Timomatic: Mr. Incredible

05 October 2012

by Poppy Reid

In the not-too-distant past, winning a televised talent show in Australia didn’t necessarily convert to stardom. Some winners were even berated for a chart placing that surmounted a less ‘manufactured’ act. One artist wholly aware of the changing times is Timomatic, the 24-year-old who entered Australian lounge-rooms on two different networks, on two vastly different talent shows.

“When an opportunity comes up where you have the platform to show exactly what you can do to a large amount of people-I took it and I ran with it. I don’t think I’d do it any other way.”
Nigerian-born Tim Omaji is gathering his breath at Sony Music’s Sydney offices after working on a surprise for fans before the release of his self-titled sophomore record. “I wanted to do the whole album a cappella in my native tongue,” he says very seriously. “I’m joking. Can you imagine?” he asks, laughing infectiously as he attempts it. “I don’t know my native tongue!”

Timomatic was actually filming dance accompaniments to each of the thirteen tracks on the album, and while he’s set on continuing his singing career, the hovering reminder of when he first made his name in 2009 (as a top eight contestant on Channel Ten’s So You Think You Can Dance) has only added to his semblance. In fact, it’s a venture Timomatic would never have taken without his mother’s push.

“She was like ‘the one thing you’re lacking is a fan-base, you have no one to perform to’,” he chuckles, imitating his mother. “’It’s all well and good you performing around here and doing your thing, but you need to get out there!’”

Since his formative years studying music and teaching dance in Melbourne, Timomatic placed third on Australia’s Got Talent in 2011, landed a role in Fame The Musical, inked a deal with Sony (and later a worldwide contract with EMI Music Publishing), and watched his single Set It Off become the most played Australian song at radio in the first six months of the year. The triple- threat has been songwriting since the age of fourteen and drummed in his family gospel band as soon as he could pick up sticks - so a career in music was always held above all else.

“When I would hear music I would create things in my head, naturally. I was like ‘I have to find where that part of my brain is going to fit in the real world’ – that was my quest,” he says. “When I heard the feeling I thought I would love to give that feeling to other people.”

Although he felt the parental push to audition for So You Think You Can Dance, Timomatic was very calculating when mapping out his career in 2009. “At that time it was all about Australian Idol and I felt that that show wasn’t exciting anymore,” he says. “It had its day... I guess the golden era of that show was kind of over.” The dance craze was just taking off after a successful season in the US and as Timomatic explains, he didn’t trust his vocal talent just yet. “I hadn’t really established my sound as an artist so I thought, ‘Go with what is established’.”

Televised talent shows are still booming in Australia, with over one million tuning in each night to watch various forms of filmed reality. The community of national winners is also growing as more programmes make their way across international waters, and with successful artists like Guy Sebastian, Jess Mauboy and Justice Crew, Timomatic is content with the epithets thrown upon his talent show populace.

“I think reality talent shows get a bad name too easily,” he considers. “More so from people already in the music industry who have established their names, but people forget that greats of our time got to where they are using that same medium.”

Another misconception about reality show talent surrounds their supposed hurried climb to fame. For Timomatic, it’s been an eight-year journey since he “heard the feeling” he wanted to share, and while the eponymous record marks his second release, it’s his most autobiographical, peppered with intimate nuances and self-production.

“There are songs on there which are more organic and showcase my voice,” he says. “They show I’m more musically inclined than, ‘Hey yo! Let’s have a party’ - you know what I mean?”

Thus is the dichotomy of manufactured fame, on one hand Timomatic is proud of his malleable stage and the associations it garners, but it seems the lead up to this album was largely spent ostracising the past.

“I had that exposure, I’ve got the fan-base to support me and be able to go to the next level and not be associated with it,” he states. “In any artistic person’s career, you don’t want to held by the things you did a year ago.”