Meet the Artist: Tim Kling’s new single inspired by a swim in the bioluminescence at night

Hobart music producer and songwriter Tim Kling has released a new single, Along the Shore, which highlights the beauty that’s often found in pleasurable but dangerous pastimes.

MUSIC producer and songwriter Tim Kling says he had a lucky early break when, as a teenager in Brisbane, he was accepted into an audio-engineering course.

“I was 17 at the time, and the course was taught by the lead sound person for Nirvana, and so I got my lucky break doing sound and working on the Byron Bay Blues and Roots Festival [now Byron Bay Bluesfest] in the late 1990s,” Kling says.

“I ended up having a career in audio engineering for festivals and events throughout Australia and going on lots of tours.”

In late 2011 his job eventually led him to Tasmania, where he has combined festival and mentoring work with his own music-making.

Kling served as a board member and president of Music Tasmania for a number of years and recently released a single, Along The Shore, as part of a larger body of work for his debut album, which is due out next year.

The track is a “multi-layered, cinematic, dream pop mantra”, which was inspired by an evening swim near Kling’s home at South Arm.

“When I moved to South Arm I just fell in love with the waterfront and the shifting colours, and I was inspired by a swim in the bioluminescence at night,” he says.

“What I’m trying to articulate is there’s this element of danger in swimming at night, but the bioluminescence makes up for it because it’s so beautiful you can’t help but want to experience it more. Quite often there’s an element of danger to things that are really beautiful.”

Kling, who has a home music studio, says his own music and songwriting had taken a back seat to his festival career until now.

“I do all of the instrumentation, I play everything and sing everything myself in my studio,’’ he says. “Each song takes a couple of months to fine-tune before it’s mastered and released, so there’s this ongoing process while I’m working part-time.”

Kling has worked on major Tasmanian festivals including Festival of Voices, Dark Mofo, Mona Foma and the Cygnet Folk Festival. He co-founded the Homebrewed stage at Falls Festival, and also produced the nationally recognised songwriting mentorship program One Eye on the Stranger with Wes Carr, Abbe May and Kram from Spiderbait.

“I wanted to create opportunities for Tasmanian musicians to have a bigger slice of the music pie on the mainland,” he says.

Listen to Tim Kling’s music at iTunes or Bandcamp or stream via Spotify. More information is available at klingcreative.net