electronic press kit
Simonoto
Ch.1
Debut EP from Oakland multi-instrumentalist Simonoto. Four tracks of funk, soul, and groove — every part played by one person. March 2026.
march 2026
debut EP
electronic press kit
Debut EP from Oakland multi-instrumentalist Simonoto. Four tracks of funk, soul, and groove — every part played by one person. March 2026.
Simonoto doesn't specialize. He plays guitar, bass, keys, drums, trumpet, and vocals — not as a flex, but because the groove demands it. The Oakland-based multi-instrumentalist and producer grew up immersed in funk, soul, and hip-hop, and his debut EP Ch.1 reflects a lifetime of listening from the inside out.
His production process is tactile and deeply musical. Working from a home studio, Simonoto handles every part himself — not to keep people out, but because he genuinely hears how every element of the rhythm section fits together. The result is music that moves like a band even when it isn't one.
That same commitment to groove informs his teaching. Simonoto runs Professor of Funk, a music education program for youth in the Bay Area that emphasizes ensemble playing and rhythmic feel over technical precision. He extended that philosophy outward with Glory Jams, a community platform he built to help musicians worldwide find and organize jam sessions.
Ch.1 is the first formal introduction to a musical identity that has been taking shape across every instrument, every student, and every session. It is not a debut in the sense of something new — it is chapter one of something that has been in progress for a long time.
“I play everything because the groove is a conversation, and I want to know what everyone in the room is saying.”
— Simonoto
“I'm not trying to blow up. I'm trying to make something that actually moves people. There's a difference.”
— Simonoto
“The pocket is the whole argument. If the groove doesn't hit, none of the other stuff matters.”
— Simonoto
“I'm from Oakland. The funk in this city is not a style choice — it's structural.”
— Simonoto
The multi-instrumentalist producer-educator. Plays guitar, bass, keys, drums, trumpet, and vocals on his own records — then teaches all of those instruments to young musicians through Professor of Funk. The fluency across instruments doesn't just make the music better — it makes the teaching deeper.
AI meets funk. Built his own AI production assistant that lets him speak directly to Ableton Live. Not a developer by trade — a funk musician who wanted to stay in creative flow. The story of a musician who took "the tools don't exist yet" as an instruction, not a barrier.
Community builder. After years of trying to find pick-up sessions, built Glory Jams to connect musicians worldwide. No monetization scheme, no algorithm. Just a tool for getting people in the same room with instruments.
Simonoto's music lives in the pocket. Drawing from the same deep well as classic funk, soul, and hip-hop — the kind where the drums breathe and the bass has opinions — his production is dense with groove but never cluttered. There's a deliberateness to every part: things arrive late or early for a reason, and the space between notes is as considered as the notes themselves.
Ch.1 sounds like a band who has been playing together for years, except it's one person who has been playing all of it for his entire life. The genre tags are easy (funk, soul, hip-hop) but the feel is harder to name — it's the specific satisfaction of something rhythmically inevitable.