Timothy Chivers

has since ended, but he’s also playing bass for my Willis Peak Project, which is my pseudonym as a solo writer, performer and producer. It’s been very much a ‘me project’, but now that the first extended play (or EP)’s been released I am collaborating with a lot more people. Before the social isolation struck, we were getting a pretty good band together!

What things are most important for you about music?

I feel like this is something that a lot of musicians forget, from amateurs to the most experienced musicians. It’s that music is entertainment! That’s where it all started. Some musicians disagree with that and that’s fine. But music to me is a way to pass the time, while we wander along this earth. I really love listening to music that has solid songwriting, where the chords, melody and lyrics work together so perfectly to make a person feel things. But then also, they might have something more interesting in the background, like the vocalist has an interesting inflection or the producer goes crazy with something in the background. A combination of something familiar but something interesting too! They’re the things I’m very attracted to, so you can expect to hear music from me that is very familiar song writing, pop-song writing styles with just a little something strange to throw you off.

Do you have a particular style or genre?

Well, I go through very long phases of ‘writer’s block’. When I was in high school, I used to write 10 songs a week or something ridiculous like that. Then gradually moved to one song every couple of months. When I decided to start the Willis Peak Project, I thought, ‘You know what? I’m just putting too much pressure on myself! I’ll just write songs that I think sound good!’ So I did that and created an EP that is six tracks long, with a couple of tracks on that EP that are more experimental than the others. But mostly, I’ve tried to stick to a song writing formula that has nice chord progressions, melodies and nice sounding production. So that’s what I’ve gone with. I’ve drawn on influences like The Lumineers, who I was listening to a lot of the time, and a couple of references like Vance Joy, George Ezra: kind of like that acoustic-based, singer songwriter stuff. I was also inspired quite a bit by Gang of Youths and Bon Iver as well. It’s mostly acoustic-based, folky stuff, but in the future I really want to go for more of a rock, alternative route.

If you could go back to your younger self and give music advice, what would it be?

One thing is that when I was attending the workshops at Youth ARC, I didn’t take music anywhere near as seriously as I take it now. I think the main reason for that is because I was unsure about whether or not music would be a viable option for my future. A lot of musicians do find it hard to make things work financially. But there are people out there, like I mentioned earlier, like Amy Fogarty, who are so supportive. There are venue owners, events managers and places like Youth ARC that really want to see musicians succeed. If you’re worried about committing to music, even though you love it and it’s your absolute passion (you care about music so much that you’ve got that fire), you might not want to do it because you’re worried about being able to make ends meet and make money. But if you love it, you’ve just got to work on it and commit to it because you want to be doing something that you love to do.

Check out Tim’s music on Spotify at Willis Peak or Bandcamp to buy the EP! Tim will be donating all proceeds for the remainder of 2020 to the Animal Resource Cooperative who help feed animals that were displaced by the bushfires in Australia. What a guy!