you. I’m actually completely self- taught. Growing up, I idolized Sinead O’Connor and Siouxsie Sioux. The riot grrls of the 90s were also a great inspiration. I’ve been singing for as long as I can remember. I don’t think I ever made a conscious choice to be a singer. It just always…was.

3:AM: So how would you describe your music?

AS: It has been categorized as rock and folk and world music. I would simply say that it is raw and emotional. I’m not much a part of any “scene,” though I do have musician friends, of course. I love music that actually makes you feel something, as opposed to being kind of blendy, pleasant background noise, so that’s all I’m trying to do. Create music that moves people. And moves me. Hopefully.

3:AM: Is there a scene you’re involved in?

AS: Nope, I’m not involved in any scene whatsoever. I do have some great friends who have become very successful artists, but many of them I’ve known for a very long time, before I was a singer. For example, singer Amanda Palmer and comedian Eugene Mirman went to high school with my husband and I — they were the maid of honor and best man at our wedding.) As for the type of music that interests me, the common thread is less a genre distinction than having a unique, irreplicable sensibility. I tend to love music that is raw, difficult, passionate…I really don’t care if it’s zydeco or Russian chanson or indie rock. I definitely think, though, that the internet has made it a lot easier to be genre-crossing in your tastes. I remember in the late 80s and early 90s, things seemed a lot more stratified. Indie rockers were separate from punk rockers were separate from the ska people etc.

3:AM: The world’s in a mess at the moment – the Wall Street thing is something I’m thinking is important. How much are these broader political issues important to you and what you’re doing with your music?

AS: Ha! I feel pretty ill-equipped to answer these broad-ranging questions. Inequality is terrible, for sure, but the difficulty lies in pointing towards feasible solutions, not just problems. I was actually just contacted by some of the organizers behind the Occupy movement in Seattle about making some music for Occupy. I think I’m going to chat with them about it this week and see what they have in mind.

3:AM: There’s a lot of stuff about the role of big business on the music industry on your site.

AS: Well, unfortunately, I fear that the era of the reclusive artist is over. Being an artist now means having to be your own brand. In my book, You Must Go and Win, I discuss the moment when I learned what a publicist is and how many seemingly DIY bands were actually paying quite a lot of money in order to portray themselves as an overnight phenomenon. When you are competing for press or gigs or sales with bands that actually have a machine behind them, you are going to feel frustrated and/or shattered. So the best thing you can do, if you’re serious about making a living in art (as opposed to just making good art), is educate yourself regarding how things really work behind the scenes.

3:AM: Can you say something about the bands you really like at the moment?

AS: I tend to listen to a lot of old music and definitely don’t have my finger on the pulse of new music, but one newish Brooklyn band I really love is She Keeps Bees. In general, Brooklyn has really become a nexus of indie rock and a lot of great venues have sprung up in my neighborhood, Park Slope. If you are visiting from London, and want to hear some great music, you won’t be disappointed if you head to Park Slope and hit up The Bell House, Rock Shop or Union Hall.

3:AM: What cultural things outside of music have been influential for you?

AS: Oh god, too many to mention. My undergraduate degree was in photography and I’m a huge fan of artists who flirt with the distinction between documentary and fiction, like Justine Kirland and Jenny Gage. Stark, realistic writers had a large influence on my lyric-writing, particularly Raymond Carver. I always hope that my best songs read like short stories.

3:AM: Of course it can’t be overlooked that you are a woman and some of the people you have on your site are also women – does this matter in terms of a politics of gender for you and what you’re doing? Rock music’s dominated by men in the past but I’m thinking of people like Patti Smith and Chrissie Hind and Blondie as examples of women who’ve been able to do stuff on their own terms as women.

AS: My basic philosophy about this stuff is just try your hardest to make good art. Worrying about your advantages and disadvantages just becomes a distraction. True, women are still a minority in the rock world, but there are plenty of examples of female musicians who have succeeded on their own terms. P.J. Harvey, Cat Power and Carrie Brownstein (all of whom I love!) to name just a few.