Tim Williams

When Work Is Done reached my personal top 20 list of favorite records from 2007. The beautiful singer/songwriter effort turned my head from the outset and drew me in like few acoustic records that year. Imagine my surprise, then, when I heard the news that Tim Williams is going electric. The results, luckily, still strike the listener with the same stunning beauty that previous releases hold.

“Murderous Air” is the first single from Williams and the latest to receive airplay on One Tree Hill - the TV show that’s proved quite useful to Williams (who’s featured three songs total on the drama). His new album Careful Love features his response to literal and figurative heartaches alike and the result is easily his greatest work to date.

We caught up with Williams to hear the full story behind his heart surgery and how he then left that same heart in Los Angeles.

SSv: I love the direction of the single I’ve heard, “Murderous Air.” Is that indicative of the rest of the new album?

Tim Williams: Yeah, I think it is. My goal with this record was that I thought we didn’t need any more white dudes with beards and acoustic guitars. [Laughs] This record is all electric then. It’s electric guitars and drum programming. Then I played live drums on top of everything to give it more texture. But I really wanted a different feel than my previous two records.

I think “Murderous Air” is a good example of that. We didn’t pick it as the lead single. Instead, the TV show One Tree Hill wanted the record and they wanted to use that song. If we were to pick the first single, I wouldn’t have done that. So I’m glad it worked out that way.

SSv: Were you caught off by their interest in that tune?

Tim: This is my third time being on that show and they always pick songs that I would least expect for them to pick. I think it’s cool because as far as records go these days, people will only hear the songs that are promoted. They won’t hear the whole thing. So if people are going to judge me on “Murderous Air,” then I’m fine with that.

SSv: What makes you say that you were surprised at that tune versus the rest of the album?

Tim: Well, it’s just as far as the fact that you record something like 10 or 15 tracks and you think that one of them is the single or the one that people will like. It wasn’t that I saw that song not being used in that way, but it’s just that I thought other songs would be picked first.

SSv: How hard was it to set the acoustic guitar down?

Tim: It wasn’t that hard. It’s just when you play solo or you only have one or two playing with you, it’s always easy to lean back on the acoustic. But with this record, I wanted to do something different and I thought an electric guitar was a good start. Dave Lynch produced this record and he produced my last one as well. We were in Los Angeles recording the record and he would want to throw an acoustic guitar here or there, but I would just say, ‘Nope. No, we’re not going to do it.’

We would just find other things to fill out those parts of the sound that would normally be an acoustic guitar. This time around, it’s keyboards and things like that. It was tough initially but I think it worked out because of that discipline.

SSv: Was there a reason why you abandoned the sound of the former album to move on to this? Was it based on any results from the last release?

Tim: Yeah… the theme of a lot of the record is… when we were done touring When Work is Done and we’re partying and all that stuff, I moved down to Nashville. It’s actually kind of funny because the last record cover has this broken wrist and it has this skeleton with a heart inside. As soon as I released that record and moved to Nashville, I ended up breaking my wrist. Then two months later, I had heart surgery. It was repairing a valve that I had been waiting to replace for a long time.

So I think after all of that, I just wanted a new sound and a new statement. I wasn’t living an unhealthy lifestyle or anything, but I just had stuff going on with my heart since I was a baby. So they always monitor it and see things that needed fixed. Last summer I spent a couple weeks in the hospital at Columbia University and had the work done. After that, I moved back to Nashville, recovered for a bit and then went to California for a while and got inspired to write all these new songs. After that, I came back and recorded the songs.

So I just had a lot of traumatic things happen. As things happen in your life, you react a certain way and so I just reacted by making these songs.

SSv: Is that lyrically true on this record?

Tim: I think it is. We just released another single called “Hit Another Wall” on Tuesday and that was the first song I wrote post-surgery. It basically talks through the fact that not everyone is going to have a moment like I had, but it might be a girlfriend or boyfriend that pisses you off or a break-up or the like. Everyone has the big craters they have to work around. So it’s just about that. That song in particular takes my experience and what I got out of it.

The rest of the record is largely based on Los Angeles and Southern California, falling in love with the city and falling in love with a girl over there and being obsessed with both. That was a great outlet for me because it really is the thing that got me out of my depression after my surgery. You can’t breathe after that because after you’ve been on these machines that breathe for you… it all just takes you down a couple notches. For whatever reason, California was good for me and showed me there are things still to be excited about.

SSv: Is that hard to change so much and then release a new sound or product to an audience used to your first two?

Tim: With each record, they’ve been really different. My first record, Tales of Digression, was soaked in reverb and it was really depressing. The next record had a different approach in terms of arrangements and people who like the second record don’t like the first one and vice versa. So this one, I guess I’m not scared of what people will think because as far as what I’ve been able to accomplish as a songwriter, it’s going in the direction that I love.

Things grow and I’ve grown to this point. It would be awful to write off the new sound. I don’t pigeonhole art that I love personally. It might take a little time to get used to, but I hope people will take the time and get it eventually. I think people who do like my music will find a way to open themselves to do it. This isn’t a lightning bolt record either. It doesn’t have crazy drums or weird programming. It’s still the center of who I am.

SSv: Were you careful to protect some certain aspects of who you are?

Tim: With this record, there was no way that I couldn’t. I went out there with the same producer as my last record. He flew in from London and I flew in from New York and it was just the two of us. We laid down the old drum machines and I played bass on top of it and then drums and guitars or whatever the order. My fingerprints are all over the record, for better or for worse. For me, I think it’s for the better. So there’s no way I could hide my identity with how involved I was in this recording.

*Photos by Davey Wilson