Interview with Tim Hicks

One of the most noticeable things about Shake These Walls is the range of moods and emotions on offer. Take the boisterous first single Stompin’ Ground, an instant radio smash and a snapshot of the good old days when hard-partying with kin and kindred was less distraction than vocation.

“I wanted to show people I had grown,” Tim Hicks says of his new album Shake These Walls. “There is truth in each of these songs because I co-wrote every one of them. I have a personal connection with every lyric, every riff. People are going to find there’s a healthy dose of the Tim Hicks party in there but there’s lots of other stuff certain to be interesting to many different people.”

“That song and We Came Up – a soaring ode to brotherhood - speak to simpler times,” Tim confirms. “They have a slightly new feel to them but they still shoot for the party crowd.” At the other end of the spectrum is Slide  Over, a vividly drawn and unabashedly knock-kneed mid-tempo track with a dangerously infectious chorus. “That  song is so real,” Tim says. When people with full-time jobs have kids, well… relationships can suffer. Things get in  the way of the people you once were. You have to remember to sit down with each other, just have a beer and ask,  ‘How was your day?’ So that song is that.” As Tim explains, the album was crafted in a somewhat workmanlike fashion during 5 months in Nashville. “It was as close to a day job as I’ve ever had,” he cracks, “With two young  kids at home, the days of drinking half a bottle of whiskey and writing songs at 3 a.m. are long gone.”