The Tim(e) for Music Is Now

Music | April 22nd, 2021

By John Showalter

john.d.showalter@gmail.com

18 March 2021

Many of the talented musicians in the Fargo-Moorhead area are natives of the area. Others, like Tim Gibson, may not have been residents of the area their whole lives, but are certainly ambitious enough to make up for lost time. In the six years he has lived in Fargo, Gibson has been involved in several projects and worked hard to leave his indelible mark on the local scene.

Gibson has been musically inclined from a young age. “I like to say my musicianship started when my grandmother bought me a cheap plastic keyboard for my 6th or 7th birthday. I started writing my own songs and playing the keys around that time, and eventually began taking piano lessons.”

Of course, from there it is only a natural progression to getting involved in your first band. “I’ve been in a number of bands, playing small outdoor shows, to bars, to warehouses since I was 14. It started with a couple of my high school friends and we called ourselves Something About Tomorrow. We played sort of a Green Day-style pop-punk and renamed ourselves Vote for Aaron in 2011. Since then I’ve played with a hip-hop group and a few other bands.”

Currently, Gibson is playing trumpet for local favorites Mr. Meaner, playing guitar and singing vocals for the musical duo known as Seriously Hot Shit, and playing guitar in the ambitious newcomer Straight Line Arrival. He also has a few other active projects on top of this. He has just released a new album through his cleverly named solo project, Earthworm Tim.

The new Earthworm Tim album is called “Hold My Thoughts.” “It’s a record that sort of came to me over a few weeks in January. I felt like after all this time of doing practically nothing during the COVID pandemic that I owed myself a release. I recorded it in a sort of three-piece punk band style. It’s written about political and social frustration and addresses issues of my anxiety and depression.”

The new album, like his releases with Mr. Meaner, Straight Line Arrival, and Seriously Hot Shit, can be found in digital format on Bandcamp. “Everything is released independently, and everything I’ve released recently has been self-produced. I expect to have physical copies of newer releases once it's safe for bands to tour again. I will likely begin with tape releases, then work on CDs if people are asking for them.”

Like many musicians, Gibson has seen the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as a daunting challenge, but not one that can’t be overcome. “My biggest challenge as a musician during this pandemic has been the inability to express myself the way I could before. Music is the only thing that keeps me going, and I desperately miss being able to share it with others and create the experiences we used to last year and before.”

That doesn’t mean that he isn't hopeful about the future, however. “The plan for now is to keep writing with the bands that I'm part of, and work to keep afloat financially until shows and touring are safe again. The projects I'm working on right now will hopefully have some time to mature and progress and lead to a very full schedule come 2022 or so.”

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