Project Description
Interview with
TIM WHEATLEY
Interviewer – Dave Bruce
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Have you always wanted to be a musician? When did you start writing music?
When I was thirteen I was asked what I wanted to be – I said ‘Magician’. They put a guitar in my hand and sent me to music lessons and I guess I was just too polite to correct them. As for writing music, I never actually started. Songs just appeared from nowhere. Wait a minute…
Which music did you grow up listening to? How has it influenced your current style?
Like a lot of kids, I grew up listening to whatever my folks put on in the car or at home. Originally, I would beg them to turn it off, but now place all those Jackson Browne, Eagles, Bowie, Little Feat and Bonnie Rait records on a pedestal. Sadly though, I think I think space left for great honest music is few and far between. These days if the chorus hasn’t been reached within 3.4 seconds you may find it hard for the song to be heard at all. So, I’m striving for something in between ‘great music’ and ‘what gets played on the radio’.
Why do you think people resonate with your music?
Maybe because more often than not I’m writing about them, not me.
Your new single “Lying Low” has just been released! Describe its origin and evolution.
‘Lying Low’ was penned when I moved to London. I was in the midst of writing a new album, and not allowed to perform live while I was applying for residency. I felt absolutely useless and a long way away from my home back in Los Angeles. ‘Trying not to make a sound, beat up and broken down, Lying Low in London town.
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Do you have any more new music in the works?
Absolutely. The last couple of songs I did for this release in fact started me down a very different and exciting path. It’s always the way, as soon as I figure it all out it’s time to pack up. It doesn’t make me angry or anything, but makes it near impossible to ever really find closure and thus you keep going on and on writing.
Do you have any shows/tours coming up? What are you looking forward to, and what can the fans expect?
Nope. Sadly, there are no shows anytime soon. As for what fans can expect? I hope they just do what they can to support their favorite artists during these times.
If you could perform with any music artist, Alive or Dead, who would you choose? And why?
I would definitely want to work with Jim Morrison if he was alive. And of-coarse Adam Levine, but only if he wasn’t.
What’s next for you in the near future?
All I can do at the moment is write as much as I can and be ready for whenever it is we can hit the road again. My first stop will be Australia. Not only because I love touring there, but I’ll be able to see my family after a long time on the other side of the world.
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What are your longer-term aspirations?
I’m older than most of the bands you interview. Every day is a blessing.
What is the best thing about performing to a live audience?
Meeting new people. If it sounds cliched, so be it. But I really do love nothing more than making friends.
Finally, a few questions for some quick answers –
FAVOURITE:
Album – The Band (self titled)
Artist – Bruce Springsteen
Movie – The Great Escape
Place to visit – Home
Venue – Pappy & Harriets (Pioneer Town, CA)
Food – Gluten.
Drink – Bourbon.
Person in History – My Father.
Tattoo – Little Audrey (Skipping girl Vinegar)
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Check out TIM WHEATLEY below
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TIM WHEATLEY
drops new single
LYING LOW
Alt folk rock troubadour, Tim Wheatley is back with a unique dose of melancholy and Australiana, today dropping his deeply personal single, Lying Low. The song is complemented by a fittingly dark and manic video clip that showcases the private suffering and switching of personalities that inspired the song.
Produced and engineered by Michael Badger (King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, You Am I, Amyl & The Sniffers) at Jaya Jaya Music in Melbourne, and mixed by ARIA award winning Steven Schram (Paul Kelly, San Cisco), Lying Low tells a tale of darkness with that raw, raspy voice Wheatley is best known for, and his intensely introspective songwriting shines.
“It was the first song I wrote after moving from Los Angeles to London. The adjustment from sunny California to the cobblestone streets of East London was near impossible for me. I wrote this song feeling more isolated than ever, in a new city, away from family and friends, and without the ability to perform live,” explains Wheatley. “I stopped talking about how hard I was finding it, because I was drowning in other people’s well-intended but cookie cutter advice. I was going stir crazy in my own company all day and night. It was a true test for my mental health, I was suffering and switching up a few different sides of my personality trying to find the one that could best get me through each situation. It was exhausting ‘getting out there’ and making new friends, for some reason during this period I felt I needed to keep to myself to get to the other side.”
Directed and filmed by Ben Cook (Bombay Bicycle Club, Bring Me The Horizon) at the Sony Music Studios in Sydney in the midst of the bushfires raging across the country, the video’s intent was to demonstrate the solitude and strain the move had on Wheatley.
“We wanted it to be frantic and dark, but ultimately strong enough to stand on its own,” says Wheatley. “Ben and I deliberately went in to the filming of the video wanting to capture something completely unrehearsed and candid with nothing but a light and his new Super8 camera, and possibly a bottle of scotch.”
Despite not being written during or about the current global isolation situation, Wheatley insights,
“In more ‘normal’ release circumstances, this song – that is now a year old – would be a memory, or about a circumstance that has since passed. But this time, ‘Lying Low’ is somehow becoming more relevant by the day. Either that or I’m stuck on a carousel.”
Lying Low was released on June 12 through Sony Music Entertainment Australia.
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