Is This Our Next Big TV Star?

“I just landed in Sydney, it’s a glorious day, and I’m going home!” Timmy Trumpet, aka Tim Smith, sounds equal parts happy and exhausted on the phone.

The man has had an insanely busy schedule, having toured the US a couple of months ago, touring with Stereosonic, and has a string of shows coming up in the new year. How does he manage to keep it all together? “Everything is one day at a time,” Smith explains. “I wake up, I look at my schedule, like, I don’t know where I’m playing tomorrow yet.”

Initially a classical music performer, Smith attended the Sydney Conservatorium of Music as a youth. As his curiousity deepened, so did his interest in electronic music. “I love jazz music, and at the time, house music’s what brought me in. It had instruments in it – you think of Hed Kandi had songs with trumpets and horn sections, and as it’s evolved, I’ve gone with it. I went and ordered a guitar FX pedal and plugged it into the trumpet... I just wanted to change the sound. I like doing new things, and I’m lucky and fortunate to have other people enjoy it as well.”

He plays the trumpet often in his live performances, and the reactions while touring the US were always gold. “I’d be at a show and there’d be people with signs of my songs, and it was fun to see their reaction – I’d bring the sound down while I was playing it and the crowd would just be in applause!”

"I’m just about to launch a TV show; I can’t tell you what station because I’m not allowed to."

Smith has had his fingers in a lot of pies over the last few years, having done business with his own fashion label, club night and even an app. “I get bored if I’m not doing new things. This year I started my own radio show which is broadcast nationally. I’m just about to launch a TV show; I can’t tell you what station because I’m not allowed to, but that gets launched next week. I just want to learn new things. Life’s about learning as much as you can. I love music, but I’m interested in so many other aspects of life, including life itself. The further you dig, the more you learn, and that helps writing music. I got into meditation about a year and a half ago, I did this course called ‘Transcendental Meditation’ – it sounds weird, it’s not a cult, I’m not trying sell it [laughs], but the thing about meditation is that it’s not a luxury, it’s something everyone should do. I do it every day, only for ten minutes, but it’s great.”

Smith has released and is always working on a number of collaborations in the follow-up to his massively successful single, always aching to learn and become a better musician and person. “I think collaborating is probably the best way to go about making new music. I’m working on a track with Will Sparks and a couple of international guys... You jump in the studio and you’re just learning new things – new plug-ins, new filters, new techniques to writing music. We’re all a product of everyone around us, so working with those types of people, that’s what makes me happy.”