We Are So Thankful Tim Minchin Left LA to Bring Us New Music and a Sold Out Tour
The groundbreaking Australian musician has had a very successful and impressive career so far in the entertainment industry. He is a comedian, actor, writer, musician, composer, lyricist, and director.
Minchin’s return to Australian soil, after four years living in Los Angeles with his wife and two children, was a welcome one. He described life in the US under Donald Trump as “untenable”. Aside from the political climate, his time in Los Angeles also saw the demise of a $100 million Dreamworld animated film project, as well as the closure, after a six month run, of his Broadway musical ‘Groundhog Day: The Musical’ (his follow up to the seven time Olivier-winning ‘Matilda: The Musical’).
However, out of the wreckage of his US residency came the hilariously sharp-tongued “Leaving LA”, with more music to be released later in 2020 on his forthcoming album. “Leaving LA” is a predictably sardonic and poignant meditation on the conundrum that is La-la Land. A combination of the pop and orchestral stylings that Minchin is renowned for. “Leaving LA” gives you an honest insight into how life is in Hollywood from the point of view of someone who lived in it and is now leaving.
“‘Leaving LA’ was written in my final year living there,” said Minchin. “It is meant to reflect the bitterness I felt when the project I had been working on for 4 years got trashed. But it’s also meant to feel a bit sad, and a bit funny, and a bit fond. It’s bittersweet; like a break-up song written for somebody you’re still a little in love with.
Accompanying this witty but subtly bitter new track is a creative masterpiece. Award-winning, uber-talented childhood friend of Minchin’s, Tee Ken Ng, created a film for “Leaving LA”, which puts this release firmly into the realm of art. It is a fascinating foray into zoetropes, an animation technique which involves paper-constructed video frames on a spinning turntable, creating an effect similar to stop motion. The result is a captivating illusory world that Minchin is trapped in, like a rat on a wheel, and eventually escapes from.
On the music video, Tim Minchin said, “The film has taken thousands of hours to make, and has become a project that not only enhances the song, but utterly transcends it. It is one of the most wonderful pieces of animation I have ever seen (and that’s coming from someone who was directing a $90 million animated feature film in f^%king Hollywood for four years!).”
Tim Minchin is a veritable creative genius who, while best known for his musical comedy, has also had worldwide success in musical theatre and acting, most notably as the composer and lyricist for Olivier Award-winning, Tony Award-winning and Grammy Award-nominated Broadway show Matilda: The Musical. A Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the performing arts, Minchin is a fixture in Australia’s arts community, exemplified by his consistently sold out national tours of the country.
