Tim Baker

Growing up in Northfield, Birmingham, Tim initially developed his musicianship as a teenager through playing in a church worship group on Sundays, and a death metal band on Saturdays. His first taste of community music was an acoustic night in Selly Oak, which he ran in return for a beer tab when he was 18.

It was around this time that Tim contracted swine flu, and lost most of his hearing in his right ear. Undeterred, he continued to make music, and went on to study Music, Technology and Performance at DMU in Leicester, where he was exposed to totally new ways of making, and thinking about music.

After University, Tim formed a noisy two-piece riff-rock band “Timmas” with his friend Tom, which they took to the streets of Germany and Poland during an 8 week no-budget busking tour. On this trip, they joined forces with fire breathers, daredevils and balloon artists as part of a travelling international street-circus, venturing into the depths of the Polish countryside while living in a hastily converted Renault Scenic.

On returning from this trip, Tim continued to develop his performance skills with an outdoor arts/theatre group called Enter Edem. Here he learnt puppetry, stilt-walking, and welding, and started to work with audiences of young children through a variety of shows and experiences that the company created.

More recently, Tim has been recording his experimental solo music under the alias “Niwid”, and has started writing more carefully crafted songs for his new progressive rock band “Something Orange” in which he plays bass guitar and sings. The band released their first single “Capsize”, featuring themes of optimistic nihilism, existentialism and meditation practices, in August 2022, and will be taking to stages in 2023.