Tim will perform the entirety of his new album, Apart Together, in a one-off concert at the iconic Trackdown Studios, to be streamed at 7pm (local time) on November 19th, to celebrate the record’s general release.
Featuring extraordinary guest musicians, 6 cameras, 11 songs, and whatever pours out of Tim’s brain in between, the concert will be available online for just 48 hours, and will only be accessible to ticket holders.
Tickets go on sale at 12pm (Local time) Monday, November 2nd, 2020
Ticket prices: AU$15 / £10 / €15 / US$15
You can buy tickets for whichever timezone works best for you.
Tim: “I’ve been thinking a lot about how to make live entertainment in this no-live-entertainment world, and – as always – how to make a virtue of the restrictions placed on us as artists. And I’ve concluded that we have a fantastic opportunity to make a new style of “live” concerts. Not like the old model, where cameras are inserted into seats in an audience, or put on the shoulder of a camera operator dressed in black, skulking around the edges of the stage, pretending she doesn’t exist. But instead, I want to bring the audience into the room with us. I want the viewer to feel like they have been invited into the studio to watch the final dress rehearsal for a concert, and have been given permission to stand in amongst the band, to sit down next to me (ewww), to be completely inside the experience.
This album we’ve made really lends itself to this sort of performance: the songs tell stories that ask the listener to stay engaged with every lyric; they are generally very personal; they vary in style from proper all-out rock-pop tracks to seriously intimate ballads.
I really hope people settle in with a really good set of speakers, a really good friend or two, and a really nice bottle of wine, and let me see if I can’t give them an online performance that isn’t quite like anything they’ve ever seen. Oh. That sounds like porn doesn’t it. *It’s not porn.”
Tim will also be raising money in support of Ausmusic T-Shirt Day during the stream, with all proceeds going to music industry charity, Support Act. You can donate here.
Apart Together …is full of gravity-defying balladry and beautifully observed moments – American Songwriter
“If there’s an artist more naturally disposed to a hybrid of pop and orchestration, I do not know his name” – The Age, Melbourne
“Minchin is a genuine musical virtuoso” -The Times, London
“His songs are jaunty or bittersweet or dark, but always fiendishly clever.” -The Evening Standard
“As with all Minchin’s stuff, it’s a little bit funny, it’s a little bit sad, and it finds the beauty and romance in even the most tragic of circumstances.” -The Guardian
“an LP’s worth of bangers, fizzing with his trademark acid one-liners, plus a goodly helping of more reflective ballads too.” -Clash
‘Apart Together’… is a determinedly auto-biographical effort that has finally given him peace with his own voice, musically and metaphorically. -NME
Hi all. Here’s an infrequent blog. Am writing it by way of diarizing this weird little moment in time, and because I know a lot of you followed the progress of this project on socials.
The fact that I named this upcoming album of mine “Apart Together” long before Covid hit kinda presaged the way in which it has grown to become – in my mind at least – an album very much of this time. And as more shits have hit more fans, I have become more dedicated to making it a testament to this fucking year, and to the idea of making lemonade out of lemons, whatever shape the lemons are.
Some of my nerdier fans (hi, bless you, love you) will have heard me say more than once that I think you should aim to bring everything you are into everything you do. I tend to say it about artists, but I guess it works for humans in general. I also often quote my mentor/director/friend Matthew Warchus (who was perhaps quoting someone else) who told me, back in Stratford-Upon-Avon in 2010 when I was anxious about whether Matilda was ready to open, that “any piece of art is just an artifact of the work you did in the time you had”. These two simple ideas have profoundly affected the way I go about my work… and this year have come to mean even more. This year, bringing “everything you are into everything you do”, means bringing your anxiety, and your disappointment, and your tiredness, and whatever else you are carrying through the pandemic months. And “the work that you did in the time that you had” could perhaps be extended to “… the work that you did in the time that you had in the space you were locked inside with the collaborators you were allowed to have contact with”!
Each single I have released this year has been an opportunity to make a little bit of art, and as our industry shut down, and then nervously semi-reopened, I tried to let the restrictions that came along govern the style of art-making.
Which brings me to the video for “Airport Piano”, the 4th single from my album, being released today!
Which, typical of this shit year, is also the day I have to get on a plane and fly away from my folks. Let me go back a bit….
‘Airport Piano’, the 4th single from Tim’s forthcoming studio album Apart Together is out now.
Tim: “Airport Piano is almost definitely the funkiest tribute to midlife crises and the emptiness of acquisition ever recorded in the antipodes. It walks the line between extremely cool and extremely uncool with barely a teeter.”
If you’d like to read about the process and see lots of photos and video clips, click here for Tim’s Making-of blog about how he made the video, in a garage, whilst in quarantine in WA.
New York Magazine’s Vulture will be doing an Instagram live stream next week with Tim and Ben Folds interviewing each other for their ‘Two Friends’ series.
Tim’s long-awaited debut album ‘Apart Together’, recorded over the past two years since he moved back to Sydney, will be out on the 20th November. A track of the same name, the third single, is available now.
The gatefold vinyl features a 24-page booklet with illustrated lyrics, a poster, bespoke artwork and comes in two variants; translucent red and transparent ultra-clear with opaque red.
Tim: “The title track of my album, ‘Apart Together’ was going to be called “Wedding Dance”, because in my head, that’s what it is. When that insanely lovely Mat Jodrell trumpet eases in, I always picture couples dancing. I mean, let’s be honest, you’d have to be a little bit of a weirdo to actually have it as your wedding dance, but if I’ve learned one thing from my years of making stuff, it’s this: there are always weirdos. And they are always my kinda people.”
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) announced today that Tim will be opening and closing this year’s star-studded Virgin Media British Academy Television Awards 2020 with a couple of special musical performances.
He’ll perform an original song, written specially for the occasion, to open the show and he’ll close with ‘Carry You’, which he wrote for his TV Series UPRIGHT.
Friday 31st July, BBC One, 7pm BST
UPDATE (31/07/20): Here are the two songs Tim performed:
‘Carry You’ a song he wrote for his comedy drama TV series UPRIGHT – a wild road trip across the Australian outback. (Lyrics to ‘Carry You’ can be found here.)
North American friends! The first 2 eps of #UPRIGHT are premiering on the ATX YouTube channel with ATX Festival, eOne and Sundance Now on Tuesday, July 21st at 7pm CT.
I’ll be chatting online as it’s airing with the awesome Milly Alcock. Afterwards the legend that is Judd Apatow is hosting a Q&A with… me. Huzzah. The full Q&A will be made available worldwide on July 22nd at 8am PT / 10am CT. Time Zone Converter
UPDATE: Here’s the Q&A with Judd Apatow:
If you’re in the US you can use the promo code ‘UPRIGHT’ to join Sundance Now for a 30-day-free-trial ready to watch UPRIGHT when it premieres on there August 6th.
More information on UPRIGHT can be found here. But in short, it’s wicked, you’ll love it. tx (more…)
If you’re unable to watch this live, fear not, it will remain available afterwards on their YouTube channel, Facebook page and website for catch-up. (UPDATED to add video above).
Tim will be performing one of his compositions from Matilda The Musical with Elise McCann, Hayden Tee and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra for PLAY IT ON, a unique online concert in support of Australian artists who have lost income as a result of the nationwide shutdown of the live entertainment industry.
Funds raised will be directed to Actors Benevolent Funds and Trusts in each state, as well as Support Act, recently founded to support actors, musicians and arts workers who are struggling as a result of shutdowns. (more…)
It feels like this second single has been a long time coming! It’s a mammoth track, both temporally and sonically. Which is a wanky way of saying it’s bloody long and bloody loud. Defo recommend listening to it with a big ol’ set of headphones or some kick-arse speakers and the volume turned up.
The album, Apart Together, is due out later this year.
Love to y’all. txx
Following its hugely successful and critically acclaimed premieres in Australia and the UK, UPRIGHT will begin its exclusive US premiere on Sundance Now on Thursday, August 6th, 2020 with the first two episodes. (If you’re in the US you can use the promo code ‘UPRIGHT’ to join Sundance Now for a 30-day-free-trial).
Shannon Cooper, VP of Programming, Sundance Now, said: “With its brilliant mix of humor and heart, plus a spectacular setting and mesmerizing performances by Tim Minchin and Milly Alcock, UPRIGHT has all the elements to become a favorite of Sundance Now subscribers. We’re thrilled to work with Tim Minchin and eOne to bring this beloved Australian series to U.S. audiences.”
For more information about UPRIGHT take a look here.
UPDATE(18/05/20): Tim’s performance of ‘Most Wanted Man’ (by Paul Kelly). Full episode, including Tim interviewing Paul Kelly below.
Tim will be appearing on The State of Music: Episode Three this Saturday 16th May – 7pm AEST*
Episode Three features Paul Kelly with Alex Lahey, Archie Roach, Meg Mac, Mo’Ju, Solo (Horrorshow), Tim Freedman, our Tim, Vika & Linda Bull. Hosted by Jane Gazzo with Tim who will also be performing. (more…)
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