Tim Steward is extremely talented and can turn his hand to almost any musical project thrown his way. More familiar to punters as the front man behind Screamfeeder he also fronts another band called The Whats and now is venturing in to solo territory as he explains.
Rather than go with the familiar – Steward has drawn upon a team of new musicans for his solo project. ”I’m not going to fall back on previous band buddies,” Tim said “I’m going to try something different because I need my own harmonies. So far I’ve found a keyboardist and a drummer and a guy to play a bit of guitar. At the moment I’m starting a bit afresh, which is kind of scary but exciting on the same hand. The challenge will be good.”
Working on teh new album ahs been enjoyable for the frontman, ”It’s always fun,” Tim hinted. “I have a massive backlog of songs to choose to work from. Going into the studio is always enjoyable and I love writing. It’s really great to be able to combine the two.”
With such a backlog of songs to work with does that mean we’ll see more solo releases in future? “Yeah,” Tim answered. “I’ve already started pulling out some songs to start working on, which weren’t mixed for this album.”
Given the long gestation process, Steward said he approached How Does it End in a different way to recording a Screamfeeder project. ”It was kind of difficult because I didn’t have my choice because I’d often run out of money when I was half through a certain set of songs or I’d have Screamfeeder commitments. It was something I pretty much would do in my spare time but I did get to the end of it. Once I had mastered it up it was sounding quite dead to me by then because it had been going on for a while.”
To remedy this situation, Steward ”wrote another couple of quick songs”. “Once those were done I replaced a couple of songs on the album that I was getting bored with. That really freshened things up for me and the quality of the production is uniform enough that it all hangs together.”
Whist Steward has missed collaborating with his Screamfeeder pals he explained that: “To be your own boss is cool as well but being in a band especially in one where you’ve been with the same people for a while means that you’re really good and quick at how songs should be, what should go and what should stay.
“With this one, the main difference was that I didn’t walk in to the studio with a band and play the songs live. I’d go in and do some guitar parts, do some vocals or muck around with some keyboards. There were a lot of arrangements going on in the mix so I would say that it is a lot more how electronic artists work with a lot more post rather pre-production.”
How difficult is it to put a label on your sound? “I hadn’t even thought of it actually,” Tim pondered. “What would you say? I don’t know really and I haven’t given much thought to a description as such.”
Although he admitted that he composes music differently for each outfit. “At the moment I’m writing some Screamfeeder songs. Whenever I sit down to write I do have that in the back of my mind and if something comes up that is not suitable I’ll know which other direction to shove it in.”
Speaking of Screamfeeder, will they be firing up for the summer? “We’ve got half a dozen new songs so we’ll keep pushing,” Tim indicated. “The aim is to try and get the album recorded in a few months and maybe some touring around then also.’
His favourite tracks from the Screamfeeder album? ”Not The Same is a favourite one of mine being a fairly new one,” Tim recalled. “Sign From A Star is another I really like and The Sun Is Beginning To Rise is another new one that I like also.”
Despite the stops and starts involved in putting together his solo effort Steward smpahasised he wouldn’t do anything differently. “I happy to put it to bed now. I don’t really want to think about what I could have done differently. It’s just a document of what it was over those years, what are you going to do?”
Catch Steward when he performs at the following venues over summer
Jan 27 QPAC Theatre Gig House, Brisbane
Feb 23 Columbian Bar Brisbane
Feb 24 Gold Coast (venue TBC)
Feb 28 Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay
