Thank you for taking the time to have this interview with IMAAI.
Tell us about your music.
Started writing intellegent sometimes quirky music in my teens. Nothing published.
1978 formed band ‘Paris’ to perform and record original prog. pop. Nothing published.
1983 Band split due to frustrations at not finding a manager who would live up to their promises.
1994 Became a born-again Christian, concentrating on faith-based music, worship leader for various local ministries. Did my best to produce good quality home recordings. Invited to compose the music for three full-scale faith-based musicals, never performed. Used Taxi and MusicXray. Nothing published.
Started music and programming electronica project tranZmachine. Nothing published.
2012 After 30 years, Paris reformed to make some decent recordings ‘just for posterity’. by 2015, resulted in a 13-track album, ‘Unfinished Business’, mastered by a (friend) Grammy-award-winning producer. Some fantastic reviews, no professional interest.
2016 Started self-promoting Paris album ‘Unfinished Business’ using CDBaby etc. In August, project catastrophically collapsed due to the main driver of the project being arrested and put in prison for (mostly fake) charges going back to the 1980s. Severe depression led to a complete abandonment of music after over 40 years. I’m now an author (but see later); I’ve co-written (and illustrated) a series of children’s books, and have recently completed my first novel. Nothing (yet) published.
When did you start performing?
Around 1976, I realised that I was going to get nowhere in music without becoming a performer. My co-writer at the time wasn’t interested, so I started to join local bands on keyboards, which eventually led to the formation of my band ‘Paris’. But I’ve always found performing a bit of a chore, a means-to-an-end. 40 years have done little to change that. But I discovered that, get me in a studio with some original material, I take off!
What do you consider to be your hometown and how does that affect your music?
Lived, loved, worked and performed in and around Coventry UK (20 miles from Birmingham UK) virtually all my life. Coventry has always been a bit of a dead-end musically, despite quite a thriving local scene, quite the opposite of (e.g.) Liverpool, London or Manchester. It’s been the home town to singers such as Frank Ifield and (late lamented) Vince Hill. It was the birthplace of pioneer in electronic music Delia Derbyshire. It was home town to members of The Sorrows, with a tragic history of criminal management and a double suicide. But despite that, the main songwriter wrote ‘Without You’, the massive hit for Harry Nilsson and others.
The main exception to all this was the birth of 2-Tone, blending black and white music, Jamaican and English, which gave rise to the likes of The Specials (AKA), The Selector, UB40 and many other successful artists. This all exploded in the early 1980s, just when ‘Paris’ were trying to make a name for themselves. One problem – whatever else we were, ‘Paris’ was NOT 2-Tone!
What performers have been your inspiration?
IN my 20s, the likes of Yes and Genesis, later Peter Gabriel’s solo work – and epic TV theme tunes! And Klaatu. The 80s Synth pop explosion (loved – but could never afford – the technology!). In the 90s, faith based musicians from Michael Smith to Ron Kenoly. There’s been very little music this century that I’ve liked. (There’s a university in Spain that ran a massive program PROVING how pop music has deteriorated over the last 20 years!)
What do you base your success on?
I’ve had no success. I’m an unknown living in the middle of England, who’s been trying all his life to gain some traction, without success. My story is shared by MANY MANY other very talented and gifted musicians, and other types of artist.
What was your latest musical release?
The main man of the Paris ‘resurrection’ project was owed a favour by a guy working to set up his own video production company (IN Room productions / Wild Fish Productions). He made a FANTASTIC video of the first track from the album, ‘Paris Fashions’.
LINK: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBifZicIWns
Do you have any news to share?
I AM getting a little bit back into music, as musician for my house church meetings. Creatively, I’m trying to concentrate on finding a Literary Agent to represent my novle, JUDGEMENT DEI: Beyond ther Tin Foil Hat. Musically, my on-going tranZmachine project is coming to a conclusion, and I hope to release the tracks on BandCamp and SoundCloud. Inventively, I’m in the process of making a (typing) keyboard prototype. I’ve devised a new layout for a keyboard to challenge QWERTY, using concepts that have never been used before.
How can fans find you?
Via FaceBook www.facebook.com/tim.constable.7
Via LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/timcsongs/recent-activity/all/
Lastly, please share some final words with the fans.
I tell my story as an example of MANY stories of highly-gifted people who’s works never see the light of day. I may well have committed suicide long ago if it wasn’t for my faith in Jesus Christ and the Love of God which I experience in my heart. I’m VERY careful to inform my worldview, and I am solid that the Biblical worldview is BY FAR the best for explaining the world I see around me, and my own personal experiences. We’ve thrown The Bible out of our Governments, our Schools and Universities, and our personal lives. The results are tragic. Despite my life still having had MANY difficulties and disappointments, I will NEVER regret putting my life into the hands of Our Loving Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. I recommend you to do so as well. You see, there are FIVE things I can tell you about yourself, because they’re true of everyone, including me! 1) You’re not perfect 2) You’re not the center of the universe 3) You don’t know everything 4) There’s nothing you can do about it 5) God still loves you anyway! And it’s NOT religious! all you have to do is say a simple prayer – no fancy words expected! – asking Jesus to come into your life, forgive your sins, believe that he paid the death penalty that YOU deserve by dying on a cross 2000 years ago, and that he rose from the dead to become an Advocate for YOU, in Heaven! [Preach over!]