The ground breaking artists of today must be willing to break genre barriers and be free in developing their own unique style. Our recent discovery of singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Timi Alexander is a great example of creating music on his own terms. The results have been fantastic.
We had the opportunity to sit down with Timi and get into his brain and how he sees the future of music. Enjoy the interview here:
What first drew you into the independent music world as an entertainer?
I feel like it happened very naturally over the years. I was always putting on a show at school, eventually I got hooked on songwriting. Many of my idols have DIY-history or inspiring philosophy related to it so it always felt lik a natural choice.
How would you describe the Timi Alexander sound?
The sound of my debut album is quite diverse but the varying songs are connected by big melodies, my voice (which has its roots in rock singing) and certain production elements present in most of my songs. I’m currently working on my second album and streamlining my sound into a more polished form which is straight in-between hip hop and rock: I’m very excited about it, as I feel like what I’ve got boiling next is very unique.
Who would you say are your biggest influences?
There are literally so many of them but some recurring names include Chris Cornell, Kanye West, Aphex Twin, Mike Patton, Frank Ocean, Tom Waits, Nirvana, Paul McCartney Jeff Buckley, Andre 3000, K-Dot (probably everyone’s influence right now) and Earl.
What is your songwriting process? Take us through how a song comes to be?
It differs from song to song, and that’s where I’ve always aimed as well: when you variate your writing approaches and styles, you will stay out of your comfort zone and the songs are bound to become different. ”Cold Leather”, for example, started out as a vocal demo I built a production around whereas ”Glide” was the opposite.
Tell us about your debut self-titled Timi Alexander album?
It’s quite a ride, isn’t it? I wrote, produced and performed basically the whole thing by myself, enlisting a couple of my friends to record WhatsApp/Facebook audio samples for the album purposes. The album feels like a glimpse into my last year and the overall themes present, the skits are my homage to the great rap records of a similar nature. The sound of the album is deliberately rather homemade, as I wanted my debut album to capture that sort of a charm a lot of my favourite artists’ debuts also have. I love following politics so I wanted to include my own outlook in some of the songs, mainly on the current ubiquitous political division and social media frenzy that I find rather ridiculous.
You seem to be quite the visual artist too as seen on ‘The Ballad of a Keg Heart’. Is there a passion there as well?
It’s a side of me that I’ve always subconsciously loved yet have only realized as of late. In the future I definitely want to be even more involved in the visual side of things, including videos and photography. I adore great album covers that catch your eye so I wanted to use one of the most ostentatious pictures I’ve taken for my own debut: the photo is from a party I don’t remember much of but that picture remains, it’s turned almost mythological at this point. I actually love photographing parties and social situations with an iPhone, it’s a kooky passion of mine.
What is next for Timi Alexander?
The gradual takeover (of) this planet, I guess. :-/
What advice would you give other artists pursuing their passion?
Be unrelentessly yourself. One person with a vision is better than a huge machine without one. Throw the genre limits away. And remember to shower.
The latest Timi Alexander album is streaming on SPOTIFY
You can keep up with Timi Alexander around the web at:
FACEBOOK – INSTAGRAM – SOUNDCLOUD
