Timothy Adrian Rogers is best known for his rock n rollness fronting You Am I since the early 90’s. Yet since 1999 he’s ventured out on several solo projects and in late April his “An Actor Repairs” album will be released. Don’t expect the big riffs and crashing drums that you are familiar with You Am I, yet expect a more sombre, stripped down affair complete with strings and piano.
Some of you might know that he used to live in Adelaide back in his childhood and follows Sturt football club religiously. One thing you might not know is that he is also a minor league baseball fan. Rogers is quick to point out that he’s more of a fan of minor-league rather than major-league baseball. Rogers explains about his recent adventures in New York for a writing assignment will result in a book to be released later this year.
“I was on a writing project in New York, as I’m releasing a book soon about my love for minor-league baseball. Plus my daughter lives there, so when I go over to write I hang out with her obviously. The book is more journalistic stuff and in between there’s always music stuff to be written, submitted and rejected.”
Not what I expected from the man who never seems to take a break from his many musical projects. Rogers continues on about his choice of topic.
“Major-league baseball has enough journalistic coverage so that’s why I thought I’d cover the minor-league. I love watching it in Melbourne. The smaller stadiums, the fans and participants of the smaller leagues is of more interest to me than compared to the major-league that has had enough journalistic coverage.”
Just the mention of a book got me a little excited. I was hoping for an autobiography but Rogers isn’t so keen.
“I don’t feel I’ve done quite enough as a human to warrant an autobiography. ‘Took that, snorted that, injected that, rooted that, wrote that, played that.’ I’ve just finished A. A. Gills autobiography and that’s a life well lived, I quite haven’t lived to that extent yet. It would be nice at some stage subvert the paradigms and do something that’s genuinely interesting.”
As mentioned earlier his new solo album is out April 28. The songs on “An Actor Repairs” were written over two years as an accompaniment to a performance piece Rogers was attempting, concerning the retirement from the stage of an aging actor. The title is a slight reference to a Konstantin Stanislavski novel entitled “An Actor Prepares” first published in 1936. After listening to the album I asked if it was a soundtrack of a fictitious actor.
“About 60 or 70% of it concerns itself with that. I wrote this monologue and a script and this music accompaniment. I didn’t think the script was up to par but the songs were sounding great so I went with the album as opposed to the stage production. I like writing things for stage but I don’t think I’m at any level yet where it’s to be presented. One of my friends that I work with in theatre, [Sydney playwright] Kate Mulvany, when I get to see her productions and read her scripts and then I read mine I can tell I’m just not there yet. Maybe in another five or 10 years and then it will be ready to be staged.”
Not just a man who sings for a living, Rogers has also featured in a handful of movies and made his stage debut in 2009. I asked him if he considers singing and acting separate pursuits.
“Yes I do because my experience with straight acting is it’s extraordinarily disciplined and singing I find it unhinged. It hasn’t intrigued me enough to get acting jobs. I like talking to actors, in particular older actors with a lot of experience and they talk about the job rather than the ascension and fame. That bores me. The craft of the performance and acting intrigues me. I’ve been spending a bit of time with an actor who did a lot of William Shakespeare plays, it genuinely intrigues me. They are huge jobs of extraordinary discipline. I just couldn’t imagine performing with such discipline.”
By Darren M. Leach
Tim Rogers’ new album “An Actor Repairs” is out April 28.
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