Audio By Carbonatix
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.
