Interview November 2003

Thanks to Sergio Vilar at Argentinian webzine Nucleus for the questions. I hope I’ve understood them correctly. Let’s face it, his English is better than my Spanish or Portuguese. The following is a slightly modified version of the original interview.

1. Please, could you introduce yourself to our readers?
Greetings good people! I am 42 years old and proud owner of my own full set of teeth and a reasonable head of hair. Musically I have been a singer-songwriter and guitarist since the late seventies. I am also a psychiatric and geriatric nurse, professional astrologer and self help book addict. I have been called other things but I shall leave that to your imagination...

2. Which is Tim Burness’s true history?
Musically it has been a slow and often painful evolution. I grew up with music all around me as my parents and stepmother were all professional classical musicians, but I didn’t start playing the guitar until I was about 14 or 15. I established myself in the early eighties by making two albums and playing nearly 100 gigs around England with my band Burnessence. In 1990 I released my first solo single and album on my own record label. During the nineties I continued to record and play live, releasing the Infinite Ocean mini-album demo in 1997. Since early 2002 I have been working on the new album Finding New Ways To Love which is far more substantial than anything I have done before. Its hard work but I am very excited about finally finishing it. Hopefully some people out there will buy it, you never know!

3. To speak of the beginnings of your career we should go back to those 1980s, as integral of Burnessence, time in which they arose most of the British, such bands neosymphonic is the case of Marillion, Solstice, Twelfth Night or Galahad. Did you share the same artistic proposal?
To a limited extent. Burnessence came in at the tail end of the "neo-progressive" movement. At the time we supported the likes of I.Q., Pendragon, Solstice and Pallas so as to reach a larger audience. In the sense that some of our music featured symphonic keyboards, unusual time signatures and meaningful lyrics, then yes we were part of that scene. On the other hand, although I was a fan of a lot of those bands at the time, I personally was never interested in playing 20 minute epics complete with costume changes and long guitar or keyboard solos. Round about the time of Burnessence I was heavily into Killing Joke, Howard Jones, Blancmange and U2, as well as Marillion, King Crimson and The Enid, so a much broader range of music than just "progressive rock" has always appealed to me.

4. How has it gone evolving your music with the step of time?
Over the last 25 years or more I have always absorbed something of what was going on at the time and tried to keep moving forward.

I remember buying singles by The Monkees and The Beatles as a kid. As a teenager in the seventies I was originally inspired to play the electric guitar by two English guitarists, Steve Hillage (ex-Gong) and Steve Hackett (ex-Genesis), both of whom released several brilliant solo albums at that time. In fact I spent a good few years trying to BE Steve Hillage but gradually realized I was never going to be anywhere near that good technically as my hands are too small and too slow. Otherwise I was listening to Pink Floyd, Yes, Mike Oldfield, Wishbone Ash and all the big names at a time when progressive rock really was genuinely progressive. Although I can remember jumping up and down at a few punk gigs I didn’t really appreciate all that until a few years later. There was one fantastic "new wave" album called Laughing Academy by a band called Punishment Of Luxury who I feel deserved much greater acclaim than they got. My first bands were mostly a combination of badly played progressive and punk rock!

By the time of Burnessence I’d learnt to play a bit and there was some great stuff in the eighties that influenced my music, some of which I’ve already mentioned. The Fixx were a great band, and the last Police album Synchronicity was a corker. Simple Minds did some classic stuff too. Just about everything Mister Peter Gabriel has done since his third solo album in the early eighties has been masterful and he remains a major hero of mine. People familiar with his work will hear him as a fairly obvious influence on my new album.

I was at university as a mature student in the early nineties when the dance thing happened and I was into it big time, although I never did the drugs! Some brilliant music came out of the rave culture. This was the progressive music of the time, and again this stuff still sounds great to me. The Shamen, The Orb, KLF, Primal Scream and Leftfield all made brilliant albums as the dance culture crossed over into the mainstream. Again you can hear elements of that period on Finding New Ways To Love. In the later nineties I thought the massive Alanis Morissette album Jagged Little Pill was a rare example of a naked soul and strong spirit finding its way to the top of the music industry. Radiohead are great but a bit depressing. Recently the last Coldplay album A Rush Of Blood To The Head is further proof that something deeper can still be commercially viable.

All the above and many more (see musical influences) are a direct or indirect influence on the new album. My roots are still in the progressive rock genre however.

5. Which are the artists with which you identify yourself to level compossitive and instrumental?
If I had to narrow it down to a few artists I would say Peter Gabriel, Sting, Robert Fripp. The Beatles from the sixties, Steve Hillage and Steve Hackett from the seventies, Howard Jones and Rush from the eighties, Moby and Alanis Morissette from the nineties, Coldplay and Boards Of Canada from the beginning of the 21st century. It is difficult to keep the list small.

6. If somebody requested that you define your musical proposal, how would you make it? Do you believe to have achieved an own and personal sound?
My musical proposal is an upbeat eclectic mix of sounds and styles from the last 35 years of rock music. I don’t know if I have achieved my own and personal sound or not. It would be nice to think so, at least to some extent.

7. How objective you pursue through the music?
I’ll take that as meaning "what objective"? My music and songs are inspiration, therapy and entertainment for myself, and hopefully other people too. I really hope the new album touches and inspires a few people. I have never been doing music just for myself, I have always felt I had some kind of message to share. If you want to get a bit deeper about it, its probably all to do with trying to make up for a pretty disturbed early childhood. You know, just wanting some attention and someone to say they love me. We all want to be loved.

8. And that you can be of the lyrics? What topics do you try in them?
Most of my lyrics are about an inner and outer search for meaning and purpose in life. I personally have had a great struggle establishing a real sense of belonging in the adult world. And of course for most of us, if not all of us, life is difficult in one way or another. We’re all in this together so let’s try and think positive, help ourselves by helping each other, but keep it real and embrace the darkness in ourselves and each other at the same time. Instead of "I am right and you are wrong", how about "EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING HAS VALUE"? Instead of "You are different from me", how about "WE ARE ALL ONE"? And despite the loneliness and pain we share, life can still be a beautiful mystery. In many ways we create our own reality through our thoughts, words and actions. Take responsibility, we have more power than we think. Well this is what I believe on a good day anyway...

I would like to think I’m doing my little bit to spread a bit of loving awareness, but to some people my lyrics will probably be a load of idealistic psychobabble twaddle. No problem, I am used to criticism... the bastards! Talking of which, I have persevered with my singing against many people’s advice over the years, and I hope the new album proves that I can sing a bit, whether or not people like my particular style. If a handful of people are inspired by the lyrics on the new album I will be pleased. Although many are straightforward, I have taken a very long time over them. In fact some are still being changed as we get towards the final mixes.

The title "Finding New Ways To Love" can be interpreted in many ways. "Love" is one of those big words like "God" that can mean virtually anything. On tracks like "Open Man With An Open Heart" you could say "it does exactly what it says in the title"! On a personal level, I think this album is partly a cry for help, if that doesn’t sound too ridiculous. During the first year or so of recording the album I was devastated by an attempted relationship with a woman that went badly wrong just as it appeared to be starting. Coupled with a series of smaller disappointments over the same period, I think I now have less confidence about my ability to give and receive love through relationships than ever before (astrologers might be interested to note that Pluto has been squaring my Moon in 7th house and more recently Saturn is now moving through my 5th house). Music, astrology and nursing seem to be more constructive channels for me to express love. But anything can happen and I have a great deal to be thankful for at this stage of my life... friends, good health, and being able to make the new album with a great engineer and some fantastic musicians who are all splendid chaps!

On a more general level, the title Finding New Ways To Love is a reference to the general crisis of relationships that we seem to be experiencing in the Western world i.e.divorce rates continuing to rise and more people being single than ever before. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing but the speed of change can knock people about a bit. A large number of the mentally ill people I work with have spiralled into depression or schizophrenia from the relationship breakdown or death of a partner or loved one, as did my Mum 30 years ago. I read recently that an estimated 6 million people in the United Kingdom are on anti-depressants!? 6 MILLION!? Or maybe that refers to people who have been on them at some time? Anyway, assuming that figure is correct (estimated by The Samaritans if I remember correctly) what kind of society are we living in that a significant percentage of people have to be drugged up to function "normally"? Surely we can do better than that?

Despite evidence to the contrary, I believe all of us have a sensitive spiritual side that tends to be denied by our materialistic society and the short-term struggle to survive. We are basically all children inside. Human beings are not just machines to make money. Human beings are complex creatures with complex needs who need love and respect. ALL OF US! Except politicians and people who work in advertising of course... yes that is a joke! Even though we may still be quite a primitive species in some ways, I believe we have to take on board a workable and dynamic spirituality if we are to survive the mess we are in. Hence Finding New Ways To Love.

Shortly before I began work on F.N.W.T.L., two events had a big impact on my life. The first was the events of September 11th. Aside from the obvious universal political and cultural implications, I was struck by the image of people ringing their family to say "I love you" before the planes crashed into the buildings. As has been observed before by many, it often takes a major crisis to make us truly appreciate what and who is important in our lives. The second was standing up in front of roughly 100 people in a personal development seminar and declaring "Who I am is the possibility of Love" (again for any astrologers out there, this was under my "mid-life crisis" Uranus opposition Uranus transit, Uranus being my ruling planet).

9. Which your source of habitual inspiration is?
Everything. Music, friends, Monty Python, the film American Beauty, seeing patients in hospital recover from strokes and traffic accidents and having played a small part in the process, the magical science of astrology, self help books, healthy food, the occasional pint of guinness, amazement that I’m still alive and relatively sane, the list goes on!

10. In these moments you are recording? Do you plan to publish in the immediate thing?
Yes. After nearly two years work F.N.W.T.L. is finally shaping up as you can read on my website. I hope to have it out there in early 2004. I will not be pressing up the final mixes until I’m completely satisfied but at the same time I’m not going to fart around indefinitely. It has cost me over £5000 in studio time so far, so I feel some pressure to maximize the chances of getting a return on my investment.

11. Thanks Tim. If you want it you can leave a message to your fans.
Thanks for the questions and your interest Sergio. A message for my fans? I think anyone who has read this far has probably had enough of my messages! I wish you all everything that you wish for yourselves. Be happy.