Timothy Nelson On His Highly Anticipated LP 'Debaser Tapes'

Timothy Nelson is not new to the fixture of Australian music. The multi-award-winning artist not only shares the stage with Eskimo Joe, recently touring as a part of the band, but works as an independent act to refine his solo artistry. 

Classic pop-rock singles such as Seasons Pass, Greenmount Hill, and Hold Your Hair were released prior to the new LP, giving us a glimpse into Nelson’s melodic craftsmanship.

From multiple rewrites to extended orchestral jams, Nelson sits down with The Music to unpack the sporadic nature of creating his new album, Debaser Tapes, and the progress working with Andy Lawson at his studio in Perth Hills.

This album took shape over a few years, with some songs being released as singles along the way. How did that impact the final vision of Debaser Tapes?

Well, it was always intended to be an album, and I wanted the songs to be quite eclectic and—for the record—to go in a few directions as you would listen through. The way it ended up being recorded was quite a sporadic and drawn-out process, and the whole time, we were releasing songs as standalone singles.

So, to finally put it out all together as an album feels great, but it also feels a little bit like a compilation of the songs I made at Debaser with Andy Lawson. That’s why I ended up calling it Debaser Tapes. And the title then had an effect on how we approached the final weeks of making the songs, like the lo-fi sound of Greenmount Hill, is completely informed by the title of the album.

Each song follows its own direction. Was there a track that surprised you about how it evolved during the recording process?

Seasons Pass was the biggest surprise; I nearly gave up on that song… I couldn’t stand some of the original lyrics I had and thought we’d cooked it when trying to produce the thing. Andy suggested a different approach to the arrangement, and we rebuilt it up from the drums… then finally, the message of the song clicked in my mind and on the day of recording the vocal, I wrote the final lyrics - probably the third version of that song at that point. So, after years of feeling like I could never quite get that song right, in the space of a couple of days, I found myself falling in love with it again. Now it’s one of my favourites.

Lyrically, you explore a mix of introspection, nostalgia, and storytelling. Are there any particular themes that tie Debaser Tapes together for you?

At the time, I thought I’d just written a bunch of different songs, some about life in the suburbs, some about breakups… it’s only listening back to the whole thing recently I realised there is this underlying thread of self-acceptance, that process of getting through a particular period of your life and well and truly moving onto a new one. It wasn’t deliberate or anything, but I guess when you write a lot, these things reveal themselves.

The album title pays tribute to Andy Lawson’s studio, where you recorded it. What did that environment bring to the sound and feel of Debaser Tapes?

Andy’s great to work with, and I never felt like I was waiting around to be able to record something, there was always a real flow in the studio. Also, I think being tucked away at the foot of the Perth hills made for a certain environment that definitely had an impact on the record. A big thing for me was the drive there and back, being able to get into a certain headspace before I’d arrive in the morning, and then heading back towards the city at night listening back to what we’d done.

You’ve been making music for quite some time now—did this album challenge you creatively in ways you hadn’t experienced before?

Absolutely. I always try to do something different to what I’ve done before, but this one really covered new ground for me. Some of the more explorative instrumentation on Tropical Ginger springs to mind. I’m not usually one for writing 6-minute jam tunes, but it felt right for this one.

Songs like Greenmount Hill and Seasons Pass, as I mentioned, felt at times like we hadn’t got them quite right in the initial recording, and there was some back and forth, re-recording vocals, changing the overall approach to things, just to get it right.

With Better I Leave It Alone, we were multi-tracking three string players and layering them up to sound like a full orchestra. We ended up taking three different Pro Tools sessions just to fit in all the tracks, that was mental… which was more of a challenge for Andy than me, of course. I just sat on the couch going, ‘Have fun with that!’

Debaser Tapes is out now. You can listen to the album below.