What’s next for Ukiyo?
1. So Ukiyo, love the new track, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself? How would you describe your music?
I’m a 24 year old human named Tim, I’ve been producing music for almost exactly 10 years now & been doing it full time for 4 of those. I have a deep fascination with orchestral music in particular movie soundtracks, and even more particularly John Williams. I grew up getting lessons for the Saxophone & Clarinet but in typical me style, I hardly did anything I was told and ended up spending more time teaching myself piano. ‘Ukiyo’ started as a bit of an escape but instead of pouring my emotions into music I wanted to create an atmosphere that was perfect & aesthetic. The word Ukiyo is Japanese and means to detach yourself from daily stresses and bothers - so I think it’s pretty fitting.
2. Tell us about Make It Better, what’s the story of this track (Where was it recorded etc.)?
The production on this track was more-or-less done in a day in my studio, with lots of little tweaks made here and there afterwards. A lot of my songs just kind of happen without too much meaning, but I remember feeling quite anxious when I made this one and thinking of it like a hand on my shoulder, something you play and know everything is going to be OK. Originally the demo was called ‘Don’t Forget to Breathe’ and was a bit slower but essentially it didn’t change much at all.
3. Your new album Ukiyo LP is set to drop Nov 13, how long have you been working on it? How do you feel about the release being out there for all to hear?
Yes finally! An album is something that’s been in the back of my mind for about the last 3 years and it’s gone through a lot of iterations in that time. My ‘Fantasy’ EP was released in August 2018 and it’s been pretty much the only thing I’ve been thinking about since. I’m super excited for people to hear it, I think it’s the best music I’ve released by far and the response on the singles so far has been amazing. I’m a big sucker for listening to an album through and appreciating the songs that don’t make the charts or the playlists, so I hope people can do the same with mine.
4. You have many collaborations/features on the album, how did these collaborations come about? Are you all mates?
I like to think of them all as mates at this stage. The bulk of every collaboration on this album was done remotely though & the honest truth is I haven’t even met half of them in person (yet). Long distance mates I guess, the life of a musician living in Perth.
5. Who would be your ultimate dream collaboration?
John Williams. Don’t think I could contribute much though. More realistically I’d love to spend a day with Flume or Porter Robinson. Huge inspirations and they both seem to have gotten themselves through some of the things I’m still navigating through at the moment.
6. You’ve achieved many varied musical accolades, which would you be most proud of?
I’m still probably most proud of 2016 - the year of the vlogs. Seeing how Casey Neistat used my music for the first time and the influx of people coming over to check out my music from that was a level of surreal I’ve never quite matched yet. Having my song with OTR featured in a huge Netflix movie was certainly a very close second though.
7. In one sentence, how would you sum up your 2020?
2020 was the year of realising stuff. Kylie Jenner was right all along. For real though, this year was all about mental health for me. Realising I had things I needed to deal with & asking for help. I had some close friends going through the same journey with me so that helped a lot.
8. Have you got any secret hobbies we might be surprised by?
I don’t think it’d be a surprise at all but I’m a big VR enthusiast. I bought a vr headset when it was still quite new and I’ve been doing my fair share of showing it off to people since. Half my friends have them now.
9. What advice would you give an up and coming producer?
Don’t rush developing your skills & style. There’s a good few years where you’re going to make some absolute crap but it’s an important step to finding your sound palette. Heck, I’m still learning more than ever and I still make a hell of crap. I guess the advice is to just keep making stuff, 5% of it will be gold.
10. What’s next for Ukiyo?
In typical me fashion I’ve already got an Album 2 playlist in iTunes. Who knows though, there’ll certainly be a lot more music coming soon but I’m not sure what my next big goal is yet. I’ve been delving into doing writing and production for others as well as messing around with some stuff for side projects so I think the Ukiyo universe starts expanding starting next year.
