Todd Simpson – Rising Rock Star Plays By Colors

Want instant guitar superpowers? Don’t we all. While most aspiring rock stars spend their youth in the boy’s room sweating over chords and sacrificing their fingertips on the altar of Jimi Hendrix, Todd Simpson (21) just picked up a guitar one day and started playing like he had done nothing else his whole life.

Being severely dyslexic, Todd can not read notes. Nor does he have the slightest idea as to how one actually plays a guitar. Yet, for the past three years, he and his band have played over 400 gigs across the States –  opening for the Allman Bros., Marshall Tucker, Huey Lewis and many more – without never even having a band practice.

An incredible story is seldom too good to be true. Born with a heart defect, Todd spent his younger years in hospitals undergoing numerous open heart surgeries. He was diagnosed with Variant DiGeorge, a complex syndrome deriving from the loss of a small part of the genetic material. In addition to the heart problems, Todd has dyslexia, Immune Deficiency and a speech impediment.

Despite certain limitations, Todd’s parents focused on what he actually could do and exposed him to music and creative outlets from an early age. This lead to the discovery of a new and somewhat awesome side effect of his health issues – one that, as Todd says, “allows him to see things differently”.

“You might say I have certain processing “problems”. But this allows me to see things in a different way. I see music in color. When I hear music I see colors. So I play the colors”.

One evening in 2007, Todd had been watching a Jimi Hendrix DVD that he got for his Birthday, and told his Dad that he wanted to start playing the guitar. Then he picked up said instrument and played Voodoo Child.

“We started that night. Within the week we had put together a band and done our first gig. It was pretty much instant. Every song we do, we did live on stage the first time.”

OK… Hold the phone.

Me: You can’t just pick up a guitar and play? There are “rules of the strings”, so to speak…

Todd: I can’t even tune a guitar, don’t know where any notes are or the names of most chords I play.

Me: But.. you must have some notion, or you can’t possibly play anything that makes sense?

Todd: I know it’s weird, but to me it’s just as weird that someone can hum a song that they have never hummed before.

Me: I don’t get it. I have been playing the guitar myself, and I’m thinking, well, you simply have to press certain strings in certain places in a certain order to get the sound you want.

Todd: It’s not about knowing where notes are. It is relative sounds from the last one. When I see colors it’s not like A is red and G is blue. It’s like moving flowing colorscapes that relate to moods of sounds from one tone to the other. I say from one note you can only go up or down or repeat it. The colors also lead me with time and tempo.

“Sometimes I can actually see them floating over the crowd”.

So much for black dots on a sheet.

Todd is a “visual and auditory learner”, meaning he will remember lyrics and music perfectly after just hearing it once. And once he is on stage, the speech impediment is nowhere to be found.

His unique talent also caught the eye of Hollywood. Co-starring with reknowned actor Dash Mihok, he plays himself in the latest Lexi Alexander indie production, ‘Lifted‘, performing three songs in a talent competition.

Despite all the media attention, Todd says the people in his hometown are absolutely clueless.

“When you’re the kid that can’t read or write, talks with a speech impediment, and can’t participate in sports, you have a hard time fitting in. In my small town people aren’t aware of what I do – and wouldn’t believe it if they did.”

Rock music is blood, sweat and tears. Simpson has known it all.

“I see it as a gift, I truly do. It has given me the opportunity to spread happiness. It has brought me together with some of the nicest people in the world. And I get to prove that you can turn disabilities around to become abilities. I feel like the only thing that I am lacking are filters which restrict “normal” people from experiencing things more fully”.

No doubt, what some people would consider a disability, might be someone else’s greatest gift in life.

Follow Todd on Twitter! @MojoChild

Listen to Todd’s music @ Todd Simpson & Mojo Child