Daily Inspiration: Meet Timothy Edward Carpenter

Today we’d like to introduce you to Timothy Edward Carpenter.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was born and raised in the Midwest in a religious household. This meant attending church services regularly, exposing me to live bands and music productions on a weekly basis. It wasn’t long before I was on my knees begging my parents for an acoustic guitar.

They took the bait. I was thirteen years old when I was gifted my first acoustic guitar which I now believe was likely constructed entirely of plastic. Nevertheless, I spent countless hours laboring over handwritten chord diagrams in my room and strumming along to whatever song my iPod shuffle served up next.

Fast-forward, I’m sixteen and I’ve found myself in a church band playing alongside a beautiful young pianist named Emilie, who I now have the privilege of calling, my wife.

We started dating and playing music together any chance we could. Despite the lasting emotional trauma the church may have inflicted on me, it is equally responsible for teaching me to play in and lead a band throughout my formative years. To this day, I owe a great deal of my career to those who believed in us early on — you know who you are.

In 2013, Emilie and I moved to Tennessee to attend college and it was long before we began writing songs of our own together. This would become the duo known as “Edward + Jane.”

To me, this period of our life acted as a masterclass for starting and operating an independent band. In 2017, we tracked our first EP with our now longtime friend and producer, Jonathan Class. We toured relentlessly, playing everything from makeshift venues in trailers to proper venues and everything in between.

We managed to cram a lifetime of memories both good and bad into about five years’ time and in January of 2020, Edward + Jane recorded their last album, “With You Always,” and declared it was time to hang up the proverbial hat.

Little had we known we would surely be forced to slow down regardless due to the global pandemic that would ensue. After a year-and-a-half-long hiatus from our seven-year endeavor as a duo, I re-entered the music scene for the first time as a solo act under my own name, Timothy Edward Carpenter.

My three-track EP, “the boy from Ohio” (September 2017) peels back the curtain to a remarkably new and vulnerable sound as a former six-piece frontman reflects on his past as a kid from the Midwest, and his present as a twenty-something in an increasingly complex world.

Early 60’s folk/singer-songwriter inspirations are still clearly present in my contemplative lyricism and melodic fingerpicking, but the new sonic output has found deeper layers of inspiration and angst, more comparable to the sounds of Sufjan Stevens and Christian Lee Hutson.

Partnered again with Class, I’ve begun to write and release songs with a sound that experiments primarily with minimalistic acoustic instrumentation and pensive poetry. My return to songwriting and recording — this time with more questions than answers — now asks of his listeners, “What do you think it all means?”

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There isn’t much about wanting to be an artist that I would classify as “smooth.” Frankly, I think that is the reality for almost all creative endeavors. They are arguably the most life-giving occupations on the planet, but smooth? Absolutely not.

In my experience, the struggle is what ultimately produces greatness. For example, I have routinely wrestled internally with feelings of comparison, inadequacy, jealousy, and doubt to name a few.

Externally, I’ve spent thousands of dollars, hours of time playing in near-empty rooms, nights sitting broken-down on the side of the road, tears reading rejection emails by the majority of outlets and venues I’ve written to, not to mention being paid with “exposure.”

Yet, I wouldn’t trade any of it. To me, this is what it means to cut your teeth. Up until now, It’s been my perseverance and certifiable optimism keeping me in the game. However, it is the struggle throughout that is perpetually refining me.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I aim not to dwell on the way things used to be or predict where things heading. It’s difficult enough for me to be present.

That being said, it’s been incredible to see more and more artists find accessibility to sustainable music careers without dependency on labels or investors.

I hope the industry leaders begin to recognize good art and take an honest chance on it because they believe in it rather than making assumptions based on social media and streaming data alone.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5Ey3CuclF1I1yTc1i0YDgc?si=jB4rUHA2RmaTARL7MZ9TXQ
• Instagram: @timothyedwardcarpenter
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timothyedwardcarpentermusic
• Twitter: @longlivelongtim
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPCEK8bSpvm1VFg8yfe52cg

Image Credits
Album Photoshoot: Samuel Greenhill and Live Shot: Mitchell Hartley