French chanteuse Emilie Simon really adores the fashion of music.

Emilie Simon was surprised when Iggy Pop gave her a call. He told her that he loved her voice and her version of "I Wanna Be Your Dog." The Montpellier, France native wasn't expecting any accolades for her cover efforts. No, really. The electro, dance-aholic version of the Stooges classic, which sounds more like "Heart of Glass" with some Pop perversity tossed in, was a song she listened to growing up. It popped into her head, so she covered it. She did the same with Bowie's "Space Oddity," Nirvana's "Come As You Are" and Velvet Goldmine's "Femme Fatale."

Just one of the songs on Simon's first U.S. album, The Flower Book (2006), "Dog" was done for fun, but the petite, singer/songwriter can make her own tunes just fine. She even has three studio albums to prove it (The Flower Book is a compilation of songs from her three European releases); in 2003, she released her first self-titled album, followed by La Marche de l'Empereur (the soundtrack to the film March of the Penguins) and finally Vegetal in 2006.

Home-schooled on The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush and punk rock, Simon received a Master's in musicology at the Sorbonne, then moved on to IRCAM, a Paris-based scientific music research institute where she experimented with technology and sound.

Now residing in New York City, Simon is finishing the mixing touches on her sophomore U.S. release, some would say, backwards. She's performed her songs live before recording them to pick up on some of the natural energy that comes from being on stage and melding it all at Electric Lady Studios.

"When there are already finished songs and you perform them, you end up changing them up on the road," she says. "So I was wondering how it would be to experiment with this relationship with the public before I decide to finalize the version. I think it's helped to keep the rough energy from the beginning, because when you are in front of people, you have to give a lot."

She says that there's passion, density and intensity to the new album, but it's hard to put your finger on any one descriptive from the singer who can crackle with PJ Harvey moodiness one minute or whimsically whine like Wendy James (of '80s Transvision Vamp fame) the next. Of the 14 songs she's currently mixing, she's not sure how many will make the final cut' but the album should be out in the U.S. following the September release in France.

"This is a New York energy album thanks to New York bringing it all out of me-all the energy," says Simon. "The city is very important, so when I go back to France I am so happy to be back in my country. When I go back to New York, there is something in the air. There's something I like that is very specific to New York."

There's something else in the New York air that Simon loves: fashion, which, Simon believes, creates more of a memory. "It's not only the pictures or the music, it becomes more like a world that people can enter and become interested in," she says. "I like fashion because most of the time the first thing people see of you is a picture in the magazine or on the TV. It's really the first impression that you can give. So if I can, I just make sure it fits with my world. Then it's about working with the right designer and explaining what your music is about and playing with that. It's really fascinating to play with image, fashion, makeup, stuff like that. It becomes like a memory."

Currently, Simon is working with French designer Paule Ka to find something to wear on the next album cover. She frequently dons princess-like dresses from Dutch designer Jan Taminiau on stage and loves the odd Jean Paul Gaultier dress here and there.

"Like music, I always have some pictures in my mind, so it's really fun to play with fashion," says Simon. "It becomes almost like a tool to give clues to people, so they can enter your world. It also fits your world. So it's natural when I write songs where there are feelings of density, of bright colors or very dark colors depending on the song or the album."

Links:

> Emilie Simon - Myspace

> Jan Taminiau

> Paule Ka