We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tim Carmon. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tim below.

Tim, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

When I was 10 years old. My dad use to make a big deal about “professional musicians” at the time it sounded like the greatest thing and because I was already playing and also to make my dad proud, I wanted to be a “professional musician”. I use to go to bed at night dreaming of being in front of thousands of people, who knew not even 10 years later I was fulfilling that dream touring and playing for different artists in front of thousands.

Tim, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started as most as a kid with dreams of just being good. Back then we had less distractions and plenty of time to enjoy our instruments so after playing everyday from the time I got home from school to bed, I was good in a pretty short time. By the time I was 12 I was playing for about 3 different churches. By the time I was 14 I was playing in jazz clubs. Moved at the age 19 to Los Angeles and within 3 months I was already playing around time from meeting Stevie Wonder’s drummer in a grocery store and ended up auditioning for him 5 nights in a row from 11 pm til the sun came out. That was an amazing experience. I kept meeting people randomly and then they would turn out to be great situations. From one situation to the next it was almost mind blowing; Gerald Albright, Lalah Hathaway, Gladys Knight etc. I also was writing and producing in between. Crazily turned down some situations like Tina Turner audition and a couple other things but I gave my word to the situations I was in and that was more important to me. In fact the artist that I turned the Tina chair down for told me “I would turn my own gig down for that opportunity” Hahaha… When I met Clapton we were back stage for Babyface MTV recording and I didn’t know who he was (duh) but a few months later they called and he said he had seen some guys on tv playing and said “I bet those are the guys from Babyface” but it wasn’t.. I really had plenty of random God instructed situations in my life.

I think for me the reason why I’ve been able to work with artists from Clapton, McCartney to Justin Bieber and Arianna Grande and playing on many movie soundtracks is versatility. Being able to play what the artists was looking for instead of imposing myself. Although having your own sound is great and some people are hired just for that but overall… Most artists know what they want and being able to serve the type of “food” they like vs forcing them to eat what I cooked I think is the reason why I’ve been around as long as I have. Also a good attitude of course is always welcomed.

Moving more in to the production chair solely has been the agenda for the last 10 years and it’s been a ride like non other. Shaping and help create an artist is another level of service.. Not easy but rewarding..

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding thing is to see a project from its conception to birth and beyond. It’s quite a proud moment to see how just an idea comes together and how some artist are just so grateful because they didn’t even see it in themselves. To be a part of helping people move to their next level in life is quite the reward.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I believe one of my main missions in life is to help people. Sometimes I’ve done it to my own detriment but thank goodness I’ve learned from that. However nothing feels greater to me than to see people who didn’t even believe in themselves to go from that state to an entire different state of confidence in their artistry and beyond.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @timcarmon

Image Credits
Tim Carmon