Singers with Unique Voices: Juliet Simms/Lilith Czar (The Unique Voices Club #27)

Every Friday, I write a post about singers with unique voices not commonly heard in mainstream music in an effort to educate emerging artists and music lovers and inspire them to embrace their own quirks. This week I'm writing on Juliet Simms/Lilith Czar.

Taken from Pinterest

I've never written about a punk rock artist before on The Unique Voices Club, so here we are. I grew up on 2000s pop rock like Green Day ("Boulevard of Broken Dreams" was my seven-year-old self's radio jam; don't judge me) and Avril Lavigne and an ex-friend introducing me to Queen in my teens. The fact that it took so long for me to discover Queen is a sacrilege in and of itself. But I do remember, we were on vacation in Dullstroom in 2011 or so, a thunderstorm having taken out the lights in our cottage so nothing except for candles in the darkness when Juliet Simms came on the TV to command the stage.

Juliet Simms started off in a rock band with her brother and others called Automatic Loveletter during the retro times of Myspace and PledgeMusic. Since then, she's been working solo. She's also well-known as the wife of Black Veil Brides frontman Andy Biersack. Stupid label crap prevented Juliet's stint in Automatic Loveletter and as a soloist from having complete creative control over their art. (The stuff you find on Spotify from Automatic Loveletter was delayed and their second album in fact was released through an indie label, since they were dropped after their debut.) Nonetheless, she's toured with Secondhand Serenade and Taylor Momsen and played Warped Tour both with the band and as a soloist. But enough of that now. Juliet Simms is dead. Lilith Czar lives.

Taken from BookingAgantInfo.com

Lilith emerged in 2021 from Juliet's dying dreams as a result of conformity, control and misogyny. And her music will slap you in the face. Almost like the unapologeticness of Janis Joplin and Stevie Nicks. The natural rasp and fine crinkles in her voice make it hard to pigeonhole her into a pop-related box. While she can employ glottal stops and breaks to smooth out her voice, she's proven she's more comfortable roaring and letting her voice show up, imperfect rasp and all. And she's released a whole manner of whatever suits her unashamed fancy, including ballads and acoustic pieces. But being punk rock isn't just about electric guitars and screaming lyrics. Philosophically it's about nonconformity and fighting against the status quo, which is exact what Lilith Czar represents. Speaking as a woman, it's her own motivation: if it's truly a man's world, she wants to be king.

(Gonna casually plug that one of my friends Dorothy Littell Greco is releasing her book about misogyny For the Love of Women in November. Go read it for me.)

While she has just one full-length album and bunch of singles right now, I warmed up to Lilith Czar after I heard her cover of one of my favorite song's "Edge of Seventeen" after knowing the tunes of Juliet Simms for a long while. Stevie Nicks and Janis Joplin have always been an emblem of confidence and sticking it to the man, and there's something emerging artists can learn from both them and Lilith. So go follow so you can stay up to date on her endeavors.

And there we have it for this week on The Unique Voices Club! Here's your weekly reminder to subscribe to the Patreon that way you can suggest artists I can write about in the future and that can educate your fellow bohemians. Support the movement! Remember there's power in the unconventional.

Stay educated,

Alexia