Baby Doctor in the house

Influenza has been tracking steadily up the charts and with every artist that sits in our countdown, the team sits back in our fluffy pink bean bags, sticks the tracks onto a vinyl coloured iPod rested upon a cinderblock/plank made shelf and listens through a set of amazing Hendrix corded headphones…

After a solid listen to the tracks uploaded recently by Tim Harber from Influenza, we decided to reach out and ask a few questions! We wanted to know more about this Beach Punk inspired collaboration of epic sounds and chill vibes!

Tim… Mate… Where did your music Career start out?
I grew up in Wagga (Wagga) and started playing guitar in year 7, then the flute, then the drums. I went to St Michaels high school (now Kildare) and joined the choir and the school concert band. After high school I knew I wanted to be in music so I enrolled in SAE music college and studied audio engineering.

Are you a full time muso or do you have a secret moonlight career on the side?
I’m a music teacher. I never stray too far from music.

Where did the name influenza come from?
That was born in a taxi! It was a drunken taxi ride to the pub and we were discussing possible band names and I joked: “Influencer” (the band that influences others) and someone miss heard it as ‘Influenza’ and it stuck.

How did Influenza start?
Influenza is like King Crimson. Band members come and go but the band is always based around humour, good tunes, improvisation, and fun times. It started when I started writing songs in high school – although the name came later.

You have released a large number of albums. Where do you draw your inspiration?
Inspiration comes from almost anywhere. Humour mainly, but the beauty of music is the emotion it can stir. I get most of my inspiration from other artists.

Who are your musical inspirations?
Beatles, Beach Boys, Nirvana, Stp, Doctor & the Mafia (publicity for my other band!!! ) … too many to mention.

Where are you based?
Currently based in the Cobram region in Victoria but hoping to get back to Wagga or Albury asap.

Tell us about the recording process for your music…
I usually write a song on acoustic guitar, then try imagine instrumentation. I have a basic recording set up, so I will record the drums and then layer everything on top of the drums. Vocals go on last.

The track ‘Baby Doctor’ has gone gangbusters on the Atomic Charts currently sitting at #2 at time of print. What is the story behind this track?
Jordan Thompson & Liam Halliwell (of the Ocean Party) and I were recording an album called ‘For Your Home’ and we took a break and went to get some hot chips from the corner store. I saw the ‘Daily Advertiser’ newspaper there and its headline read: “BABY DOCTOR QUITS” and I laughed and said to the boys; “How young could this Doctor be?” I had a 2 year old Doogie Howser M.D in my mind and it made me laugh so I memorised the first line of the article and that’s the first line of the song, the rest is made up. Tony Wilson was the baby doctor that didn’t quit the Riverina region in July in 2008. Jordan & I took a verse each and sung while Liam sings the choruses. We did the same thing for a track called ‘Picnic In the Alps’ which is off the same album (see Bandcamp for a full musical discovery but I hope to upload more albums to Atomic soon).

Any new music in the works?
I have a bad habit of not completing music. I usually have at least 2 albums of material that I’m working on in spare time. If I don’t get in to record it the albums pile up. Writing music is therapeutic for me so there’s always new music.

Baby Doctor has been climbing the charts debuting at number six only four weeks ago and has climbed to second spot at the time of publishing this post… Will it take out #1? Only you control this!

Check out the track below and to follow the band on the bookface, CLICK HERE