Featured Artist for January: Timothy Work

Now that the hustle and bustle of the holiday season is over, let’s get right back down to business. Here is Timothy Work, our first featured artist for 2013.

Timothy Work is the facet through which Japanese musician Nobuki produces his music. Though born and raised in Japan, Nobuki says that his music is not only influenced by the Japanese underground music scene, but Western as well. He, together with the rest of his band, aim to create original music through sounds that set them apart from all others, so they derive musical inspiration from a wide range of genres—from Japanese folk to Shoegaze—and translate these into music they can dub as their own.

Aside from Timothy Work, Nobuki has also two other projects: De Nada and Ykiki Beat. Here’s what he has to say about these music ventures:

I see that you have two music projects: Ykiki Beat and De Nada. Tell us a bit something about them. What is unique with each project?

I started Ykiki Beat with my 4 friends. This is a Chillwave/80s/Pop Music project. But later, another friend and one of the members of Ykiki Beat said that they're gonna start a new band that has more primitive sounds than Ykiki Beat—that is De Nada. And they invited me into the band. There are three guys as members of De Nada. De Nada is Lo-fi/Indie Rock, sometimes Shoegaze music, we think. We all are in the same university in Tokyo.

Is there a Ykiki Beat or De Nada EP on the works now that you’ve released a Timothy Work EP?

No, we haven't released both of YB and DN EP now. But we are considering about it more concretely. For now, I only released Timothy Work EP so everyone can know about YB, DN and also TW.

Who are your music influences?

It's [a] secret. Because if I say it, people will think about our band always involving the band sound that I tell you. We don't like it. I just wanna say the genres we love. Chill wave, 80s Pops, New Wave, Post Punk Revival, Folk Song, Worship(because I'm Christian), Funk, Techno, Lo-Fi, Punk Rock,  Indie Rock, British Invasion, Post Dub Step, Shoegazer, Ambient, New Gazer, Japanese Folk, Ryukyu Folk…In short I just wanna say that many types of music influence our band.

What type of music do you aspire to create? Like, what feeling do you wish to inspire in people when they hear your music?

Difficult question! But I like this one. Well…I like melancholic feelings. Like the feeling [that] happens when you think about your hometown, ex-lovers, happy memory in schools. But I don't want anyone to regret. I don't mean that. I mean I want all of our listeners to love their lives. And of course I want them to have a hope for the future. I want [to] evoke every beautiful views—the smile of [a] sweetheart. And every color of everything on earth. Yeah, color. I love the color. I always think about vivid color in my songs.

Listening to the album, you can definitely nod on with what Timothy means in his last statement. Timothy Work EP is a fountain of exciting colors which is most evident in the track London Echoes. The track turns more upbeat towards the end with some very jazzy chord structures (very lovely to the ears), which Timothy explains as obligatory “happy parts.” Take a listen:

Timothy explains, “Sometimes we make some sad and melancholic songs, but I definitely make happy parts in the songs so everyone can have [a feeling of] hope. I hate violent, too sexy things, [and] selfish attitude. I think music influences the listeners’ lives. So I care a lot about the idea when I make songs.”


TIMOTHY WORK
http://timothywork.bandcamp.com/
http://www.myspace.com/timothywork
https://twitter.com/Tim0thy_Tim0thy
https://twitter.com/YkikiBeat