+ CURRENTLY PERFORMING ON SOLD-OUT NATIONAL TOUR

Groundbreaking Australian musician Tim Minchin has revealed his new single “Leaving LA”, to be released via BMG. “Leaving LA” is a predictably sardonic and poignant meditation on the conundrum that is La-la Land. A combination of the pop and orchestral stylings that Minchin is renowned for, the release comes at the head of his mammoth sold out national tour, which includes five shows at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre, three at Melbourne’s Hamer Hall, and four at Brisbane’s Fortitude Music Hall. Minchin will also be appearing at the sold out Splendour in the Grass 2020, headlining the GW McLennan tent on Saturday 25th July.

LISTEN TO "LEAVING LA" HERE

Minchin’s return to Australian soil, after four years living in Los Angeles with his wife and two children, was a welcome one for the composer, actor and musician. He described life in the US under Donald Trump as “untenable”. Aside from the political climate, his time in Los Angeles also saw the demise of a $90 million Dreamworks animated film project, as well as the closure, after a six month run, of his Broadway musical ‘Groundhog Day: The Musical’ (his follow up to the seven time Olivier-winning ‘Matilda: The Musical’). However, out of the wreckage of his US residency came the hilariously sharp-tongued “Leaving LA”, with more music to be released later in 2020 on his forthcoming album.

“‘Leaving LA’ was written in my final year living there,” said Minchin. “It is meant to reflect the bitterness I felt when the project I had been working on for 4 years got trashed. But it’s also meant to feel a bit sad, and a bit funny, and a bit fond. It’s bittersweet; like a break-up song written for somebody you’re still a little in love with.

The perceived glamour of Hollywood is laughable once you’ve lived inside it. Don’t get me wrong, there are brilliant people there making wonderful art, but it’s pretty damn ugly to look at, shamelessly materialistic (obviously), and full of desperate - and desperately unhappy - people. It’s also full of tourists leering at obscene houses, and frantically searching for a good spot from which to take a photo of an old real estate sign. 

I try my best to steer clear of clichés, but the famous sign felt to me like an unexploited metaphor: it, like the town it teeters above, is iconic, unique, two-dimensional… and, if you’re expecting glamour, a bit disappointing.” 

Award-winning, uber talented childhood friend of Minchin’s, Tee Ken Ng, has created a mind-blowing film for “Leaving LA” which puts this release firmly into the realm of art. It is a fascinating foray into zoetropes, an animation technique which involves paper-constructed video frames on a spinning turntable, creating an effect similar to stop motion. The result is a captivating illusory world that Minchin is trapped in, like a rat on a wheel, and eventually escapes from.

“When Tim first approached me to collaborate with him and played me his track ‘Leaving LA’ about the two dimensionality of Hollywood (amongst other things), we discussed animating with cut outs and paper models,” said the music video creator Tee Ken Ng. “We both felt that paper construction was a fitting medium to depict a place of superficiality and facades.”

"At the time I was heavily into creating designs for vinyl records and DJ slip mats that, when viewed through a camera while being spun on a turntable, would animate. The zoetrope dates back to 1833 and is basically a cylindrical variation of this pre-film technique… 

We created 12 zoetropes for the video. All the frames of animation were captured from footage we shot across 2 days in Sydney of Tim and his band. Every frame had to be printed and cut out from paper and arranged and glued down in sequence around the circumference of the zoetrope discs…  The lamppost zoetrope required over 100 individual lampposts and Tim singing in the car required 478 printed cutouts.  

Faced with the technical challenge of filming something rotating at speed whilst dangling a camera in the middle of it, we ultimately decided the best camera to use was an iPhone 11… Working with something that people carry around in their pocket felt like a perfect fit for the entire DIY ethos of the project.“

On the music video, Tim Minchin said, “The film has taken thousands of hours to make, and has become a project that not only enhances the song, but utterly transcends it. It is one of the most wonderful pieces of animation I have ever seen (and that’s coming from someone who was directing a $90 million animated feature film in f^%king Hollywood for four years!).”

Tim Minchin is a veritable creative genius who, while best known for his musical comedy, has also had worldwide success in musical theatre and acting, most notably as the composer and lyricist for the Olivier Award-winning, Tony Award-winning and Grammy Award-nominated Broadway show Matilda: The Musical. A Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the performing arts, Minchin is a fixture in Australia’s arts community, exemplified by his consistently sold out national tours of the country. He also performed a run of sold out shows in the UK in the latter part of 2019. 

Minchin’s most recent collaboration, the song “Carry You”, was written for UPRIGHT, the television series he co-wrote and starred in. Tim asked Missy Higgins to record the song, in her distinctive style, for the closing credits, and the rendition has now received 97,000 views on YouTube.

LISTEN TO MISSY HIGGINS' PERFORMANCE OF "CARRY YOU" FOR UPRIGHT HERE

Among a number of popular comedy songs from Minchin, his satirical release “Come Home (Cardinal Pell)” reached number 11 on the Australian singles chart, and earnt more than 3.5 million views on YouTube.

“Leaving LA” is available for purchase and stream on all platforms now.
Tim Minchin’s forthcoming album is due in 2020.

Praise for Tim Minchin:

“…Minchin is back, in the flesh, with his genius for musical comedy intact. And … you got the impression the audience would happily have watched him all night.” - The Sydney Morning Herald 

 “Minchin’s maturing songcraft  features a setlist covering 20 years ...his best new work brings a real emotional wallop.” - The Telegraph

 “The insanely talented Mr. Minchin is insanely talented.” - The New York Times 

“Tim Minchin is a genius, pure and simple. He is to musical comedy what Charles Darwin was to evolution and what Einstein was to physics and moustaches. You’d be hard pushed to find a more sublimely talented comedian. Handsome, hysterical and divinely musically gifted – you can go off people, you know!” - Tim Arthur, Time Out

“Simultaneously an excellent stand-up comedian, a purveyor of physical comedy, an accomplished musician and a lyricist of diabolical ingenuity. Witty, smart, and unabashedly offensive.” - The Age, Melbourne

“Minchin is a genuine musical virtuoso, whose songs are constructed and sung with an attention to detail that would make Rufus Wainwright sit up and look nervous. And that’s even before we get to the jokes.” - The Times, London

FOLLOW TIM MINCHIN:
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube