Background
Simone was born in Kharkov, then part of the Soviet Union, now Ukraine. She came to the United States at a young age as the daughter of political refugees (her father was blacklisted for "refusal to cooperate" after resisting recruitment into the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security)).
Education
She was raised in Massachusetts where she attended art school, focusing on photography.
Career
She also blogs for The New York Times. After graduating, she moved to Austin, Texas where she began busking in doorways, performing her own songs. Her debut ep, Prettier in the Dark, was released in 2005, followed by an LP, Placelessness in 2007.
Simone relocated to Brooklyn, and in 2008 released Everyone is Crying Out to Maine, Beware, a collection of songs by the late Russian singer-songwriter, Yanka Dyagileva.
She is also the author of the novel Note to Self to be released in June 2013. Critical response
Simone"s recordings reached a new level of prominence with Everyone is Crying Out to Maine, Beware.
Most response was positive. Spin magazine called it "a strange, hypnotic celebration of a defiant soul.