Here is my recap of the What’s Up Pitches! (w/Tim Davis) episode of the podcast.
Tim has his voice and fingers in everything.
You can hear him singing in or he arranged the music for the big fireworks show at Disney.
He did many different jobs within the music department at Glee. His main job was vocal arranger.
He was the unsung behind the scenes hero.
Tim was there from the beginning.
He worked with the background singers arranging the vocals.
Adam Anders called Tim because he needed a vocal arranger.
The first song that Tim worked on was Rehab.
Someone else had been doing it before and sent 6 different versions to Ryan and he hated them all.
Adam and Tim would work all night putting the music together.
He created guide vocals for the actors to make it easier for them to learn the songs.
Kevin said the guide vocalists were so much better then them. They were studio singers. Well except for maybe Amber.
Kevin said it made him a better singer.
They had like 30 minutes to record a whole song.
Tim would be on set to make sure their voices matched up to the prerecorded song.
At the start of the show the cast would do the background vocals but that quickly changed. It took a long time to record a song and do the background vocals.
All the instrumental tracks were done over seas.
Tim would wake up and record himself doing all the parts of the group vocals. He loved doing this and he is quick at it.
He would get to the studio in Calabasas at around 11 and the other sings would come and they would work on guide vocals. They would then spend several hours doing group vocals. They would do one song a day. Sometimes the would spend the night working at the studio.
Paradise By The Dashboard Light took him 27 hours to do. It was rare for a song to take this long to put together.
Other days he would spend on set working with he cast.
Tim came up with color coded sheets for the cast. It made things so much easier for them. Kevin and Jenna still use this system.
Kevin can hear a song they did and will start doing the background vocals.
Tim would sing the background parts to help the cast learn them.
Tim was there for support and to make the cast look good. Jenna said this.
Tim trained them how to lip sync.
No one knew the background for My Love Is Your Love. Someone safety pinned their lyrics to Jenna’s back.
Tim did a lot of the movie musicals that came out after Glee.
Tim did the music cues on the show.
Tim would bring the cast Chick-fil-A. The cast loved him for it.
Tim said he was taken by the casts kindness, openness, and humility. He said they really wanted to learn and that they were doing their best. It was very heartwarming.
Don’t Stop was Tim’s first day on set.
On the call sheet it said Tim was the lip sync monitor.
He hadn’t spent much time on set before working on Glee.
He loved to ask people questions.
He asked Cory about his background within the first two weeks of working on the show. He said Cory was so opening and vulnerable.
He said Kevin and Jenna were consistent and easy to work with.
There were times Tim would pull over at night and just cry because he was so stressed. He said some people were difficult to work with.
Tim and Zach never complained or had attitude. They just did their jobs.
Kevin said Tim is warm and kind. It made it easy for them to open up to him. He said Tim is like a gigantic hug.
Kevin told a story about Tim coming into the booth to help him while he was recording the background on one of the songs for the first Christmas album. Kevin was a mess and Tim helped calm him down.
Tim has a degree in business. He was in paper sales and was terrible at it. He couldn’t sell something he didn’t believe in.
His first music gig was for a gospel choir.
He met his wife in the gospel group.
Spider-Man was the first movie Tim sang in when he moved to LA.
Tim worked with Nikki, Adam’s wife in Nashville.
Adam brought Tim into working on Glee.
Tim’s work life exploded during Glee.
Right after glee Jane Lynch asked him to go on tour with her and Kate Flannery.
Things bottomed out for Tim after Glee ended.
Tim said it is important in the entertainment industry is to diversify and try new things.
Bohemian Rhapsody and any other Queen song was hard for Tim. He wanted to get them correct. He didn’t want to dishonor the original arrangements or the band itself.
Welcome Christmas was important to Tim. It is sentimental for him. This was the song Kevin couldn’t do and Tim had to come into the booth to help him.
The Judy Garland inspired set in the second Christmas episode is one of Tim’s favorites.
Kevin wishes the guide vocal versions of the songs could be released.
Tim said Adam is an anomaly. Most music producers are instrumental arrangers and don’t know how to work with people.
When you find people that work at such a high level it makes you want to work harder to meet them at that level.
Tim said he cannot work with people that embrace mediocrity.
Jenna said they were lucky to work with people at the top of their game.
Jenna knew she would challenged going into the recording studio. She liked being challenged.
Tim’s least favorite song is…(He never answered the question.)
The feeling Glee left Tim with is gratitude. He is grateful that he got to use every tool in his tool box. It was challenging.
He grew so much because of Glee.
There will never be another Glee.
No one will spend that kind of money.
Tim worked with them on the tour.
