Words by Jake Jones
Photos by Carina Jirsch

It’s a chilly Thursday evening in mid October, somewhere in West London. Tim Ten Yen is 90 minutes away from performing at a brand new music venue, and he kindly agrees to meet me for a pint and a chat about his new album ‘Everything Beautiful Reminds Me Of You’.

Hi Tim, what would you like to drink?
A pint of wheat beer please.

No probs – peanuts?
Not peanuts thanks. Definitely not.

No?
Nope – I read somewhere about peanuts and you shouldn’t eat them before gigs. I did that about six months ago. I didn’t choke on them or anything, but they do something to your throat, where it kinda makes it tighten up, and makes you salivate or something. I actually had to stop the MP3 player, and have a glass of water and apologise to the audience.

Were they dry roasted?
I think they were – but it’s the nut, roasted or salted – doesn’t matter.

What’s Everything Beautiful Reminds Me Of You all about then?
It’s poignant, I mean, it’s about being in a nice situation or seeing something fantastic. It’s about the thing of wishing that you were able to share something wonderful with someone-else, a girl, but also being reminded of someone by something lovely.

Was it your intention from the outset that it could mean any of those things you mention to people who bought it, or was it something more personal?
Yeah, sort of – It is pop music, but it’s not the cliché indie type of happy music with dark lyrics, which is pointless I think. There is some kind of depth to it. Happiness can be a deep feeling. Happiness is the ultimate feeling if it’s real and you can’t beat it. Rather than calling the album something like ‘Tim Ten Yen’s Love Missile Into The Pop World’, the music speaks for itself. Even The Bear and the Fox has some depth, and is there to take you on some kind of journey, even though it’s pop music and it is only two and a half minutes – taking you there and back again, it’s sort of like a lunch-break world tour.

Is that how you view all your songs – as a journey?
Yeah – it’s to take the listener on a journey and then for them to float back to reality. It is a little bit pretentious, as it is only pop music, but it’s good to have a grand aim to go for, and really try to nail it. My love is pop music, it’s my religion almost. I don’t like writing melancholic songs. I do write them, but I don’t use them. I think they are lazy songs. They are the easiest thing to write. You wake up, you feel crap, you have a hangover, it’s easy to be miserable, it’s easy to express that, it’s easy to convince yourself that you can connect with humanity, because everyone feels miserable. But if everyone feels miserable, then what’s the point of reminding them? My favourite bit of life is when you feel miserable you dream of things that you love when you’re not feeling miserable. That’s what I want my music to do. The kind of stuff you pluck out of thin air. Not just 2-dimensional music – but 4-dimensional – but in no way pretentious.

Do you find it difficult to write songs?
I always say that happy music is the hardest thing to write. It’s like a tightrope walk. It’s easy to write throwaway happy music. Easy is probably the wrong word. It’s such a well-trodden path, almost like a railway line going in one direction with different textures, and different ways of writing it, but it’s not a particularly new emotion. I want to make happy music, but something that’s really tangible. Something that makes you think ‘oh crikey, happiness isn’t throw away, sadness isn’t deep.’ It can be so hard to write. it takes me a long time to write a song sometimes, there are so many potholes and traps to fall into in music. It’s like a rat in a maze, you can smell and taste the song, you end up going round and round the wrong bits and finally when you’re not thinking about it you find the right route and that’s where the song comes from. It’s making the effort to do that. Wanting to achieve something and being patient and not lackadaisical.

I did ask a fan of yours what they would ask you, and they said “Where do you come up with your fantastic song titles?”
It’s a really nice thing of them to ask, thank you whoever asked that. I do like a good song title. It’s like everything has to be good about the song. No point having a good title and a rubbish song, it’s misleading. I write the song first, it’s almost like being on the home straight when the title comes out. The song should sound a certain way, and so should the title. It’s like Sea Anemone – I called it Complete Control, I scribbled it down on a piece of paper, as you do – then when I started performing it live, everyone started calling it “that sea anemone” song. the public triggered what it was called. Other times the title can be the main hook in the song. Like Mountain Country. The chorus is “mountain goats”, but I didn’t want mountain goats as a title. Mountain goats are beautiful creatures but mountain goats are not particularly warm titles.

They make a good curry though – have you ever had a goat curry?
No, they make a good cheese also.

You wrote The Bear and The Fox as a Finnish pop song – why do think the Scandinavians love you? Why have they taken you into their heart so much?
I think it’s because something like The Bear And The Fox is about the imagery – I think they love pop music – it’s a natural well of pop music, I’ve never been to Sweden but they have that song writing place that writes for Britney and N’Sync and 5ive etc. I don’t know really -
I like going to Scandinavia to play, but I’m not sure why they love me.

You’ve played Denmark and Iceland though haven’t you?
Yes, Denmark twice, Iceland once. My friend is Icelandic, and thought I should represent Iceland, even though I’m English, at the Icelandic National Day at an Icelandic fete at an Icelandic church in London. They had an Icelandic punk band. I felt really chuffed that I was an honorary Icelander for 30mins.

Can you speak Icelandic?
No

That’s a shame, they’ve gone bankrupt now
Yeh, there’s no need to learn it now

They are not going to ask you back now, they can’t pay your airfare over, you’ll have to row over.
They’ll have to tow it over and moor it next to the Orkney Isles, so they can go to the shops…

I think they own most of the shops here, which is why they are bankrupt, like Habitat and House of Fraser.
And get this – they own a share in…….Iceland the supermarket.

Have they?
Yeah, about 10%.

What would be your dream gig?
Erm – Headline at Glastonbury…

On the Saturday or Sunday?
I’d like to do the Sunday I think, as everyone’s been living there at that point. Sunday’s a strange night; it’s quite nice to pick it up. I saw The Who on TV last year, and I know it was raining, but it was so dull. And really… it was almost like they’d shipped in an arena gig. I mean, the crowd loved it, but it was just me watching it on TV.

So if we’ve got Glastonbury, who would be the band before you?
I’d say Jah Wobble and the Invaders Of The Heart.

Excellent – why?
I think they are possibly one of the greatest bands to play live. They are so uplifting.
I saw them play live years ago at Cambridge Junction. They were so fantastic. The most amazing, dubby, but not druggy music – really uplifting. There’s so much energy to the show. Brilliant band, great drummer. And cos he’s a real Londoner, he’d play an amazing song, and then he’d stop after the song and say “Awight, ‘ow you doin’? Great! Fanks for coming to see me. This next song is..” and then off he’d go again. It’s like being in a mystical jungle, and coming across a taxi rank.

So the band supporting you? Who would they be?
Erm…. Stewart Copeland on drums
My producer Jo on guitar
Jah Wobble on bass.. .he’d have a long night.
Keyboard player – probably someone like … someone who uses really exciting keyboards. Like Florien Schnieder from Kraftwerk.

Do you have any pre gig routines?
I like having an interview before a gig, as that focuses on what I’m doing. But I do quite like being on my own. I might go for a walk around.

So you’re not a fan of fans coming up to speak to you before a gig?
It’s really nice to see people, say hello etc, but if anyone does that – it’s a good message to say to them now, I’m not being rude by disappearing after about 10seconds it’s just how I am before gigs. I can talk to you afterwards, maybe, but I’m almost like batman, I like to sweep in and sweep out again

So people should email you to your website?
Yeah send me an email, or MySpace me. It’s lovely when people come up to me after gigs, it’s fantastic, it’s just I’m not a big conversationalist before or after a gig really. I’m tuning in to what I’m doing, and afterwards, it’s the adrenalin coming down.

And they get to see the sinister cat?
And they get to see the sinister cat, which we haven’t spoken about. Which is good.

So there we have it – Ten Yen comes across as a mild-mannered person – but you can tell within minutes of talking with him that he is highly principled, and actually quite stubborn if those principles are compromised in anyway. It is clear that he uses this same approach when it comes to song-writing, his belief in his album, and the journey that he’s on. Tim’s album, ‘Everything Beautiful Reminds Me Of You’ is now available at all good record shops, and online via Pointy Records.