Tim Clapp | Clapp Music

Tim Clapp is relaxed today, even though the local music impresario and label owner, of Kingfisher Bluez records, is in the middle of moving. Looking at the thousands of albums that line the wall of his East Vancouver apartment, one can imagine the act of packing all of these up would be enough to make even a shy, bald Buddhist irritable. On the contrary, however, as ION writer Adam Fink discovers.

He opens up his front entrance way closet. “Here’s the Kingfisher Bluez warehouse,” he jokes. It’s stacked top to bottom with boxes of records. Tim pulls out a box of seven inches. It contains every release that Kingfisher Bluez has ever put out. There are 53 singles and 14 full lengths so far in the roster. “I genuinely love every record I’ve put out,” professes Tim.

Having been in Vancouver for a few years and feeling like an outsider to the Vancouver music scene, Tim started to put on—as well as play—shows around the city under his stage moniker Tim the Mute. He also decided to put a spotlight on his favourite Vancouver talent with the first Kingfisher Bluez subscription service. This included a diverse line up of local luminaries, such as Apollo Ghosts, Rose Melberg, and Needles//Pins. He wanted to use this as a way of introducing himself to the local scene and now, with ‘The Buddy System"—a subscription service that will send you one record per month, for a year, each curated by one of Tim’s favorite independent record labels including heavy hitters, Slumberland, Polyvinyl, and K records—he’s decided that he wants to introduce himself and his label to the world. 

Coordinating a dozen tracks from people all around the world, and digging into his personal finances to do it, has been hard work. “It took up almost six months of last year,” he says, but the way he describes the process sounds like it was worth it.  “Everyone I’ve had the chance to work with has been super cool. They are just like me. We’ve all started the same way, just a bunch of people that want to put out records. When I started to get in contact with the labels I wanted to work with, I was talking directly to the people running them like Michael (Schulman) at Slumberland and Calvin (Johnson) at K Records. No one’s making any money so everyone is in it for the love, you know.” The first single, released mid-January, is a track called “Centimeters” by Parcel Post and curated by the New York based Cloudberry Records. It is a delightful pop song that is absolutely overflowing with chiming guitars and pitch perfect boy/girl harmonies. “It’s a hit!” Clapp says, beaming. 

Tim grew up playing in bands on the Sunshine Coast (where he's from) and it was the dissolution of his high school band, The Shiny Diamonds, coupled with a particularly low point in his life, that made him want to start the label. Of naming his label Kingfisher Bluez, Tim says, “it was a fun, nonsense name that no one else was using. It reminded me of something you’d see in the amateur bird enthusiast world.” He went about putting together a couple of local music compilations and selling them on his website, which went well, so he decided to take the plunge and put out actual physical media.  

KFB01 was the project of some friends from Toronto, Sebastian Fleet and Count Oak. The conversation about putting out the single was pretty casual. “I liked the band and they were into it, so I was like, ‘Let’s do it!’” By the time this first release was sent off for production, Tim already had two more singles waiting to go, which all sold out and needed to be reprinted. This way of doing business hasn’t changed. In fact, the label continues to grow. “I have twenty records on the way to release now,” he says with a wry smile. The music industry’s drought obviously hasn’t reached the shores of Kingfisher Bluez. 

In fact, he is finding the world of music lovers to be increasingly small. On a recent trip to the Portland record store, Jackpot, he overheard a couple of the clerks discussing the amount of great subscription services popping up online. Tim approached them to let them know about the “Buddy System” and was surprised to find out that the new Kingfisher Bluez subscription service was the impetuous of their conversation. “They were already talking about how great it looked and I ended up getting a couple new subscribers that day; it’s been really cool to be able to connect with people around the world.”

With the Buddy System hitting mailboxes over the next 12 months, as well as the debut Tim the Mute full-length album coming out shortly, one wonders where Tim wants to take Kingfisher Bluez. “I would love to put out 500 records,” he states before pulling it back a bit, “well maybe 200,” he says laughing. He jokes, but the dedication he has to the label is evident in the amount of time and care he spends on it. “I am not burdened by the ‘music business,’” he says, “It’s hard; hard to play in a band, hard to put on shows, to put out records, but why would you want it to be easy? No one is getting signed out here so you should just do what you want and not worry about it. I’m not keeping myself up at night worrying about stocks or whatever. Everything I have is in this house. I make my own potential. We all do.” He then points out smiling, “I never would’ve thought I would be able to put out records by some of my favourite bands!” If things continue to go well for Tim Clapp and Kingfisher Bluez then he’ll soon be putting out our future favourites as well. 


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