He finds it easier to transport himself back to these moments by playing the songs back himself. Suddenly, it's clear where the observational humour built into his lyrics comes from. At one point, he plays his favourite Elton John song, before moving into a revised version of "Airport Piano" from Apart Together. He whirls back and forth between his piano, our conversation and a glass of red wine that his wife Sarah brings him. It's been making some people cry."Īs we talk through his Nine Songs, Minchin’s wanderlust is delightfully apparent. "Airport Piano" is a really bleak one on there. "It has a better chance of having a profound influence on a few people than it has of having a broad influence on millions of people," he reckons.
The album’s title instead comes from the necessary rootlessness of the nature of his lifestyle, which in turn created a desire to put an album together that captures the feeling of homesickness that he hopes will resonate with certain people. I ask him if the whole concept of a 'Covid album' could be something more akin to what artists like Charli XCX and Arcade Fire have been working on, but Minchin tells me, "The name is merely a coincidence”. There's a lot of stuff about absence and the search for meaning in a harsh existence." "I think not only the album, but the title of the album, can feel strangely resonant for people. "It's trying to find beauty in the meaningless shit-fire that is the universe," he explains. Built on the bones of his trusty piano, he wears his heart on his sleeve but keeps his tongue in his cheek as he meanders through the emptiness of modern life he is sometimes left with. In his insatiable exploration through the avenues of music, Minchin has now arrived at the release of his debut studio album, Apart Together. He may have begun his career as that wacky-haired comedian from down under, but his musical devotion to every avenue that takes his fancy has seen him go from your quirky mates’ best kept secret to an award-winning composer and musician.
Yet when it came to selecting the keystone songs in his life, he approached it with the same level of devotion that he puts into his own artistry and asked for the interview to be pushed back a week to give him more time to mull over his choices.įrom musical comedy, to musicals themselves and musically-driven visual art, Minchin has already proven himself to be a multifaceted artist in a way that emulates some of the greatest composers and lyricists he is so enamoured by, such as Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Bernie Taupin. Tim Minchin starts our conversation half-joking about the task he’s been set.