2010.07.22 – UNITOPIA – Sean Timms (interview)

unitopia

I must confess that your previous album The Gardener1 was very impressive. It was a strong number one in my private list for the album of 2008 and so I was very glad to hear that you have released a new material. I was very curious to know if your latest album „Artificial”
was as good as the previous one? Having listened to it I must say that is has definitely come up to my expectations. So let’s move on to the first question:

Which album was more difficult to compose? What are your best memories connected with these albums?


Hi, I guess all of our music has its inherent difficulties and parts that are somewhat easier than others. More Than a Dream, our 1st album took nine years to complete, so the difficulty there was that we weren’t able to devote enough time consistently to that album to get it done in a reasonable amount of time. As for The Garden, it was the sheer scope of doing a double CD and keeping the level of consistency there in all of the tracks…we were probably only partly successful there. With Artificial, it was making sure that we produced an album that we felt was a progression upwards from The Garden. I remember saying to Mark that I thought it would be very difficult to improve on The Garden, but once we had started, it all moved along very quickly.


How did the band Unitopia start playing?

Mark and I met through a mutual friend and started writing together almost immediately. At first, it was just a hobby (it still is in many respects!) and we weren’t able to spend a lot of time on it due to other commitments. After the moderate success of More Than a Dream, we decided to take things more seriously and needed a band to play live, so we asked around and did some auditions and put a live band together. The lineup has gone through some changes, but the core of the band, Mark, Matt (our guitarist) and myself has stayed the same.


There are a lot of musical influences in your music that range from classic prog through rock, pop, hard rock, folk to jazz. This makes me think that you are fond of a large number of styles. What are the musical tastes of your band members and what is the influence of what
you listen to on your music?


Our tastes are very varied. For instance, Mark loves Kate Bush, John Martyn, Marillion, Peter Gabriel and a lot of ambient electronic, whereas I like all of the classic prog, Yes, Genesis, Alan Parsons, the new prog (Moon Safari, Flower Kings, Spock’s Beard) as well as folk (Al Stewart) country rock (James Taylor, Nicolette Larson), classical (Gershwin, Stravinsky, Bernard Hermann), jazz (Hiromi, Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson) etc…etc…
Matt likes good ol’ Rock ‘n’ Roll, a touch of the heavy stuff and pretty much anything that’s good. We’re looking for a new drummer and bass player at the moment, but hope to find someone very soon.
The influences are probably largely mine and Marks on the music as we tend to write the lion’s share.


How do you compose music: is it done by all of you or is it more a vision of a band leader?

Mark and I get together on a regular basis and we write a few different ways. Sometimes he’ll have a lyric or melody or both and sing it to me…sometimes we just sit at the piano and record whatever happens, sometimes I’ll write the whole song and he will make it his own by giving the melody and words his personal touch.


What is the story behind the music. Can we call this album a concept album?

I guess it has a loose concept. The idea was put forward by Matt. He wanted to have the theme of Artificial Intelligence running through it. It deals with the way society has embraced technology and either used or abused it to either bring fulfillment or isolation to their lives. There’s a lot more I could say, but I’ll leave it to the listener to decide what they think we’re on about.


Your albums are very rich in terms of music but also artworks created by Ed Unitzky (well-known graphic in prog rock world). How did it happen that you teamed up with this artist? Do you intend to continue cooperation with him so that artworks become a sort of a trademark of your band? (like albums of Yes with artworks by Roger Dean)

You bet! We’d be mad not to have him design all of our album covers from now on! He’s become like another member of the band. We appreciate him so much.
Mark actually found him through MySpace and formed a friendship with him even before we asked him to do our CD covers.
We were initially reticent about getting someone not from our country to do the art work, but we had absolutely NO LUCK with anyone here. They did some very good work but didn’t seem to get what we were all about! Ed nailed it straight away! He seems to be able to read our minds.


What are your concert plans? Are you planning to come to Europe? Do you think you will come and visit the country of Tadeusz Kosciuszko whose name is know also thanks to a highest mountain in Australia?

We are booked to do some shows in Europe and the U.K. in October this year. Please see our website for more details www.unitopiamusic.com
We would love to play in your country. Maybe one of your readers would be able to put us in touch with a concert promoter and we could work something out.
And yes you’re right…Mount Kosciuszko IS the highest mountain in Australia. I haven’t climbed it though 🙂


Some time ago in my city there was a concert of your compatriot Rob Tognoni (he releases albums in Europe in a Belgian label Music Avenue). He plays blues rock so in terms of music he represents quite a different style. Do you know him and do you know his music?

No I don’t, but I’ll definitely check him out.


Is music your only passion? Do you have any other hobbies apart form music?

Yes I do. I have just had a baby boy six months ago, Oliver Gershwin Timms, and he is the joy of my life. I try to spend as much time as I can with both him and my lovely wife, Amanda as I can. I also collect comics, mainly super hero ones (I have a complete collection of Spider-Man!) and I train and teach karate (I’m a second degree black belt). Where I find time to do all of this as well as run a recording studio full-time, I’ll never know!


Are you planning to release a concert CD or DVD?

That would be great, but not for a little while. Our next project is an album of some of our favourite cover songs.


Thank you for your time. On behalf of Rock Area and all your fans in our
country (and I belong to this group as well) I wish you much success.


Thank you very much for your interest and support of our music. It means a great deal to us

Marek Toma

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