TIMMS
Photo Credit: Ett Venter
South African musician TIMMS brings a new, expressive pop sound to the music industry. The artist began her music journey at a very young age, but only made her Spotify debut in 2020. Her first single “Pretty Ugly”, has 39K streams and proved to be an omen for more success to come. Her next two singles “Itsy Bitsy” and “Are We There Yet?” followed soon after, also receiving tens of thousands of streams. In her short career, TIMMS has been featured in Spotify’s Fresh Finds and Fresh Finds: Pop playlists, and has amassed an audience of over 9K monthly listeners on the platform alone. With an impressive resume thus far, we can only assume this hot streak will continue for years to come. We recently spoke with TIMMS about her dream collab, the future of her career, and more!
How did you start making music?
I started playing the piano pretty young and always made up stupid little songs - and then I just forgot to stop. I would sit down to practice the piano and would end up writing something else instead of whatever prescribed piece it was that I was supposed to be learning - that’s also when I began singing and fell in love with performing — I’m a sucker for being the center of attention.
What do you like to do when you’re not in the studio?
Honestly, my whole life is set up around music, so I’m usually doing something related to that. It really doesn’t feel like work to me. But I’m an over-caffeinated extrovert so I love spending time with people in any capacity, and I will always go for a Star Trek or RuPaul marathon. I also like to run — I feel more creative after I run — and I feel sexy after I run.
What was the last song you listened to?
The last song I listened to was ‘Rain On Me’ by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande - lol, I know. My roommates and I accidentally get into sober 3am quarantine dance parties — “Rain On Me” is a staple for that. I’ve also always been a big Gaga fan.
Describe your music in just 3 words.
A hairless cat.
Who are you working with in the collab of your dreams?
I’m a huge fan of Billie and Finneas - so that would be crazy — and I’m also a massive Halsey fan and I would love to write with Justin Tranter. I could probably list about 30 more but I’ll contain myself.
Which song is your most personal? Can you explain to us its significance?
“Pretty Ugly” is very personal to me, mainly because it started the project and totally encapsulates the message I’m trying to put out, as well as the sound. The ‘Ugly’ parts of you are what make you wonderful, and I’m much more interested in ‘real’ than I am in ‘polished’. It was also the first time I collaborated with Not Famous (Matt Free), my amazing friend and producer, and that changed the course of the project. We just get into a room and get musically weird together and I love it.
Any future projects for fans to get excited about?
I have A BUNCH more singles coming out after the next 8-12 weeks! I can’t wait to be able to play shows again, but until then, I’m just gonna keep making music from home and try to give people who like it as much as I can :)
