Interview with Timmy Sean

Interview with Timmy Sean


Timmy Sean is a brilliant Self Contained musician living in LA. His new album, "Songs from and  Inspired by Noisewater" is a multi layered modern power pop gem with a sound all its own.

Question 1
What led you to play most of the instruments yourself on "Noisewater"?

Before "Noisewater", I had been in a band called LUZER since I was 16. The short answer is that after LUZER split up, I finally could play all of the parts to my songs without worrying about anyone feeling excluded.

The longer answer is that though I wrote all of the songs in that band, it was still somewhat democratic in the studio, and it was pretty rare that the final product ended up exactly as I originally heard it in my head. That wasn't always a bad thing, but after we split up I was determined to do a full record with the only filter being my own instincts. I also used to tend to write with each member's strengths in mind, instead of just what served the song best. And though I don't know if either of them would agree on the "fun" aspect of it, I always thought it looked like such a blast to become a complete hermit like Rivers Cuomo or Brian Wilson and just spend a year or two locked away in a room writing and recording...and getting bearded and fat, living in a bathrobe. The bathrobe part was essential.

Question 2
In what order do you usually record the instruments?

It really depends. I usually tend to start laying down "scratch" idea tracks (mostly starting with piano on "Noisewater") to a click first. I usually kind of hear the whole song in my head pretty early in the process, but I'll just keep laying down more and more idea tracks until I can't really hear any more parts. Not really any rhyme or reason to the order, usually just whatever instrument is closest or which one I start getting ideas for. Sometimes the way I played a piano part will spark a drum or guitar idea. But all just sloppy, one-take tracks. Nothing "keeper".

Then I'll go and whittle down the arrangement because it's usually too busy. I'll try to find the best bits, and then pull out anything that's stepping on them. Once I'm pretty happy with the overall arrangement, I'll go back and basically redo everything that's there. For that I'll always do drums first, playing along with the scratch tracks. Then bass, piano, guitars, and any additional keys, usually in that order.

Even though I almost always have the vocal melody in mind right from the inception of the song, more times than not, I'll procrastinate finishing lyrics for months. With "Noisewater" I basically gave myself a deadline to release it, and had to do a mad dash to finish all of the lyrics and vocals in time.

Question 3
Do you have everything planned out in your head or do you just shoot from the hip when crafting an arrangement alone?

Sorry, I got so long-winded on the last question, I think covered most of the process. I will say that I usually hear most of it in my head pretty quickly, and the first step is usually trying to sing all of the ideas into the Voice Note recorder in my phone. The hard part is trying to decipher basslines, guitar chords, and horrible beat boxing drum ideas when it comes time to jump into the actual recording, sometimes weeks or months later.

Question 4
What are some of your favorite one-man band albums?

Though "McCartney" is the album most people consider Paul's one-man album (and I do LOVE that album), "Band On The Run" is far and away my favorite Macca record, and I really think of it as a solo record since Paul ended up handling drums, piano, most of the lead guitar work, and obviously bass...though Denny Laine may disagree with me on that classification. "Flaming Pie" is probably right behind it, and though it has some great guests playing on a good chunk of the tunes, it is primarily him on a majority of it.

"Rockin' The Suburbs" by Ben Folds is another one of my all-time favorite albums. I'm a HUGE Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee fan as a bassist and drummer, so the fact that I don't miss them on this album speaks volumes in itself. Plus the b-sides from this album are as good as anything Ben has ever written. "Hiro's Song" and "One Down" are some of my favorites from his entire career.

When Nirvana hit, I was too busy watching Ninja Turtle movies and listening to Kris Kross and Right Said Fred to really get into them, but by the time the first Foo Fighters single came out, I was old enough to appreciate a good rock record. I saw the video for "I'll Stick Around" and couldn't get enough of it. But since they had William Goldsmith drumming in the video, it blew my mind when I found out the singer not only used to be the drummer in Nirvana, but also that Dave played all the instruments on that first Foos album. Right around then at like 12 years old I started making four-track recordings and I was playing everything on it. I think that was the first time I thought...hmmm...I don't need a band?

Honorable mentions for me go to Lenny Kravitz's "Are You Gonna Go My Way", ELO's (or really Jeff Lynne's) "Zoom", and Jon Brion's "Meaningless".

Question 5
How many instruments can you play in order based on proficiency?

I started on drums, and that's probably still my strongest. Next would definitely be guitar, followed by bass, and then keys. I'm a total hack at piano, but I think that's helped me kind of think outside the box when I write, and not just rely on my normal "go-to" chord changes on guitar. I also took sax in elementary school for two years...that one didn't really stick.

Question 6
What advice can you give the budding self-contained musician?

My only advice is that if you think someone else can make the song sound better by playing on it, or at least closer to how you envision it, I don't think you should limit yourself to doing a one-man band thing just for the sake of it being a one-man record. That being said, if you're in a band and you can play it better than your fellow bandmate, you should probably play it yourself. They may very well quit over it, but it'll force you to find your Taylor Hawkins.

Whats next for Timmy Sean?

I relocated out to Los Angeles a little while back, and I'm finally putting together a new live line-up out here to play the "Noisewater" record as Timmy Sean And The Celebrities. We're aiming for September to debut the full band. In the meantime, after playing my first acoustic show on the west coast, I was offered a residency downstairs at The Viper Room that was just extended "forever." So you can catch my keyboardist Frankie Pedano (Fat City Reprise, Audra Mae & The Almighty Sound) and I hosting every Monday night downstairs there until they decide they're ready to throw us out.

I will also be heading down to South Carolina this summer to finish up a new one-man record that's a bit more synth-heavy pop with multi-platinum producer and all-around good guy Kenny Gioia that will be released under the name Sir Video. Kenny has a series of pretty popular DAW instructional videos, and his newest video "Mixing In Reaper" takes you from start to finish mixing one of the new Sir Video tunes which I'm pretty excited about. You get all the original multitrack masters to work with when you purchase the video, so it's pretty cool to think of the new producers with computers fixing all my shitty tracks.

Download Timmy Sean's debut album "Songs From & Inspired By Noisewater" for free athttp://timmysean.bandcamp.com and a free three song sampler from his new one-man project Sir Video at http://sirvideo.bandcamp.com

Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/timmyseanmusic &http://www.facebook.com/sirvideo