How did Tim Snider & Wolfgang Timber come to fruition? At what point did you all know you wanted to work together?
The band started playing together in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic and I’m still trying to wrap my head around how the whole thing came about. It can take a long time to find the right players for band and weirdly enough it almost felt like this band put itself together. For years, each of us had been playing in different international touring groups and when covid hit we all found ourselves in similar positions. Tours canceled, no gigs, and each of us reevaluating what we wanted out of life and music in general. I had known Zack Teran, our bass player, for many years and always have loved playing music with him. Up until this point the problem was either he was too busy on the road to get together, or I was. For the first time in many years we found ourselves in the same town at the same time both itching to play some music. I called him up to jam and he suggested that we call Miguel Jiménez-Cruz to play drums. I had heard of Miguel but didn’t really know him all that well. We jammed that first time and I remember walking away kind of awestruck at what had just happened. Miguel later then invited a guitar player named Lucas Arizu who we later learned plays everything. We also have Chance Utter on percussion from time to time, one of the most talented percussionist I’ve ever met who knows more about folkloric music than all of us combined. The chemistry was just there, it’s a hard thing to describe but you know when you hear it. We kept getting together to play and eventually ended up playing our first gig a year later in May of 2021 at the Crystal Bay Club in Lake Tahoe.
What draws you to the violin as an instrument?
Honestly, I think it’s in my blood. My great grandfather was a violinist and composer from Boston. He was a doctoral graduate from Julliard and Harvard. My Grandmother played violin as well but it somehow skipped my parents generation. When I was born my grandmother was dying of cancer. At two months old my mom took me to visit her on her death bed and she held me in her arms and proclaimed “Finally, this is my violinist!” She had tried and tried to get someone to carry on the tradition so no one thought much of this statement. But sure enough when I was 3 and a half years old I was watching Sesame Street on tv and saw the violin for the first time. Isaac Perlman was there doing a little demonstration and I thought it was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen. I ran up to my mom in the kitchen and said I want to play
“that,” pointing to the TV, “can you get me lessons.” I didn’t even know what to call it. I just knew that it was what I wanted to do. Over the years it has become many things to me, a voice to express myself, a lense to understand things around me, and a vehicle that has allowed me to travel and meet people around the world. I feel the most free when I’m playing it and weirdly enough I also enjoy how even after all these years it can still kick my ass. It’s an unforgiving instrument that demands your time and attention but you get out what you put in and well, there’s nothing better.
Can you describe the behind-the-scenes process of shooting the “By Your Side” music video? Where was the filming location?
We ended up shooting the video in Verdi, NV which is about 20 minutes west of Reno, NV. We originally had planned to film in Tahoe but there were some massive fires in CA that particular week and the smoke in the area was so bad you could hardly even see the sky. The fact that we ended up shooting as close as Verdi even was pure luck. We had one day to make this video with everyone’s tight schedules so the plan was just keep checking the winds and air AQI with the understanding that we might end up having to drive several hours north or south to get around the smoke. We woke up the morning of the shoot at 6 am, checked the sky and by some miraculous event there just happened to be a little pocket of clean air in Verdi. Not knowing how long it would last we took a chance, drove out and witnessed one of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve ever seen. Right on schedule, as soon as we finished filming the smoke rolled in and everything when back to grey and miserable. It had been so stressful leading up to the shoot but that day, everything was magic. Tianna our producer did such a fantastic job, was effortless to work with, and it all just seemed to line up perfectly.
Walk us through Tim Snider & Wolfgang Timber’s songwriting and production process. Is it usually a collaborative effort?
I believe that songs have kind of a will of their own and the process is always a bit different. Sometimes it’s a very collaborative effort and the song takes time to fully realize itself through rehearsals, rewrites and everyone’s input. Sometimes the song just downloads out of thin air and I don’t even feel like I had anything to do with it. What I can say is that every song I bring to our team, they just make better. We have a lot of amazing friends outside the band that have contributed to the sound as well. My favorite approach seems to be, let’s throw a bunch of paint at the wall and see what sticks. Once the song is mostly established, we send it to my dear friend Joe Hall who doesn’t ever hesitate to tear it apart and tell me what’s not working. There ends up being a lot of back and forth. Joe usually fights to cut things in an effort to make the song more simple and I’m usually fighting to keep my long verses, wordy lines and dense harmonies. I think somehow we end up with something that we all like and that’s how we know it’s done.
Where do you tend to draw inspiration from for your music? Is it usually love, family, and home, and why is it important to you to include those themes in your creations?
Songs are like an emotional snapshot of where you’re at in a certain time and place in your life. I often feel like the practice of writing songs is a desperate attempt to dive into my subconscious. Lately love, family and home have been everything to me. I’ve often struggled as I know a lot of touring musicians struggle with trying to find a balance of a home life and the work that we feel so compelled to do. You hear a lot about musicians living two separate lives, one on the road and one at home. I remember having a conversation with one of my musical heroes, John Butler, about my fear of becoming a dad and still somehow managing to keep up my life’s dream as a touring musician. He told me that if you give up on your dreams, what are you teaching your kid. That always stuck with me and from that moment on I told myself I would never separate the two again.
What is next for Tim Snider and Wolfgang Timber? Do you have any plans or hopes for the future that you would like to share with fans?
Yes! We can’t wait to release the bands first full length album at the beginning of 2023. We are planning a National tour in March to support it and in the meantime we will be playing shows this December in Reno, NV; Bend, OR; Portland, OR; and Seattle, WA. Keep an eye out for us and we look forward to connecting with you at a show soon.
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