Tim Hicks Interview

So, I had the chance to sit down with Tim Hicks at Boots and Hearts and seeing that last night he won the Rising Star award at the CCMA Awards in Edmonton I figured today would be the perfect day to finally post the interview. Having met Tim a few times previous it was more like sitting down and talking with a buddy here is how it went.

Corey: Tim, First off thanks for taking the time to chat with us after your performance on the main stage at Boots & Hearts, You have played every stage at Boots & Hearts now how does it feel coming off the “Big Boy Stage”?

Tim: It feels Fantastic, I had a great time. Because this whole thing has happened gradually over the past 18 months or so, I felt ready for it. I was really hoping to get a crowd that was enthusiastic ,that would singing and clap and they did exactly that.

Corey: So Tim, what were you able to bring from the experience of the last 18 months into the new album 5:01?

Tim: Well, 5:01 is considered my sophomore album, But I think its my 10th CD I have done. I love the studio, I love the process so I was really looking forward to that end of it. Especially singing on it and cutting harmonies and things like that. I sort of bring all that experience to the table in terms of recording. I have a great team, Jeff Coplan produced this record again and he is fantastic. I have no worries when he is behind the desk. We also brought an engineer in Jeff Balding who did a fantastic job. What he brought was our ability for Jeff Coplan to just relax and produce the record . Rather than worry about whether the snare drum is to loud when we cut it, all the technical side of it. So we had a really great team putting this together. Jeff plays a lot of the instruments on the record. We cut drums with a drummer bring in a few extra guys to play on this one but Jeff pretty much plays the rest, and you know I love to play guitar in the studio but when ya got a guy like Coplan sitting next to you I was like “Dude you play it” I don’t need to strum along. He does such a great job. Then I will fly in, cut the vocals. I love it.

Corey: So that leads into our next question. Writing with some A-List writers like Todd Clark, Phil Barton how does that happen with a guy from the Niagara Region?

Tim: Oh ya, Heavy duty dudes, Love Phil. It really freaks me out. Everytime I have a big write, the night before i am a wreck because i am anxious. I sort of consider myself a bit of a tortured songwriter. I love to sing and play and make a living playing live and in front of people but writing songs is hard for me. It always has been especially the lyrical end of it so when your paired with guys that have world wide #1 hits. The night before I am always like “What am I going to play this guy that will make him go Oh Ya that’s a good idea lets write that.”

So now I do my best to keep a running list of titles and ideas but when I was down in Nashville writing 5:01 I was down there for 6 weeks brought the family down we wrote 2-3 songs a day every day. I may have had 2 or 3 days off the entire time. So we wrote a lot of material so by week two I was tapped. So I was going into sessions very loose and scatting out stuff and with guys like that. You can do that and get results because they can catch on to what your trying to say even if your not articulating it properly. Because music is such a bizarre thing that people can scat something out and they can grab it and out comes a lyric and your off to the races.

Corey: You have written with some great people but on 5:01 you have also collaborated with a few other artists such as Madeline Merlo, Clayton Bellamy & Blackjack Billy how did that come together…

Tim: Well beside being label mates they were the only ones that returned my phone calls (laughs) that’s the truth. We tried to get a bunch of people on A Little Drink Along. I meet Clayton for the first time at the CCMA’s last year and for what ever reason we hit it off. I think we are cut from the same cloth musically and there is a mutual respect there and was so honored to have him sing on the record. The Blackjack Billy guys it was just an excuse for us to do something again we had so much fun doing Got A Feeling and I have to give them credit because A Little Drink Along was really an extension of a song they had called Drink Along. I told Copland that i wanted a song like that on my record and he was like what if we took Drink Along and morphed it and added some Canadian elements to it and sort of re-wrote it. And I was totally up for anything and we thought we would just experiment with this and see what happens. We were so thrilled with what we came up with, we had to cut it and I insisted that we get some other people to sing on it. Its a gang song we have to have dudes sing on this as if we are hanging in the bar raising our glasses.

Corey: So, have to go with a more generic question with craziest fan experience?

Tim: Most people are pretty respectful you would think its the young girls that are out of control and its really not they are really usually pretty cool. Its the older ladies that you have to watch out for. They are very grabby, VERY GRABBY, and they think that’s ok and its really not. People touching you where you don’t expect to get touched while taking a picture isn’t cool. but ya the older ladies are the ones to watch.

Corey: Last one… Opening for Dierks Bentley this fall whats that going to mean for you?

Tim: Going to be Incredible Huge fan, every time i play with someone at that level i look at it like its an opportunity to learn something. I am going to be sitting side stage taking notes. Dierks is a guy that can play 2 songs from his new record and he played for 90 min and other than those 2 new songs every song was a hit. So as a fella coming up through and aspiring to that its just so inspiring to watch a guy who has a career as long as him and can play an hour and a half straight and play nothing but hits. Its songs where you go “oh ya that song” and “that’s his to” and then plays Drunk on a Plane and your like oh my god this is going to be huge and it is. Its going to be a Fantastic experience.

Thanks Tim for a great interview. And congrats on the big CCMA Award last night we at Sound Check know it won’t be the last CCMA you win!