Tim Be Told

It’s been 7 years since Tim Ouyang and Andrew Chae began Tim Be Told out of a college apartment in Charlottesville, VA. They went from recording their first album, "Getting By" (2007) in a tiny living room to winning UVA's Battle of the Bands in 2008 and opening up for national touring acts like OKGO and Parachute. From there the band's music started to spring up all over the country through word of mouth and grassroots efforts. Their song "The Hymn" was even featured in the international Taiwanese film, "Lovesick." The band was growing steadily as they released their second record "From The Inside" in 2009 which featured their popular single "Analyze" produced by Regan Sprenkle and Chris Keup (Jason Mraz, Parachute, Lifehouse). But in 2011, someone filed a lawsuit against the band while they were finishing up their record, "Humanity." For the next few years immediately following the release of their 3rd record, the band went underground. They stopped all their publicity, all new releases, and halted any major tours in an attempt to weather out the storm without making their legal situation a public spectacle. But the litigation did not end and it only got more expensive. Realizing they could no longer sit and wait for the situation to resolve itself, they fought back with the only they could: music. At the end of 2013, the band reemerged with a brand new album, Mighty Sound. In the face of unending and expensive litigation, TBT enlisted the help of their friends and community to record their 4th album. Composed out of the frustrations of time lost and tears shed, they resolved not to make the album a lament about the past 3 years. Instead the sound would be triumphant. And so the band birthed anthemic songs like, “Fools Marching”, “Wasted”, “Mighty Sound”, and “The Battle Hymn.” On Nov 23, 2013, Tim wrote in his first public blog post since 2011, “While the songs on Mighty Sound were birthed within struggle, I resolved to create something that would celebrate the triumphs within the disappointments, instead of mourning in the ruins of our wailing wall. I didn’t pen these songs because of our troubles; I wrote these songs in spite of them. Because it’s easy to complain about hardship, but it’s much harder to be grateful for what is good in the midst of it... After all, money is one of those things you can always make back, but time wasted on worry, bitterness and fear is time that is lost for good.” Even in the midst of difficulty, the band has seen multiple dreams and aspirations come to fruition. Tim had the honor of performing the national anthem on Veterans Day for the 2015 NBA champions, The Golden State Warriors, fulfilling a childhood dream of singing the anthem at a major sporting event. He produced and sang on MC Jin's latest album XIV:LIX fulfilling a childhood dream to sing a hook on a rap song. And most recently, he fulfilled his dream of performing at the famed Walt Disney Concert Hall with the LA Philharmonic's Korean American Youth Symphony. "Mighty Sound" available now at www.tbtstore.com or digitally at http://timbetold.bandcamp.com