In some ways, Great Bloomers is the only band Tim Moxam has ever known. As lead guitarist for the soon-to-be defunct Toronto-based rock outfit, it was only a short while after graduating from Concordia University's jazz program that he was asked to join the group. But after nearly five years of touring together, an EP and one studio album, Moxam is finally ready to go it alone.
"My own project has always been a very long project, and it's always been just for fun," he tells Exclaim! "But of course, being with the Bloomers and being so busy, it was always on the sideline, so I was never really able to complete something I was proud of and release and feel confident and stand behind."
So while his previous band's tenure in the Canadian music scene may be soon coming to a close, Moxam's work as a solo artist is ultimately just beginning. His four-track debut EP, Blue Son, only recently arrived via Nevado Records.
But it wasn't the easiest of journeys for Moxam to issue his first-ever solo recording.
Work on the record officially began back in the summer of 2012, when Moxam met up with producer Josh Korody (Greys, the Dirty Nil) to book studio time at his Candle Recording studio. Packed between the Great Bloomers' rampant touring schedule and his own solo performances, Moxam recruited the group's bassist Anthony McKnight and multi-instrumentalist Adrian Cook as his primary backing band, along with an array of local musicians, for the EP's four-day recording session.
The result is a cohesive folk-indebted debut that showcases Moxam's introspective songwriting and unique take on modern Americana, which he says was all the more aided by the stripped-down, live-off-the-floor approach to his recording process.
"When recording a track, it's easy to get attached and expect too much from it, when really all you can do is just play the song the best you can," he says about the speedy recording session. "There's no hiding the fact the song is how you play it and not how you sort of build it up with different kinds of effects. It's got to stand on its own without anything else."
And while the EP may have wrapped up recording over a year ago, Moxam says it took longer than expected for it to see the light of day, due in part to his full-time employment as a carpenter and the record's extensive mixing and mastering sessions, which were helmed over a number of weeks by the Wooden Sky's Gavin Gardiner in exchange for free labour in Gardiner's then unfinished home recording studio.
"After all the mixing and mastering, then it just became a game of patience and figuring out when to release it," Moxam says.
But don't expect his next solo effort to take as long. Moxam has already made plans for a full-length follow-up, which he aims to record with Gardiner this January and release sometime in the spring of 2014.
"This EP is great," Moxam says. "But it's really just an introduction."
Hear for yourself by picking up Moxam's debut solo EP over here and listen to Blue Son's debut single, "Live in the Bedroom," below.
As previously reported, Great Bloomers play their final show on November 16 at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern.
"My own project has always been a very long project, and it's always been just for fun," he tells Exclaim! "But of course, being with the Bloomers and being so busy, it was always on the sideline, so I was never really able to complete something I was proud of and release and feel confident and stand behind."
So while his previous band's tenure in the Canadian music scene may be soon coming to a close, Moxam's work as a solo artist is ultimately just beginning. His four-track debut EP, Blue Son, only recently arrived via Nevado Records.
But it wasn't the easiest of journeys for Moxam to issue his first-ever solo recording.
Work on the record officially began back in the summer of 2012, when Moxam met up with producer Josh Korody (Greys, the Dirty Nil) to book studio time at his Candle Recording studio. Packed between the Great Bloomers' rampant touring schedule and his own solo performances, Moxam recruited the group's bassist Anthony McKnight and multi-instrumentalist Adrian Cook as his primary backing band, along with an array of local musicians, for the EP's four-day recording session.
The result is a cohesive folk-indebted debut that showcases Moxam's introspective songwriting and unique take on modern Americana, which he says was all the more aided by the stripped-down, live-off-the-floor approach to his recording process.
"When recording a track, it's easy to get attached and expect too much from it, when really all you can do is just play the song the best you can," he says about the speedy recording session. "There's no hiding the fact the song is how you play it and not how you sort of build it up with different kinds of effects. It's got to stand on its own without anything else."
And while the EP may have wrapped up recording over a year ago, Moxam says it took longer than expected for it to see the light of day, due in part to his full-time employment as a carpenter and the record's extensive mixing and mastering sessions, which were helmed over a number of weeks by the Wooden Sky's Gavin Gardiner in exchange for free labour in Gardiner's then unfinished home recording studio.
"After all the mixing and mastering, then it just became a game of patience and figuring out when to release it," Moxam says.
But don't expect his next solo effort to take as long. Moxam has already made plans for a full-length follow-up, which he aims to record with Gardiner this January and release sometime in the spring of 2014.
"This EP is great," Moxam says. "But it's really just an introduction."
Hear for yourself by picking up Moxam's debut solo EP over here and listen to Blue Son's debut single, "Live in the Bedroom," below.
As previously reported, Great Bloomers play their final show on November 16 at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern.