Finding A Creative Outlet In Online Collaboration–Timothy Reid (Ep 202)

Robonzo 0:02
This is the Unstarving Musician podcast. I’m your host Robonzo. The podcast features conversations with me, indie music artists and industry professionals. And it’s all intended to help other indie music artists be better at marketing business, the creative process and all the other things that empower us to do more of what we love. Make music.

Robonzo 0:25
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Robonzo 0:48
Welcome to another episode. I am recording this intro in a hotel room without my usual microphone and audio interface setup, both of which I forgot to pack. I’m not too far away from home, but far enough that I had to figure out a plan B. So I’m recording with the Trackd Music app for iPhone, which is made for this kind of thing. I could have used my vanilla voice recorder but Trackd is built for doing this kind of thing, making sonic sense of a room where you might record, and it’s kind of cool because my guest British guitarist and composer Timothy Reid discovered a creative outlet through an online collaboration app not too unlike Trackd. And he also discovered this podcast on his daily train commute in Osaka, Japan. Lucky me, and you. He and I share a common thread or common threads of Kompoz, another collaboration app, and a guy named Peter Rand who is a prolific contributor, composer on that collaboration site Kompoz. Timothy has also recorded with other artists he’s met on Kompoz, Peter Rand being one of them. Our initial conversations leading up to this interview were about Timothy’s enjoyment of the podcast, which of course was and is heartwarming. But we also speak about our connection with Peter Rand. And my latest release. Actually speaking of which, my latest release called New Gods Part 2 was co written by Peter Rand, and it dropped into the digital ecosphere last Friday, May 28 2021. That means you can stream, purchase and or download it on most of the popular music services. And you can find direct links to some of those platforms on my website robonzo.com. New Gods Part 2 is my personal homage to Zeppelin, Genesis and prog rock with a little social commentary. Hope you’ll check it out, share it, download it, maybe add it to your playlists. Timothy Reid tells me he watches, air quotes, watches episodes of the podcast on YouTube. There are some videos of my conversations, some videos, but what he means to say is he listens to them on YouTube, which is a great reminder that you can find all Unstarving Musician episodes there on the YouTube. You can also find Timothy at TimothyReid.com, and Reid is spelled R E I D. And you can find the uncut video version of this conversation on YouTube, alongside the audio only version, which I actually published shortly after we spoke in January. I’ll leave a link for that video in the show notes for you. Hope you enjoy our chat as much as I did. Here’s me talking to Timothy Reid.

Robonzo 3:39
What time is it there?

Timothy Reid 3:40
It’s late man. It’s 11pm.

Robonzo 3:44
Oh, wow.

Timothy Reid 3:46
It’s like nine o’clock for you right in the morning.

Robonzo 3:48
Yeah, yeah. Are you a night owl?

Timothy Reid 3:51
I’m not man. It’s way past my bedtime.

Robonzo 3:54
Sorry.

Timothy Reid 3:56
I was almost debating sitting here in my pajamas. You know, I’d like with my nightcap on and stuff, but yeah. No that’s good, man. It’s all good. I mean, it’s pretty hard to get a reasonable time for us both I think so. I’m sorry that you’re so early man. Nine o’clock.

Robonzo 4:13
Hey, if you’re not a night owl, I say you’ve got it worse. I’d be hard pressed to stay up until 11 to do this. So thanks for making time. Let me turn on my camera, so we can have, I’d like to try and use it on the YouTube channel. There we go. Nice. Fix that up a little bit. All right.

Timothy Reid 4:33
Wearing the glasses today I see.

Robonzo 4:37
I can’t really see shit about from this distance without my glasses.

Timothy Reid 4:42
Right, right. Yeah,

Robonzo 4:44
I was. You know, I was checking out the background as soon as you came on. Like that’s the coolest looking better. Wait, is that the enterprise? What am I looking at?

Timothy Reid 4:50
Exactly? Yeah, I can. I was wondering what you want me to do in the background like I have a green screen and I was just playing around with this bullshit.

Robonzo 4:58
I love it. When I saw the arch behind you, I thought, well, it must be his bedroom. And I’m like, it’s huge. That’s so cool.

Timothy Reid 5:05
Yeah, exactly. I thought the enterprise would be cool. So I just

Robonzo 5:09
Absolutely, absolutely. I love it.

Robonzo 5:11
I just wish I had one of those suits. You know, like with the red.

Robonzo 5:11
All you need is the comm thing.

Timothy Reid 5:18
You know, right. There’s a really interesting story, but like my, like, like, so I got one of them from my granddad when I was like, I must have been like, 10 years old. He bought me one like a pin badge. And I only had it for like, two days. And then it disappeared. And I tell you, man, that’s been something I’ve thought about, like, all the time growing up, like why the hell did that go cuz I was so happy with that badge, and it disappeared. If had that now man.

Robonzo 5:45
Now that you’re reminding me of something that’s going to make a lot of people think I’m a terrible person. But so when I was really young, I worked for American Airlines, and then their on the airline side. And then I worked in the computer system side. But when I first started, I was on the airline side and I’m young and I’m, there are all these women that work there. And so I’m, you know, having a good time meeting women and dating women, blah, blah, blah, and one time. Oh, you know, I was gonna say, See, I had this leg, this myth, this kind of egotistic lore in my head that the way it happened, but I am remembering it before I before I tell a lie straight out the gate. So there was going to be a strike for the flight attendants union. And they asked for people to volunteer to train as a flight attendant, in case there was a strike. So there was this 19-day program, I enrolled I’m like, heck yeah, I bet there’s even more girls there. Right? Yeah. But they gave me the the metal American Airlines wings that they I don’t even know if they still use them in some pin. [Right] You’re talking about that pin. And I was thinking about it. But because of all these good times I had meeting all these nice young women back then I would tell the story that this was from one of my, you know, women that I had met that she surrendered it.

Timothy Reid 7:07
Right, like a souvenir to remember her by.

Robonzo 7:07
Now some of you can think I’m a horrible person, I hope. So. Well, let’s get right into this. So thanks for reaching out to me. It’s funny, I wondered what was going through your head when you’re, you contact me to tell me about this wonderful songwriter that you’ve been working with that you met on Kompoz, the collaboration platform, and suggesting that I have him on the podcast and I listened to him real quick. And we’re chit chatting. I start asking you a couple questions. And then I’m like, I think you should be on the podcast. Did you have even just a moment of gone, man that that wasn’t what I was going for?

Timothy Reid 7:42
No like like I was I was happy that you you asked me to be on the podcast like, I let me let me just say I really love your podcast, man. Like I’m a I’m a fan.

Robonzo 7:54
Thank you.

Timothy Reid 7:55
First and foremost. Yeah, that’s why I was kind of wondering whether you’re gonna wear the glasses today or not, because so many as you don’t have the glasses on. But other videos, you do have the glasses. And I was thinking like, I wonder if he’s gonna wear the glasses today?

Robonzo 8:06
Oh, yeah. You know, that’s just me. Like, I’ll get if I’m doing some of these tips things or something. I’ll take them off because I don’t have to really see. But most of the time, man if I’m reading that’s funny that I’m I’m curious to know which ones you saw where I don’t because I can’t read

Timothy Reid 8:20
When you were Yeah, a few when you were outside?

Robonzo 8:24
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, those are fun. I guess I gotta do some more of those. It’s beautiful out here. So

Timothy Reid 8:30
Yeah, cuz that cuz like I’ve been on a binge because I ride the train a lot. Because as you know, I live in. I live in the city. I live in Osaka in Japan. And it’s pretty much like you wouldn’t want to drive here because it would take hours to just get out the road and onto the outer carpark. So there’s really good transport here. And so I ride the train pretty much every day. And usually I ride more than three or four trains every day. And so when I’m on the train, man, I’ve just had my phone and I, I just, you know, watch YouTube videos. And so I found your videos through the video you did with Peter Rand. And I worked with him, he co wrote a song, which is on my recent album that I put out a couple of months ago.

Robonzo 9:19
What’s the name of the song?

Timothy Reid 9:21
The name of the song is 33 I got to find that the album is called Yeah, the album is called a light behind the eyes. And

Robonzo 9:29
A light behind the eyes?

Timothy Reid 9:31
Yeah, okay. And he he co wrote that song and I saw your interview with him. I don’t know if he posted it or you posted it. And I just thought that it was really, really interesting, especially being like a musician. And so a lot of you know, the music industry now is kind of it’s it’s just really difficult. So there’s a lot of negativity I see surrounding like, you know how, like, you know, it’s really hard to do anything and make a living from music. And so it was really refreshing to see your podcast because your podcast had a load of people on it, who were, you know, really making it work, making it work for themselves. And so I kind of started on the one with Peter, and watch that while I was on the train. And then you know, on the train back, I watched the next one. Actually, I made a big mistake, because I did the thing that I did with the Terminator movies in the alien movies, where I watched like the second one before I watched the first one. And it just, you know, it kind of ruined the whole thing for me. So I think I, what was the one with Peter, it must be like Episode 180 something 170 something?

Robonzo 10:37
Maybe? Yeah, I don’t have any memorized. Yeah,

Timothy Reid 10:40
Yeah. I, so I started on that. And then I was going backwards. And then I kind of realized, like, I probably should, I probably should go back to the beginning back to like, number one. And so like, I stopped listening to the recent ones, I went back to like your really early podcast where you’re, they’re not even I don’t even think they’re numbered. Like, you know, I don’t know, when you started putting like, number one, number two, but I think some of the earlier ones, it’s just like a name. There’s no number on that. And so I’ve been watching them and just kind of like going through them when I’m on the on the train. But, but that was why I initially reached out to you because I just really, really liked the podcast and the idea. And then like yout said, Yeah, I’m working with this singer from singer songwriter from Germany. And he’s got some great tunes, but we need some, you know, promotion. And so I was thinking well, should be a great place, because he’s a great, great writer. He’s a really great writer, and he’s really prolific on the on the website on the online collaboration website. So I thought this would be a great place. And then of course, you you asked me to be on but yeah, that was great, too.

Robonzo 11:43
Yeah. And I would like to invite him on. So we’ll talk about that. After we do our thing here today. Initially, I was like, okay, so yeah sounds pretty good, you know, and, but then I started looking at your stuff. And we just it’s, you know, it is speaks to the power of developing a relationship, because just in a couple of emails, you and I are kind of chit chatting. I mean, I get solicited daily now, I think by PR reps, and sometimes artists who are just hustling themselves, mostly PR people, and I don’t even have the time to look at all of them now, which is a good problem, right? And plus, yeah, plus, I have a big backlog of recorded episodes that I’m trying to publish plus, starting in January, I just kind of slowed down. So I’m doing them every other week right now. Right, and I may ramp back up. But anyway, it does speak to the value of what you did, you know, reaching out and saying hi, and thank you so much, by the way, for all the nice things that you’ve said about the podcast. It’s funny, because when I was rereading your email, I was gonna ask you Hey, man, can I use this as a testimonial on the website? It’s great. I always forget to ask people and I thought I’ll ask him so.

Timothy Reid 12:53
Yeah, you can use anything you want.

Robonzo 12:55
I will well, I’m really glad you have enjoyed them. You know, Peter’s episode, frankly, took me by surprise. It’s it has been one of the most popular ones. Yeah, I don’t know why that surprised me, but it

Timothy Reid 13:08
I know what you mean it so it’s the same with me like the song that I did that I co wrote with him for my album. We didn’t co write right it as such. He actually uploaded a piano piece for that he written for his son. Because I think his son turned 33 i think i think that was the reason and I just really liked the piano piece so much. They didn’t have a melody over the top. So I decided to, to put a melody over the top of it and it kind of it really changed into almost a completely different song. And we ended up ended up even re recording the pianos. I got Ryo Okumoto from Spock’s Beard to rerecord the pianos. And he, he did a really beautiful job on that. And there’s a few other guys on that track who are kind of really great musicians I really love. And so by the end of it, it was like almost a completely different track because it was originally just a solo piano piece. And then after I added everything, we ended up re recording the piano, but it still had that spirit. You know what I mean? That spirit and all that emotion that obviously he’d written it for son and so it’s a really beautiful song. So that was Yeah, and that song was that turned out to be one of the more popular songs on the album, as well. And so I think Peters just got a knack for writing great songs, I guess.

Robonzo 14:25
Well it’s funny, so i i don’t know if you’ve gotten to this part in the podcast, but I found Kompoz because I was working on an article for Forbes.com and his was possibly, maybe not the very first but it was literally the first day I was in there. I listened to this one track of his that he calls new gods, excuse me, new gods. And I’m like, Oh, I love that. And I kind of thought it had this prog rock sort of Genesis feel to it.

Timothy Reid 14:54
Yeah, I get that as well. Yeah.

Robonzo 14:55
Yeah. And I thought I’ll go ahead and you know, give this a try. And my recording setup here at home behind me is pretty new. And but I thought I’ll give, I’ll upload it and see what he thinks. And he liked it and we just, you know, kept it up there and a couple other people did some things. And then, at the time, I was working on publishing my first single, which came out this month, early in the month and, and so anyway, I went back to him and said, hey, how would you feel about letting me release a new song based on, you know, the New Gods track and so he spun off a side project and we’ve been doing that. And that all happened after the you know, the podcast episode we had. I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, but it’s very different. The feel of it’s very different than the other song I did. The other song, almost I had a friend, It’s kind of funny, this sounds nuts, but I had a friend describe it as, think Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers jamming with Rush. Anyway, to me in the song because of the guitar in it, you know, has this sort of Tom Petty feel to it. So this one is going to be a lot different. It’s got that, like I said, this sort of Genesis feel and then I got the same bass player on it, who, who Geddy Lee’d my last song. And, and I’m trying to play a little more straightforward. I had this initially I thought I, I guess I could do this Phil Collins sort of thing but then like, now that’ll be to, too, that won’t be good. And so I thought, well, let’s sort of do this laid back, try and do this laid back Bonham thing. So anyway, needless to say, it’s going to be pretty different. But um, yeah, that’s been the extent of, that’s been the extent of my work on there so far. By the way, you know, I did listen to a bit of the here and now, which was just released like yesterday.

Timothy Reid 16:34
Yeah, it came out yesterday.

Robonzo 16:36
That’s amazing. So we’re recording this for those listening on the 29th of January 2021, to timestamp it there. And so I was just listening to some of the tracks this morning, before we got on this call. And sounds really good, man. I love it. So much. So I want to let a friend of mine know about it, who is working on some sort of label venture to see if he might be interested in putting on there. So

Timothy Reid 16:58
Yeah, we definitely like so we had the album came out yesterday. And it’s like 13 tracks, and they’re all they’re all Bernd, Bernd Will, who is the vocalist. And he pretty much right, where he writes all the songs. And he, he also programs, all the synths. And he, it’s really interesting, actually, because I should give you some background as to how I got into the online call collaboration thing. So like, I work as, as a kind of like a guitar player, like a, like recording guitar player. I also did tours, I should say before the whole COVID situation with other bands, various bands and singers. And I would also write music for bands and singers that I was working with. And it’s funny, because the majority of the songs I wrote, I mean, they I don’t think they’re bad songs, but they would end up getting turned down, I’d say like, 80% of the songs that I wrote, would get turned down just because just because, you know, it’s like, I guess it’s everything has to come together to in the right place at the right time. You know, if you give someone a song, they have to have enough time in the next month or something to go into a studio and record it has to be something that they like, and then they have to make sure everyone else is there. And they got to get it mixed. And most of those songs, you know, you show someone a song on a CD, and they’re like, Oh, yeah, it’s really cool. Let’s do it. Let’s do it. Let’s do it. And then you part ways and that’s, that’s the end of that, you know, and the song just gets stored away on my computer will normally get they get stored away on my external hard drive. And then they get thrown out when the computer blows up. So you know. And so one of my friends, he’s a bass player who I work with, he was listening some of the songs I wrote that I didn’t ever use, and he was like man there’s some really good songs on here, you you’ve got to do something with all these songs. And so I was just thinking, you know, after all the touring stopped, I was thinking enough. There must be some kind of website where you can just upload a song. And if someone likes it, they can do something with it. [Yeah.] And so that’s, that’s what I that’s the reason why I signed up to those online websites. I was just like, oh, I’ll upload my songs. Actually, I made the mistake of of signing up to it and then uploading loads of songs and then finding out that there’s like a limit to how many songs you could upload a year and be like, Oh, well that’s that’s my online collaboration for the rest of the year finished and I had to wait a whole year until I could actually upload anything else. But I uploaded those songs but then one of the byproducts of that website was I happen to just think well I may as well have a listen to some other people’s songs while I’m on here. And and that one of that guy Bend Will was one of the guys who I just happen to listen to and think, wow, this is insane. Like this is a really high level music and I remember when I listened to it originally it had all the parts there like it had everything. Like it had guitar had bass drums at keys on it. And also it had like really good guitar, bass and keys. So it was like, okay, but one thing it didn’t have it didn’t have a guitar solo. So I was like, Okay, well, that’s, that’s something I think I could probably do. So, I actually recorded a guitar solo for it. You know, I listened to the track, I was trying to think, how can I make this better? How can I add something to it? And I think I recorded a couple of guitar solos to two of his songs originally. And I remember one of them was with a wah pedal, I don’t normally use a wah pedal, but I just thought, like, I used the wah pedal in my stand out, but you know, something kind of cool. Everyone loves a wah pedal, right? And, and the other guitar solo was also a kind of flashy thing. But you know, I was trying to just play for the song and I uploaded them didn’t expect much. And I think, like, a few days later, I got an email or a message from him on them, like a direct message, and just said, like, here’s the next one. And I was like, Okay, this is the next tune. Alright, so I was like, fair enough, you know? Yeah, I’ll do that one. So he did another one, you know, and this guy writes tunes so fast. It was like, I’m pretty sure like, while I was recording the tune, I got another message saying, and here’s another one, you know, after that, so it’s like, fair enough. Okay, you know, like, this is this is cool. So I started recording. And then one thing I found out after that was that actually, the rhythm guitars are all MIDI. And he had actually programmed everything. So all the bass and all the guitars are all MIDI. But you know, like, now MIDI sounds so good, especially if you’ve got like six guitars layered on top of each other, it’s really hard to tell that they’re actually not real guitars, it just sounds like a really good guitar player. So I was like, okay, you know, I can do the rhythm guitars, I’ll start recording the rhythm guitar stations change now. Because, you know, I mean, the only difference between real guitars midi guitars is, you know, I can make mistakes. But actually, that’s what makes it sound kind of good, you know, those little nuances in the in the vibrato, and then in the way that and then for me, so I started recording rhythm guitar. And one thing I noticed pretty quickly was that it was lower than standard guitar, he had some notes that were like a B, and a B flat, think there was even like an A, low A. So I actually had to email one of my friends at ESP was actually the drummer in one of my old bands, and pick up one of these bad boys, I’ll show you this is crazy. It’s a seven string guitar. Well, it’s got a low, low B, right here. And I never really played a seven string guitar before. But you know, it was kind of like, it’s a cool reason to get into something new. And I’m always trying, like looking for a way to, you know, just to get something new out of my playing, and like a new a new new sound or a new tone or new technique. And so pretty much that was kind of my concept for playing with this band recording with this guy was like, Okay, I’m going to, I’m going to play seven string on on this album. And I’m going to, I’m going to play seven string riffs and try and do some flashy guitar solos. And so was pretty much what we did. And I think we did like 13 songs, 14 songs in two months. And, yeah, and, you know, it’s cool, because we’re just kind of like, Okay, so let’s do an album. That was my goal was let’s do an album.

Robonzo 23:19
And you mentioned that you guys have already written everything or most everything for a second one.

Timothy Reid 23:24
Yeah, that’s, yeah, yeah, we’ve Well, we’ve already we’ve got about 15 songs for the second album, as well. Yeah, we only just released at first, he writes songs really fast. And I’m so I think the online collaboration websites, I mean, you might have found this yourself that that one of the, one of the negative aspects, I don’t want to get too into the negative aspects is that it’s hard to find people on their site who are willing to do like long form projects, you know what I mean? So like, for me, personally, this is great, fun to work with. But if I find someone that like, I really dig that voice, or I dig that bass playing, I don’t just want to do like, like a one off song with them. Like I want to work with them and put out something like a body of work, you know, that you can be proud of. And so that was kind of my idea with that guy with that band was was the was the if we’re gonna do this, let’s do an album with the same sounds throughout you know, something that sounds like it’s cohesive and it carries through. And so actually, one of the hardest things for us was finding other musicians you know, finding a bass player who is willing to put in the time to play on every single track and you know, things like that. And we had a few other rhythm guitar players who played on on one guy played on two tracks and the the guy played on just one of the tracks, but it’s great, but you know, it would have been so cool to have like everyone on every track, have that real band sound.

Robonzo 24:52
Yeah, sure. Totally. I I was thinking on this next one I was other than, you know, Peter, basically being in addition to, to what I had on the last one, I’d have the same other two guys play with me on it. The thought has entered my head too Actually, I have already entertained having a different guitar player on just, my friend who played guitar on it is a guy in really high demand for both playing and he’s an he’s the guy that mixed and mastered it for me. And, you know, really did a lot of the, I mean, he brought the song to life, I gave him an acoustic demo. And almost what the, what you hear in the finished product is what he sent me back. So [Right], he put on an acoustic and electric guitar, I believe, Mellotron, maybe. And a bass, which we ended up replacing, he put drums on which I ended up replacing with my own playing, and even some backing vocals, which which we replaced. They were all good, though. I just had some ideas, you know, I wanted to have like a live band, like you say, but yeah, I understand how I know what you mean. And it’s kind of a concern, when you, it’s a legitimate concern, I think, to not only not do something as a full body of work that has this some sort of theme to it. Because I’m already I’m already deviating from that, right. I’ve got this sort of completely stylistically different tune, I think. And then now I’m thinking of putting another guy in there, and I could probably have the same guys. But it’s a risk. So I like that you guys did that.

Timothy Reid 26:28
Yeah, it is difficult, like I so my last solo album, the one that I was telling you about, like, behind the eyes, I put some of the tunes for that up on on a collaboration website, just to see if I can get some people involved. And, and I did use some of the people from those websites. But again, it it was so hard to get the same people to play on the same tracks, because, you know, well, I guess that’s the joy of just being on a website, you can go on it whenever you want. And the previous albums before them, it was the same people in the same studio for three days or two days, however long it was with the same, the same drum kit for every song, the same bass guitar pedals for every song. So like you said it has that thread going through it. So that’s the only one kind of like, negative aspect. I thought of the online thing. But other than that, like, I met some really great players on that around. Yeah, he burned. Yeah, it’s it’s a great place. Yeah.

Robonzo 27:31
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Robonzo 28:36
And where’s Bernd located?

Timothy Reid 28:42
He’s in Germany.

Robonzo 28:43
That’s right. You said that is? And is he German or is he an expert there?

Timothy Reid 28:46
He’s German. Yeah. He he’s German. So he’s not even singing in his native language, which makes it even cooler. You know, like, to be honest, like I kind of dig that, you know, like a lot of my favorite bands growing up were bands from like Finland and, and obviously, I love Japanese music. That’s why I came to Japan. And I was kind of really dope like, non native singers, you know. And so it’s funny because actually, I mean, I hope I hope I’m okay saying this. But the reason why I was supposed to attracted to his music was not only the fact that his songs are really good, but I thought his vocals were awesome. And it’s funny because everyone who has heard his song, they’re always either like one or the other. They like they love it. It’s like not digging the vocals. And it’s in a way I think that’s better than just having like someone who has the in a run of the mill, standard vocal sound, you know, because almost, a lot of my favorite bands, bands that have like unique vocalists. I really loved it and David Bowie I mean, Elvis Presley thing, even Elvis Presley if you think about it, he’s not like a standard vocalist you know, he’s got that weird bassy sound at times and and, you know, James Brown people like that like, like I really dig all those vocalists who have what you wouldn’t class a standard vocal sounds, you know. And so I think that was the other reason that I really really liked it. So, yeah, he’s definitely he definitely throws people one way or the other, you know, you either love it or you you’re not really into.

Robonzo 30:24
Well, I mean, technically he has a quality voice. And, of course, I should say sonically, I don’t know if I can speak about technically, but sonically, he has a great voice. The first time I listened to it, and it was based on something you gave me might have been a video was a little on the fence about his voice. It’s funny, but then that you bring this up, but then I was listening to the new release this morning, and I’m a fan. He sounds great. And the, the song sounded really strong on the album, too. That was the other thing I listened to the first one was, I could tell whatever I listened to I can like I can tell this is a good song. [Yeah] And the voice I was a little on the fence about, but then when I listened to the ones on the release, which it would be funny if it’s one of the same ones that I listened to. I don’t know if that’s possible, because that was a week or two ago that you gave me that. But yeah, like I said, I’m a fan. They sound good. They sound really good.

Timothy Reid 31:12
and he can grow and you man. I remember when I first heard Miles Davis, I couldn’t stand it. I was like, This is the worst sound ever. And then, and then when I got to like 19 when I was at university, it’s like, that’s all I would listen to is like Miles Davis and John Coltrane. It’s like that was the realest, coolest sound. And so it’s so weird how that kind of happens. It’s almost like an acquired taste, you know, like you, you might not understand at first, but you just need to expose yourself to it just for enough enough time. And then it becomes something that you love.

Robonzo 31:47
Yeah. So Timothy is I forgot to ask you to go by Tim or Timothy. Timothy. Okay. I forgot

Timothy Reid 31:55
Tim Reid is a is a is an actor. And we are just jostling for Google space. He’s way way. He’s super famous. So good. No worries.

Robonzo 32:07
I like it. So tell me, share with the listeners what Kompoz has meant in terms of filling kind of a gap, because in your email to me, when when you first introduced yourself. You had said that the pandemic had just kind of tipped things sideways for you. You’re, you’re submitting compositions and touring, and you’re clearly a working musician. Tell me in what ways it has, and, and even if there’s some, you know, shortcomings, like I know, you probably missed some facets of what you were able to do pre pandemic. But yeah, I think it would be nice for people to know, because just so that they, I know that a lot of people are in maybe maybe put yourself included here, a lot of musicians are really struggling, even the ones that appear to be doing great. I learned, you know, when I talked to some of the people on the podcast, but even if there are some shortcomings not of Kompoz, but just like they’re just something’s still missing. I’d like to hear that too. And I think listeners would appreciate what’s been the upside. What’s been the, you know, has there been, Do you wish there was more upside?

Timothy Reid 33:13
Yeah. Yes. As I said, Yeah, it was before the pandemic, I was, yeah, I was touring with bands, and doing some recording work. But you know, it was kind of like half and half. And I do some teaching work as well. Like, I do some University lecturing, and stuff like that. And I teach like ensemble classes and some music theory classes and things like that. The touring was a big part of, of what I did. But obviously, that just, you know, there’s no touring now. And even and it’s, you know, there, there was some things like for example, just like live streaming shows I did, I did a couple of live streaming shows, which was supposed originally supposed to be a tour ended up just being two one off shows, which we did in front of the camera, and live stream, which is another great story because the first one, they set the noise gate on my guitar mic really high. And so I had this like beautiful solo in the middle where I was using the volume to like roll in the volume, but you know, because it’s like a noise gate cuts off all the quiet sound. So I’m getting all into it going all the guitar faces, but all the audience could hear was like, gah, gah. Like, and so that I was like, Oh my god, this is terrible. And you know, and the guys were like, Oh, it’s alright, you know, because we got another show so we can just make sure that you nail the sound in that one and then we saw it and and then the next show my app blew up halfway through a song.

Robonzo 34:42
Oh, no.

Timothy Reid 34:42
Yeah, yeah. Like, like what what can you do? You know, what can you do? There’s nothing and the tone was great as well. The tone was killing man. And then literally, I played a solo and then just finished the solo, gone. Yeah, anyway, so that that Yeah, and so we, we played those two shows, and then after that it was like pretty much dried up. So, so that was, yeah, that was when I decided like, Alright, well, I can still do the composing thing but then composing for us as well, you know, if they don’t have a reason to, to have a new album because they’re not going to be touring it, you know, a lot of that dried up as well. It was like people didn’t need songs, they didn’t need any new ideas or anything like that. So that’s why I decided while I was going to put my stuff on online on Kompoz, like you said, is the specific website that I decided to put my stuff on. And yeah, it did fill a void in terms of it was nice to meet musicians who aren’t the local guys, because, I mean, I work over here in Japan, and, you know, it’s the same guys a lot of the time, especially in the, in the, in the schools, in the schools that I work in, because those guys have been there a long time, you know, so they have the regular gigs at that, at the blues bars, you know, the jazz bars, and, and it’s a lot of the same people get the same work and so, so it was nice to get on there and be able to kind of like find a bass player in LA, who’s a rock guy, and then have another bass player from LA, he was a fusion guy. And, and, you know, sometimes they would like both upload a bass part to the same track. So you’ve got like a track with this, like, like you said, like this, Rickenbacker, like Rush sound, and one, you got another one, like six string bass, the exact same song. And so that’s a really cool thing, because it can really take your music in totally different directions, depending on what musicians you decide to have on the same track. The other thing is, is if you actually decide to play on other people’s tracks, too, and that was never my idea. When I signed up for that website, I was literally just going to put my songs up there and leave them there. And hope someone emailed said, I like that song, can I use it on my album? and be like, yeah, sure, you know, use it because it just goes, like I said, it just goes on my harddrive and then goes in the trash can, you know, like, so. But like I said, I ended up finding some really good players on there. And, and, you know, and just started just uploaded my own little guitar parts to their, to their songs. And some people seem to like it. So, you know, and it is it is like, a kind of little country in itself in that, you know, you have like, there are like little cliques of people in there who like the rock guys and the metal guys, and you always do that. Yeah. But um, I think that’s one of the coolest things about it, because it’s, it’s so easy to navigate. So like if you wanted to, like go into a lot of different types of music I studied. I studied like pop music and jazz music when I was at uni. But then I was really in like metal and punk music when I was a teenager, that was the first type of music that got me into playing guitar was like punk music. And then more recently, like, I listened to a lot of a lot of classical music. I kind of skip the skip the classical thing. Because I got straight into the punk stuff, you know, and then it was on and I go into jazz. And it’s like, it’s so out there. I kind of skipped a lot of the classical music. And so now listen, and the cool thing about it would be really hard for me to, to know, if someone said to me, oh, let’s go listen to a metal band. Okay, well, we’d have to go over that, you know, like, we’d have to take a train to that club and see if anyone’s playing the whole is this listen to classical music. Well, it’s I don’t know, if any, any classical concerts. But on the website, like, literally, there’s a button, you can click this like, classical. And it’s just all classical composition, like new new age, classical music and stuff. And you can click the same button for like rock music, and it’s just all rock collaborations. And so that’s one of the coolest things about that website. Because if you like me, and you’re into a lot of different types of music, you can, you could play on a jazz track, you can put on a rock track, and you can play on like a modern classical track all in the same evening, and upload your guitar or your whatever your bass to it. And so that’s really cool. It can open a lot of like doors that way.

Robonzo 39:16
Yeah, well, it’s a cool perspective. And I imagine, well, I having talked to Peter and then I talked to users from other platforms, you know, everybody sort of has a different perspective and a different experience. And I’ve talked to people who’ve all had, you know, positive experiences in their own ways. So but I thought it’s real nice to hear how it has been for you. There’s a little irony in an email, I’ll forward this to you. I sent out to my list today. The theme of it was kind of like all the stuff that’s messed up for for music, you know, just for me and and others as well. And but that, you know, if we’re not too hung up on this one thing that we do, we can always find the work around or a different perspective that we couldn’t see before or try something else. Yeah. And so this is a cool story. Your story is a cool story and possibly Bernd’s is very similar. I don’t know how he started on compose, but it’s it’s nice to hear, you know, when musicians are doing thing like they were, they were touring in a studio guy. And now they decided, Well, let me try this, try taking requests on Instagram, and you know, they’re getting making money again. So you know, it’s, it’s good to hear these different ways that people do it. And with you. I know, it’s a huge creative bonus. Right? You had all this material, and now you’re discovering Oh, I can play on other people’s stuff, too. And that’s really cool. I like it.

Timothy Reid 40:38
Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is really, really useful. And, you know, it’s such a waste if you if you’re writing music, and no one’s hearing it, that’s a nice, that’s a real shame. It’s a real shame. And so, I highly recommend anyone who writes music in their spare time, or just as a hobby. Just upload it, you know, just upload it. And you don’t even have to do anything with it. Just throw it up there. And just wait. Because, you know, you never know, like, you might just meet someone who really digs the same music you’re into, and then it’s all great. I’ve got a friend who, who’s in I don’t know, jazz, or a friend who’s in to rock, you know?

Robonzo 41:13
Yeah. That’s true or into all kinds of things. I have barely scraped the surface of your music. I was listening, by the way to the Timothy Reed Trio doing a song I guess called Memphis. It was live.

Timothy Reid 41:26
Right, yeah.

Robonzo 41:27
That was really great. I’m looking forward to checking out more of your stuff. And exposing the podcast listeners to your stuff as well as what you’ve done with Burnt Will.

Timothy Reid 41:40
That would be cool.

Robonzo 41:41
Is that is? Did I did I just screw up the name of the band or that or the project? That’s right? Right? Burnt Will?

Timothy Reid 41:46
Well, no, that’s the project. It’s called Burnt Will, yeah. And yeah, it’s like I say, you know, it’s pretty much me and Bernd doing most of the stuff, but there’s a few other guys from the collaboration website on there. And then the second album also is featuring a really great bass player on all the tracks. We managed to find someone and convinced him to do, but I think it’s probably better that Bernd tells you about that. He knows a lot more than I do. Because he’s writing all the songs. I’m literally just playing this thing you know?

Robonzo 42:14
Yeah. Well, damn fine job. And I will be in touch with Bernd. I don’t recall if he already gave me his contact info, but I know where to find him. And I know I can find you and you can help me find him. So in fact, feel free to send him my contact and let him know that I’d love to have him on and congratulate him and congratulations to you on the new release together. It sounds great.

Timothy Reid 42:38
Yeah. And as well, another release today. I was one of a singer songwriter from the UK, Nigel Passey, who I used to tour with back in the UK. He just released a song as well. today. The song is called, Don’t You Leave, by Nigel Passey that’s like Nigel PA SSEY. And yeah, it’s a single. It’s a single off his new album. I don’t know when his new album is coming out. But it’s really cool song. It’s definitely worth checking out.

Robonzo 43:09
Cool. And did you did you play on that? Or you just given him a plug?

Timothy Reid 43:11
Yeah, yeah. Now I play I played on that. Yeah, I played on that. And so yeah, so those are the three things that kind of came out recently my solo album, the Burnt Will album Here And Now that came out yesterday? And Don’t You Leave by Nigel Passey, which came out literally today. So

Robonzo 43:28
Wow, that’s amazing. I love that you’re so prolific and you’re working with at least one if not both of these guys who are who appear to be equally prolific. It it really shines a light on on me personally thinking about how long it took me to get one song done, you know, working with people that I know. And now working on this one with with Peter and these people again that I say I know I mean people I already knew, like based almost from my I feel like from my childhood but you know, guys I’ve played with over the years both in Dallas and in San Francisco. And yeah, it’s it’s really cool. But I think you know, it is certainly the fact that you and Bernd have the experience with writing music allows you, and and you’re so dedicated to it, you know that the other funny thing I forgot to mention about our initial communication, yours and mind, is that you made me stop and think because you said you knew I had released a song or you knew I played music because you you know you found me actually to my artist website or contacting contacted you there. And you said something about I don’t even know how you make time to to do music, something like that because you do so many great podcasts. And I just stopped and like, you know, I do do a lot of podcasts and I am struggling to make music. So maybe I should split the time a little bit.

Timothy Reid 44:50
This must be Episode 100 and 190 or something. I guess youdon’t even know right?

Robonzo 44:56
No, it’s getting really it’s probably is 190 something And I’m thinking about moving it around because the theme of what we’re talking about, I mean, the one I published last week was recorded in October, right? Even today, in January of the following year, we’re still talking about some of the same stuff because of the pandemic. I mean, that that theme is common. Yeah. But anyway, I I’m any I will let you know. Yeah. What? You’ll find out what episode number it is. And I was thinking maybe I can push this one up. In fact, what I was thinking of doing is just publishing this video straight away as it is, and then I’ll go back and do the normal audio stuff, which use I think, is what you’ve been listening to on YouTube. Yeah. Yeah. The more edited version. So yeah. So anyway, thanks. Thanks so much, man. It’s been great. Thanks for staying up late.

Timothy Reid 45:47
Yeah Robonzo. It’s great to see you, man. I’m a big fan. So keep up the great work, man. I’m gonna be tuning in.

Robonzo 45:53
Thank you. And I’ll talk to you very soon, I promise.

Timothy Reid 45:55
All right.

Robonzo 45:56
Cheers.

Robonzo 45:58
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Robonzo 46:31
Thanks again for listening. If you loved this episode, please follow the podcast on your favorite audio platform. It will help you stay on top of the latest episodes and help other indie musicians and indie music fans, find the podcast. And if you have feedback, please go to Unstarving musician.com to get all my contact info, you can text me, call me, email me, leave a voice message right there on that page, just go down to the bottom of the page and you’ll find everything you need to know. I really would love to hear any of your comments, suggestions, questions, whatever you’ve got. And you can find links to just about everything talked about in this episode at UnstarvingMusician.com forward slash podcast. All right, I’m peacing out. Thank you for listening and sharing with your musician friends and fellow indie music, bands. Peace, gratitude and a whole lotta love.