The ever-melancholy Timber Timbre are no stranger to the visual side of things — their music has earned key placements in shows like Breaking Bad and The Good Wife — but their latest record, Hot Dreams, is undeniably their most cinematic. Sonically dipping into jazz, blues, folk and rock, the project's fifth LP sounds like it belongs in the background of a western, a sentiment echoed by founder and leader Taylor Kirk.
"I've certainly been cognizant of my influences and been influenced by film composers," Kirk tells Exclaim! "Specifically for this record, it was a bit more of a direct reference. Like I was sending little teasers of '70s films, films that I really love, to bandmates."
Inspired by films like Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown and the score work of luminaries including Ennio Morricone and Bernard Herrmann, Kirk attempted "not necessarily to emulate the arrangements, but somehow emulate the feeling or sensation of these scores."
Many filmmakers have also noticed the music's natural connection to video; according to Kirk, there "seems to be a constant interest in pairing the music with visual things." In addition to the already-released video for the album's title track, Kirk says there are more videos on the way. He plays coy, but does mention "Chad VanGaalen is making something for one of our songs right now that should be done soon."
In addition to touring and conceiving Hot Dreams, Kirk spent part of the past few years working on "a couple of film projects that came up. Some of them successful, some of them not so successful." Kirk, who attended film school, admitted that he's "always been very interested in making music for film. I thought that, if I were going to have a career in music at all, it would be doing that."
One of those aforementioned projects involved the 2013 horror film The Last Exorcism Part II. While Timber Timbre's song "Demon Host," from their 2009 self-titled record, plays over the credits, Kirk revealed that he was initially tapped to score the film.
"I thought this would be very easy for us to create music for a horror film, but it just didn't work out. We just didn't seem to get it, we didn't hit it off, the producers changed and they changed the whole theme around the film and sadly they didn't end up using this music. But we created a lot of great stuff and some of this has been reworked and will come out under another moniker."
One of these tracks will be the first part of "Resurrection Drive," of which "Part II" appears on Hot Dreams.
Hot Dreams comes out today (April 1) on via Arts & Crafts and can be streamed here. Timber Timbre will be playing Toronto on May 23, Vancouver on June 10, and Montreal on September 19.
Read our full story on Timber Timbre's new album here.
"I've certainly been cognizant of my influences and been influenced by film composers," Kirk tells Exclaim! "Specifically for this record, it was a bit more of a direct reference. Like I was sending little teasers of '70s films, films that I really love, to bandmates."
Inspired by films like Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown and the score work of luminaries including Ennio Morricone and Bernard Herrmann, Kirk attempted "not necessarily to emulate the arrangements, but somehow emulate the feeling or sensation of these scores."
Many filmmakers have also noticed the music's natural connection to video; according to Kirk, there "seems to be a constant interest in pairing the music with visual things." In addition to the already-released video for the album's title track, Kirk says there are more videos on the way. He plays coy, but does mention "Chad VanGaalen is making something for one of our songs right now that should be done soon."
In addition to touring and conceiving Hot Dreams, Kirk spent part of the past few years working on "a couple of film projects that came up. Some of them successful, some of them not so successful." Kirk, who attended film school, admitted that he's "always been very interested in making music for film. I thought that, if I were going to have a career in music at all, it would be doing that."
One of those aforementioned projects involved the 2013 horror film The Last Exorcism Part II. While Timber Timbre's song "Demon Host," from their 2009 self-titled record, plays over the credits, Kirk revealed that he was initially tapped to score the film.
"I thought this would be very easy for us to create music for a horror film, but it just didn't work out. We just didn't seem to get it, we didn't hit it off, the producers changed and they changed the whole theme around the film and sadly they didn't end up using this music. But we created a lot of great stuff and some of this has been reworked and will come out under another moniker."
One of these tracks will be the first part of "Resurrection Drive," of which "Part II" appears on Hot Dreams.
Hot Dreams comes out today (April 1) on via Arts & Crafts and can be streamed here. Timber Timbre will be playing Toronto on May 23, Vancouver on June 10, and Montreal on September 19.
Read our full story on Timber Timbre's new album here.
