A talk with NZ's own: Tîmmy The First

Zimbabwe born, New Zealand Raised artist Tîmmy The First talks about his upcoming EP “The Source”, breaking into the music industry, and his music making process. Timmy is involved with Beyond the Beat, a show releasing during New Zealand Music Month that gives a sneak peek into music production by getting Aotearoa’s favourite musicians to reimagine a beloved track.

You can catch Timmy’s episode of Beyond the Beat on YouTube, titled “TîMMY the FIRST Remakes Cassie Henderson “Seconds to Midnight” airing on May 29th! Be sure to then vote for your favourite episode by June 11th at beyondthebeat.co.nz 

What is a song that you’re loving at the moment?

That’s interesting, see the thing is it's a really hard question for me to answer. I like a lot of different types of songs and I don't tend to obsess over one specific song. One song that we’re supporting in the show is a song called “Round & Round” by Pa Salieu, which I like which also inspired my take on the remake that I did [In Beyond the Beat’s Show] which has been pretty cool.

If you don’t listen to songs on repeat, do you tend to listen to a wide range of music instead?

I listen to a wide range and for the longest time the music that I made compared to the music that I listened to was so different. It really depends, I have seasons where I'm into different things. On one day I might listen to many different genres, I try not to be defined by any specific genre.

How would you describe your music to someone who hasn’t heard it? 

It's quite interesting because right now I'm in the middle of an evolution. My sound is evolving. Initially I would have just said I'm a hip-hop artist that raps and sometimes does some melodic [music], but nowadays with my sound developing thanks to covid, I really started looking into more singing. So now I make more … I'd say afro pop type music, inspired by hip-hop. Still quite a bit of rap, but I'm really into singing. I'd say my music is in the realm of afro pop hip-hop, but lyrically and content wise I make reflective music that I think kind of explains me at a point in time, in a journey. Like a story about my own personal struggles, or sometimes they're stories from friends. 

How did you initially get into music?

I'd say I’ve always been drawn to music, I’ve been creating music since I was young. When I was a kid I always used to record myself on my mom's phone singing random things. But my first introduction to actually creating music was when there was a keyboard left at our house and I taught myself how to play keys. Then I’d start to write music with my older sister at the age of around eight to eleven and I’d write music. So I've always been into writing and creating music, and I didn't really take it seriously until my last year of Uni. That's when I was like “oh i really want to give this a try” 

Does your sister ever help you with music?

Sometimes, it's funny she was the actual singer back then. I would help her write and produce the song, but then I ended up being the one who's now doing the singing. But sometimes I ask her for advice. 

It must be good to have someone to bounce Ideas off of if you need 

100%, I think it's really key in the music industry. Having that circle of friends and family that are also into it, and they can be honest with you as well 

Your music is a blend of influences from different parts of the world, and different genres. How do you approach genre? What are your thoughts on how it impacts your music?

I try to say genre doesn't define my music, but I do use it as maybe a bit of a guideline to communicate with people. When I start making a song I don't usually think of genre first, I'm just thinking of whatever I like. But over time you start to see the direction in which the song is leaning, and then sometimes I'll lean into that. Or sometimes I’ll be like “no I don't want it to be this kind of song”. I just kind of approach each song as its own thing. I have this thing where I look at each song like children. You wouldn’t treat children or people all the same, they’re all their own individual and require a different type of attention. So I try not to put each song in a box if that makes sense. 

You were born in Zimbabwe and grew up in New Zealand, and I read you also grew up in Canada? 

Yeah I lived in Canada for about five or six years. So I finished off primary school and I did a little bit of the equivalent of intermediate and start of high school in Canada. So I've got quite a lot of influence from there, in terms of my music, because they are pretty important years. 

Do you feel that all of these different places have a profound effect on your sound and how you approach music? 

Yeah definitely because you see so many different ways of life, and so many different ways people approach the same thing. You start to, I don't know … I feel like it's made me very open to change, and growth, and accepting different approaches to things. Like incorporating new things in my music, because I've just been so used to adapting to new schools, new countries, relating to different people, learning how to connect and communicate. I’ve just been so used to adapting, so it's really impacted me a lot in that way. It’s made me not as rigid with my style and my sound, and it’s just really cool because I like to make something different. 

What is your process when writing music? 

[for the upcoming EP] There is only one track I didn’t do at home. All the other ones I did at home. The reason I really wanted to do that is because it is raw as opposed to when I record in studios, it’s a lot more polished. It feels like … you can feel when someone's trying to act or something you know? In that process when I was doing my EP, I actually kind of freestyled. So I actually wouldn't write things down, I'll just take each line one at a time and focus on each one. So the song has a flow and each thing connects to the next thing, which has been something that I’ve started to adopt a lot more in my process. But I’m really open to anything, especially when I start to work with other people. When I collaborate I'm open to other people's processes, I'm open to whatever is giving us the most inspiration at that time. On the production side, if we're really liking certain sounds we lean into that, or if it's a feeling we try to capture that in production, or if it's lyrics that I already have then we follow that. So there's many different threads that you can kind of pull when you're collaborating with other people.

What is your setup like at home?

I literally just have a microphone here (next to him at his desk), like a rode mic. I've got a couple of speakers, so when I do production I use my speakers. Then I've got my headset and my microphone and interface that I have for when I record at home. I'm really fortunate that the person who mixes my [music] mixes it really well, so you can't really tell that it was done at home. And I'll just be sitting down as opposed to in studios sometimes you're standing up.

Do you have any dream collaborations?

Within New Zealand maybe Stan Walker, that would be super cool because I feel like having a little bit of the afro type of influence in some of his music, with what he does already would be a cool combo. I feel like it'd be cool to see his take on that type of genre and that type of music, I’d love that. 

Internationally, two artists would be Stormzy and then probably Burna Boy would be super cool.

When you write music, do you write more for yourself or for an audience ?

That's a good question. For ‘the source’, me and my experience is where it's coming from. But at the same time I want to communicate it in a way that other people can relate to or get a similar feeling from. It's a very vulnerable experience writing your feelings and experiences and putting it out into the world for people that judge and scrutinize. It's a really vulnerable and scary situation, so sometimes I will disguise my topics with a different topic. It could be a song talking about me and my friend but I could write it talking about me and a girl, or something about a relationship, but I’ll write it about my friendship. So it's the other way around, I'm trying to disguise my message and leave it quite open to interpretation. Because at the end of the day I'm making it for myself because I can feel it, but I'd really love for someone else to be able to connect to it so I don't want it to be too specific so that it is harder for people to connect with. 

It is quite a scary thing to be so vulnerable, and you recently released a single called “SCARED”, what was a song that you were scared to release?

The one that was the most vulnerable for me was a song called “Robot Heart Chakra”. I feel like that put me in a vulnerable place, not only because of the lyrical content, but also because of my approach to the song. I feel like my vocals were very raw and it was a side of me that I've never expressed before, so that was really scary to put out. Although in that song I left so much detail, I feel like a lot of people can come out of it with so many different stories. But I think to me what it connected with when I wrote would be the most vulnerable [song].

You have an EP releasing on the 4th of July, would you like to tell us what it is about or how it sounds? 

This new EP is going to be a lot more of my new sound that I've been working on. Like I said, I made it mostly at home. I guess what it talks about is my journey in the industry and then within myself. As well as getting to a point where you're navigating things and you kind of get lost, but you come to the conclusion that you want to go back to what initially inspired you, where you initially got that power or that motivation to do whatever you did. Which is why I call it ‘the source’ . It's kind of like going back to the source of me. I've stripped a lot back. Like I said, I'm making music from my room right now whereas all my other songs that I've released before this use a proper studio, like the whole big process. So the whole project in itself talks about the journey to get there and throughout. Which is why I like “SCARED” which is one of the songs that's on there. It talks about that fear and vulnerability and that you don't let that fear to fall be what stops you from actually being yourself and doing what you truly want to do. 

Craccum is a University magazine, so do you have any advice for the students out there wanting to pursue music?

That’s super cool, cause that's something that really means a lot to me. I feel like for me as a student I went through a really dark time in the period where I wasn't making music, where I kind of felt like I was just stuck in a cycle. I was studying neuroscience and I felt like I didn't really have a purpose, and I feel like that lack of purpose can take you to some very dark places, where you start not caring. So, to anybody who is a creative and is not creating, don't be afraid to create. Just create, and put your stuff out there, connect with people. For me, that whole idea of making a song and putting it out there, even if it's just one or two people who listen to it or who connected to it, gave me so much fulfillment. Just being able to do that, especially if that's you at the core, it’s something worth actually pursuing and taking seriously. Don't do it for the money, do it for yourself and I think eventually over time it might give back to you.

Your new EP comes out on the 4th of July, and you’ve recently released a single called “SCARED”, do you have anything else you’d like to let readers know about? 

There is this show for Beyond the Beat where people get to see the behind the scenes of music creation. It's super cool, like I think it's a really great concept and I fell in love with the whole idea of putting Kiwi artists up there and giving people their flowers. I thought that’s really cool. With my EP release I’ll also have my first headline show as well, on July the 4th. I'll have the full band, the whole works, we're putting a lot into this show. I think it's going to be a really cool experience and it'll have some different vibes to the shows that I've personally been doing, which is something that is so exciting.

You must be really looking forward to it

I’m definitely really looking forward to it! It’s just the stress of planning it, that’s where you wish you had a massive team doing all these things. The stress of planning it while also setting up the setlist is a lot, but I think it’s all worth it.

Do you get nervous when you perform?

Yeah 100%, I've found that my best performances come from when I'm most nervous. It's shows where I'm not nervous at all, that's when I feel like I don't perform well. Usually the more nervous I am before I perform, the better I perform. Once you're on that stage everything changes and you’re in your element.

If you want more incredible NZ based afro-pop/hip-hop stay up to date with all the exciting work Tîmmy The First has coming up, including his upcoming EP “The Source” and his episode with Beyond The Beat “TîMMY the FIRST Remakes Cassie Henderson “Seconds to Midnight” airing on May 29th!