After decades in comedy, Tim Heidecker is ready to get serious about music
Entertainment
Tim Heidecker is working through his existential dread.
Tim Heidecker is working through his existential dread.
“There’s a million things to think about as you’re trying to go to sleep at night,” he said. “ Post-pandemic, in the age of Trump, you know, North Korea, whatever it is.”
Best known for his absurdist comedy and creative partnership with Eric Wareheim, Heidecker has leaned more into songwriting in recent years. Through music, he has recorded some of the dark meditations that keep him awake.
“Slipping Away,” his latest album out Friday, vacillates between semi-fictional apocalyptic storytelling and poignant, vulnerable reflections on fatherhood, aging and success. “I’ve got bills to pay / I’ve gotta keep working every day / I’m not gonna go down in history / Only my family, will remember me,” he sings on “Dad of the Year.”
Although Heidecker is communicating genuine fears in his more fictional songs, particularly as he thinks about what the world will be like for his kids when they get to be his age, he also thinks these stories make for interesting art. “Birds all falling out of the sky / Bees don’t sting and no one knows why / The air is thick, I can’t breathe / If I had anywhere to go you know, I would leave,” he croons on “Bows and Arrows.”
“The subject of the songs that deal with this post-apocalyptic hellscape world and people suffering — it all sounds like a lot of fun, I know,” he laughed. “But I think I’m a fan of those kinds of TV shows and movies. I don’t see that a lot in rock music or in pop music, but it is fertile material for me to think about.”
