Musician, singer and songwriter Harper Simon’s new book Thinking Out Loud will be published
through Hat & Beard on January 27 2026. Thinking Out Loud is a collection of interviews by
Simon with cultural icons, including actors Fred Armisen, Natasha Lyonne, Ed Begley Jr., Harry
Dean Stanton, Anjelica Huston, and Monty Python’s Eric Idle; filmmakers Sean Baker and Sam
Taylor-Johnson; musicians Mark Mothersbaugh and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour; computer
scientist and visual artist Jaron Lanier; and more. The interview topics range from politics and
music to religion, love, and death.

Simon blends his own artistic journey with candid conversations, with the book offering a
uniquely personal take on the artists shaping culture today – his friendships with these artists
makes the reader feel as though they are sitting down at the table with them.

Thinking Out Loud follows 2023’s Meditations on Crime, a multimedia project that includes an
album Simon produced of musical collaborations (Julia Holter, Gang Gang Dance, King Khan,
the Sun Ra Arkestra) and a book he edited featuring essays by Miranda July, Kenneth Anger
and Jerry Stahl with artwork from Tracey Emin, Cindy Sherman, Julian Schnabel and more. In
addition to now releasing two books, Harper has been committed to storytelling elsewhere, and
in 2022, he traveled to Ukraine at the beginning of the war to report on it for Spin. He has
interviewed the likes of artist Tracey Emin for Purple Magazine, Jaron Lanier for LA Review of
Books and writer and director Miranda July for Hesperios Journal.

As a musician, Simon released his debut self-titled album in 2010, followed by 2013’s Division
Street, both of which saw performances on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live!
and The Tonight Show, and recently released The Music of Butterfly, a left-field ten track album
in collaboration with Vincent Gallo.

Simon also co-directed a short film for Meditations on Crime with artist Jonah Freeman that
premiered at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. He was an executive producer
of Alex Ross Perry’s Pavements.

Simon serves on the board of The Sanders Institute, which supports causes affiliated with
Senator Bernie Sanders – its mission is to revitalize democracy by actively engaging individuals,
organizations and the media in the pursuit of progressive solutions to economic, environmental,
racial and social justice issues.