Tim Knol: ‘Amsterdam gave me a lot of unrest in my head and body’
Singer-songwriter Tim Knol (32) has radically changed his life. He’s thinking about it on his new album Light Years Better. At the same time, the book written by his friend Nico Dijkshoorn is Light years better.
Your new album is called Light Years Better. Are you all right?
Tim Knol (over the phone): “Certainly. Well, of course life always goes with it strikes and gutters, ups and downs, to put it in Big Lebowski terms, but in general I’m doing much better than I used to be. This spring it was tough. All those shows I had to catch up after corona. It was so busy, but it went well. I have gained some weight.”
You went from 120 to 80 pounds. It’s quite a bit.
“I am now back at 90, but I can easily bring it back to 85, which is ideal. I will continue to work the rest of my weight. It’s not very rock ‘n’ roll, but it’s no different. Well, maybe it’s really rock ‘n’ roll to turn your life around like that.”
Does such a huge impact on your voice?
“In terms of timbre and tone, nothing has changed. I don’t hear any difference in that regard between my new record and my fourth album, from 2018, when I was at my heaviest. Singing is much easier for me. A trunk is a muscle, if you are bent in shape, you sing much better. When I used to have two shows in one day, the second was really hard for me.”
You ate a lot, you drank a lot. Were there also drugs?
“It happened once, but I was really one drunkard. I was not occupied, but danger was always lurking. When I drank, there was no stopping it.”
How were you when you were drunk?
“Mostly corny and cheerful, especially in the beginning I was a party animal, but later I also had a really bad drink. At around 5 a.m. in night cafes like Weber and Lux, I wasn’t always nice. Verbally I could be very aggressive.”
You are from Amsterdam to Wormerveer. Was that necessary to start another life?
“Not necessarily, but it turned out really well. I’m glad I don’t have all that city education anymore. Amsterdam gave me a lot of unrest in my head and body.”
Nowadays you mainly keep fit by walking. Am I right that you’re doing that now?
“Yes! I was already on the road at 7:15 this morning. I swam in Castricum aan Zee and am now walking back home. I try to take between 15,000 and 25,000 steps every day (between 11 and 19 kilometers, editors). Sometimes I’m below it, sometimes I go way over it. If I can walk, I will. I haven’t been on the tram in Amsterdam for two years.”
What do you think about while walking?
“I’ve always been quite chaotic, a bit ADD-like. Walking I put things on an overview. I see it too when I’m in the office. I also make up songs on the go. I don’t come home with a complete song, but I do come home with good ideas. The Lone Mile, from my new album, was born like that. I was thinking of the time I wandered from pub to pub in Amsterdam in the middle of the night, always looking for one last sensation. Really bad time, walking I give it a place.”
Simultaneously with Light Years Better is the book Light years better, written by Nico Dijkshoorn. What kind of relationship do you have?
“He’s one of my best friends, it doesn’t matter that he could have been my father. We have many similarities, the same passions. We also text a lot: about music of course, about what we’ve seen on TV. A few publishers were interested in a book about my, in quotes, transition. I didn’t feel like such an ego-document slash guru book. I’m not a dietitian or anything, I’m really not going to tell people how to eat. At Thomas Rap publishers: sit down with Nico. Good idea. I chatted with him for a few days, very casually, and he wrote it down nicely.”
In Light years better tell you how much you like that in 2013 your manager, producer and bandleader Matth van Duijvenbode went his own way. on Light Years Better he joins again.
“Yes, we wrote some songs together, he also played keyboards in the studio for a day. Nico placed in the beginning of the corona before I would contact Duijf again. He knew that he had also stopped drinking and was in the same phase in his life as I was. I was devastated when our paths parted. Now I understand that Duijf was wearing too many hats at the time. He was a good friend and my manager and my mentor and my bandleader and my producer and my keyboard player and we wrote together. That was too much for a healthy relationship. But musically we still work very well together. When we saw each other, two years ago until the song wandering heart.”
And now your new backing band is called The Wandering Hearts
“I think it sounds great, Tim Knol & The Wandering Hearts. bit seventies-ish, à la Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. I played with bassist Jeroen Overman and drummer Kees Schaper before. New in my band are guitarist Sam van Ommen and pedalsteel guitarist David Gram. Anne Soldaat, with whom I always worked, is not a rookie, but I liked doing things differently. I hardly play solos on stage anymore, but point to Sam or David: take it away. This really is a live band, don’t expect us to exactly recreate the record. Don’t expect to sing along or clap along either.”
The album Light Years Better published by Excelsior Recordings, the book Light Years Better at publishing house Thomas Rap. See for performances www.timknolofficial.com