Tim Green is one of the UK’s most respected melodic house artists.
The DJ and producer is known across the world for his music signed to labels such as All Day I Dream, Cocoon, Get Physical and Shanti Radio Moscow.
Known for having a deep and organic style with uplifting melodies and captivating emotion, Tim Green has also travelled the world as a headline DJ.
Tim has also just launched his own label For A Memory, which is to mainly be an outlet for his own music and expression. His upcoming release is ‘In New Light’, a remix compilation where some of his favourite artists have remixed his tracks from over the years to celebrate 15 years since his first release. One of the album singles is Janus Rasmussen’s remix of Tim Green’s track “Colliding”, out now. We wanted to know more about that release plus his passions outside of music…
Hi Tim, it’s great to be talking with you today. What part of the world are you currently based in, and what’s the local lockdown situation?
Hi there! Thanks for chatting with me. I’m in London, UK and the situation is pretty good it seems. Most things are back on track, and no lockdown at the moment. Fingers crossed it stays this way moving into winter also.
Have you started to get some gigs booked in again now nightclubs in some parts of the world have been able to open again?
Yes, I have been touring a few different countries where it’s safe enough for everyone to party again. I massively missed it and was weird for the first 10 minutes, then it felt completely natural again playing to a crowd of people!
Talking of playing gigs, I understand you predominantly follow a vegan diet and I’ve heard some artists talk about how hard it is to find vegan food at airports or in some countries. Have you ever had this problem when on tour, and what are your tips on being prepared for it?
I mostly follow a vegan diet except in some limited situations. To be honest I think the better way of describing my diet, is actually an organic, plant-based diet. I believe the world needs massive change in so many areas, and in my view adopting a plant-based diet is one great way of doing this. Something we should all try to do, if only 80%, or even 50% of the time, it would make a huge impact and difference. Eating organic is also something I feel very strongly about, mainly due to the crazy amount of ingredients and chemicals that you can find in food nowadays. But for example, when I’m in the UK, my wife and I always follow a plant-based and organic diet. But sometimes when we travel somewhere remote, when sourcing vegan food would mean, for example, something unhealthy or transported thousands of miles, we then would much prefer local, fresh, in-season food. It’s better for the planet and the local economies as things stand. But to answer the question, yes I have had many problems in the past finding good food when travelling. This is why I switched to a plant-based lifestyle many years ago, because so much food at airports is horrible, processed and unhealthy. So I always look for fresh, locally sourced food when I travel, and if it’s good vegan and organic food, then that’s always my first choice!
I know that lots of people have their own reasons for going vegan, ranging from the environmental damage caused by battery farming meat to simply being a lover of animals. What was your main motivation behind the decision?
It initially was my own health reasons, and like I said previously, travelling meant I was eating so much bad food due to lack of options. Nowadays, there is more and more great food available when travelling. But after I started to go vegan for my own personal reasons, I quickly learned of all the other amazing benefits of a vegan lifestyle on the planet.
Talking of the environment and climate change. What’s your stance on this, and do you think the music industry could be doing more to reduce carbon emissions?
I think everybody can always be doing more for sure. It’s always hypocritical coming from somebody who travels on planes very regularly for their work to say this obviously. But I think most especially promoters could be doing a better job of booking artists more from their own country, or city even. It’s a tough thing to implement, because unfortunately supply and demand from an interest in each nightclub is always going to be the driving force. But for example, I play a lot in North America, but I really don’t play a lot in London, where I live. It always seems strange to me how this is haha. I absolutely love playing in North America, but I know there are many artists who play a lot in London, that don’t play a lot in their home city also. If anything, the pandemic highlighted this more and more also. But it’s very tough when making a living from touring as an artist, you go where the interest in you is, as that’s where the crowd wants to hear and see you play. In turn, you then are promoting yourself and your music by being in front of the crowd who wants to see you.
On the subject of music, I understand you recently announced a new album ‘In New Light’. Could you talk us through the concept, and when it will be released?
Yes, it’s an album I wanted to put together to celebrate and highlight 15 years of me releasing music. I have been slowly consolidating a lot of my back catalogue, as a lot of my song license terms had naturally ended. So the rights automatically reverted back to me fully. So, I thought to host all of my old songs in one place, by setting up a new label called ‘For a memory’. Then further to this, I thought it would be great to get a lot of friends and artists, who I love and respect to pick and choose a song from my back catalogue to remix. It grew bigger than I thought with so many friends and artists wanting to be part of the project! I am really happy with the result and final album! All of this intention was to highlight my back catalogue, plus get some interesting interpretations of these old songs. The full album will be released on November 26th. I had the first single already out, a remix from the amazing Russian Duo Volen Sentir! Which is currently sitting at number 1 in Beatport Organic House charts! The second single has just dropped, which is an incredible remix by Janus Rassmussen (one half of the Icelandic duo Kiasmos). The remix is sublime, I’m truly honoured to have him on board!
What do you like the most about Janus’ rework that is out now? Were you surprised at him picking this track to remix, or do you see why he picked it?
It was an absolute honour to have Janus remix one of my songs. His music by himself and as one half of Kiasmos, is such a big influence for me. When I sent over the selection of songs he could potentially remix, I was secretly hoping he would choose either Colliding, or one other song. So I was massively surprised when he chose it, as I didn’t think I would get this lucky haha. But the remix he delivered is just perfection, such a great groove with amazing energy and intensity throughout. Whilst having his trademark juxtaposition style, where he infuses these beautiful melodic moments on top to balance out the song. Amazing remix!
How did you pick the artists who reworked tracks of yours? Are there any special stories behind them?
They are mostly friends tbh, which incidentally also release consistently some of my favourite music in the scene. It’s quite natural I think to gravitate towards and become friends with peers, especially peers whose music I always play out and aspire to. So it’s quite a natural selection of artists this way, as it happened organically.
What’s coming next in your schedule, and is there a special message to fans or anything you want to add before we finish?
So the remix album (as I said previously) will be the next set of releases from me! With extra singles leading up to its full release. Currently, I am working on more original music to be released next year. As well as several more collaborations in the pipeline with a bunch of different friends/artists. So as usual, expect much more music from me all next year!
Tim Green’s ‘In New Light’ drops on November 26th via his For a Memory imprint, save it here, and Janus Rasmussen’s rework of his track ‘Colliding’ is out now, get it HERE
