Slim Tim McLean & Blues Power
Keep an eye out on up and coming talent Slim Tim McLean & Blues Power who has just released his brand new single We Are All Alone. The Q&A with Across The Ocean reveals many exciting projects on the go such as the production of their new film clip and a nod to movie making as well as an album that isn’t too far off.
What is the latest for Slim Tim McLean & Blues Power?
There are so many exciting things happening, I love making films. So I made video for our upcoming single We Are All Alone, I tried to imagine what a 60’s drug counter culture movie would have looked like had they been made in today’s Ouroboros era. It really trips people out. Best to watch on big screen with very loud sound for full out of body experience. I have just edited a video for our track La Messenger. It has sexy French vocal on it and is circa 56 lost love ballad. Visually I got to pay homage to Dean Stockwell in Blue Velvet. But most exciting is we have just started going out and doing live shows and that has been so special for us. We just love each other so much and get really obsessive over each music skills. So the more time together the happier we all are.
What is the story behind the single We Are All Alone?
Well I will tell everything about this song. It started with a working title of Nothing Really Loud, This also became the working title of the record. I loved it so much, it was a freaky as and just felt so good to play. Knew this song would be hard to capture, but in the last thirty six months really amazing music has been possible that was just not practical before. This falls pretty much in the field of quantum science. I wrote this thing called this thing called, The sound is matter manifesto to enlightenment. Not a song, it was more of a guide for myself. It was to get a few things clear in my head about the true nature of actually creating the kind of sound and groove displacement to open things up for that special kind of harmonic alignment.
Musically it displays the more extreme end of what’s happening. Things I like about it are the soundscape elements in the into, the tour de force on bass, Dusty Rhoades/Ric Flair style vocal, I reveal something lyrically about Blues Power, that may make more sense in the future, lots of cosmic guitar noise and a complete disregard for conventional music.
How is work progressing on your upcoming album?
Excellent, it is called Generation Nothing; there is a song on it also called Generation Nothing. I and Brian Campeau produced. Brian has really eccentric taste and references like us. He is brilliant musician and singer too across many styles and put in a monumental effort with the album. There are some really intense performances on it. As it sounds massive and it is really put together. There is lots of detail sonically and musically. Generally gets described as epic.
Is it clear in your own mind how you want to the album to unfold or is there an element of improvisation in the studio?
Well I always have ideas, but these are starting points, sometimes tunes will stay with the original design, but I really like it when things charge. We always want to be playing with time & space for maximum magic. We do like to treat studio as instrument so you need the space there for that to manifest. Things generally get most experimental layering/orchestrating the tracks. For example I knew I wanted a lot of violin on the album. As I thought it would really draw out some of the funk element. But once we started tracking this I realised I pretty well wanted it on everything, not up front like this is a violin part, more like getting it to riff out/ double track with the guitars and sit a little submerged in the mix. So you feel it without being conscious about it.
What is the biggest mistake you’ve so far made that you wouldn’t repeat again?
Listened to the naysayers. Look we are very different sounding band and in the past some people have had conniptions about it. Like they just want us to do one specific thing. We felt bad about this before but now not so much. We give them a message of universal love and wish them well. There are lots of other bands out there for them to get into. It takes all types and we are doing this simply cause we have to. It is in us and it has to come out.
How would you describe your music to those who don’t know much about you?
Most of the time it is pretty hard to make fit genre pigeon holes. We are focused on keeping everything fresh as in the song writing department. However in a bid to offer some stylistic explanation, it is very modern psychedelic free form rock while being grounded in a song writing focus. The playing with one hundred percent feel and intensity is big for us, that creates a particular punk rock thing and is probably where some of the uniqueness lies. Someone said after our last show if Marc Bolan or Hendrix was around and coming on now, that they may have a sound like this. People are so nice.
Where do you take your inspiration from?
We are all music hot & sweaty’s with big record collections. Bukka White, Atari Teenage Riot, Beach Boys, Mountain, David Lynch, Canned Heat. Billy Thorpe, Skip James, Captain Matchbox, BOC and James Gang.
Does song writing come easy to you or do you need to get away and find somewhere to be creative?
No I don’t have to go anywhere. I think song writing is my special thing in life. It is painting a picture with sound & words. I fuss over the songs for a long, long time, sometimes discard them for a while, come back to them and at some point commit to them. When I write I identify what tickles my fancy about it, & I will title it that. For example Tribute to Eye Of The Tiger. Helps flesh it out early. Lyrically there is so much to write about at the moment. It is important for me to be writing about some of big issue stuff going on like, the tax payer funded debacle in the Middle East, the erosion of civil liberties, corporation governance and so on amongst less overwhelming topics more personal topics. I do tend to write about the band a bit.
Are you looking forward to touring around the country?
Yes we are. We just love sharing the music with people. It may not be for everyone but some people really connect with it deep and that is just so special for us. Plus we have a special message we try to communicate with sound about hope, love & compassion.
What can music lovers expect at your show?
Well we are doing shows as a six piece at the moment, sometimes seven. We are trying to perfect a multimedia show that is some really exciting footage that I have shot and edited over the last twelve months specifically for this. Some of it is from the video’s that will come out to accompany the album. The music is diverse and dynamic in nature and the visual component of the show I am trying to make the same. But it is just super awesome to have the visuals to create a more full blown experience for everyone. As it helps show people our Blues Power world some more.
Whether it is rummaging through vinyl at record stores such as Clarity and Title finding hidden gems to scouring the internet to find that album by the next big thing or chasing bands to get that elusive autograph and photo his passion is music all the way.
- Aversions Crown - January 27, 2017
- Sick Of It All - January 19, 2017
- Refused - January 11, 2017
