At the end of this month, Tim Pourbaix will leave his home town behind for New York — specifically, the hipster's promised land of Williamsburg. Before he says goodbye, however, the Denver-based singer-songwriter — who garnered attention as a bassist with Kael Smith's Bear vs. Larger Bear and Killfix — will bequeath two digital-only collections that include some of his best songs yet. One record, titled My Lover's Lover and due out on Bocumast Records, will be Pourbaix's first full-length album under his own name, and the other, released under the name Park Pourbaix, will be a seven-song EP he wrote and recorded with precocious performer Ellison Park.
Pourbaix began his musical life in the shadow of a Baptist elder who strictly controlled the music that made it into his home. When the younger Pourbaix got his first job in an Arvada pizza joint at the age of fourteen, the stoners in the kitchen began to introduce him to the joys of bands like Radiohead and Alice in Chains. From that point on, Pourbaix's path became clear, a road that led him to My Lover's Lover.
"The record is all a made-up scenario," explains Pourbaix, who spends as much time writing short stories and comedy sketches as he does writing songs. "It's about a couple and a third person that's cheating with them. It doesn't matter who's who. I've been all three of these people. That's why I could write this record."
The eleven-track album includes some of Pourbaix's most memorable melodies, poetic lyrics and heartbreaking themes yet. Where his previous EP, A Pony Craig, Not Greg, often had a wide-eyed optimism, this collection is darkened and deepened by what those eyes have seen. Near the end of last year, Pourbaix — who had previously dealt marijuana from one end of the city to the other — was pulled over on his bike with two ounces of weed in his pockets. The fear that ran through him as he awaited his fate on the hood of a cop car served as a wake-up call for the young songwriter.
Shortly thereafter, he quit dealing and received another fateful call — this time from Jamie White, a fellow local musician who has played in such notable acts as Acrobat Down, Disco Volante, Blusom and more. In no time, Pourbaix and White had put together one of My Lover's Lover's most poignant songs, "Funeral Lions." The poppier "Paper's Pink" followed closely behind.
"Within four months, we wrote and recorded that entire album," Pourbaix marvels. "And at the same time, I wrote the Park Pourbaix record with Elly. And I'm seven songs into my next record already."
While it might seem strange for Tim Pourbaix to leave here during this period of unprecedented musical proliferation, the rapidly maturing artist — who has never lived outside of Colorado — is eager for this opportunity to take a step back from his music and forward in his life.
"I want to be a thinker, a conversationalist, an observer and a note-taker," he says, anticipating his new life in Brooklyn. "I don't want to go around telling people I'm a musician or an artist. I just want to be around those people and see what I can learn by not talking about myself."
Visit blogs.westword.com/backbeat for more of our interview with Tim Pourbaix.
