TIMECOP1983
/// Synth Maestro Jordy Leenearts Opens Up
Foreword and Album Overview by Vero Kitsuné
Time and time again, we see “Synthwave is Dead” being proclaimed by certain journalists and publications - most recently by Metal Hammer Magazine.
But is it really, though?
In the last couple of years, fans of synthwave saw the genre evolve and grow beyond its traditional neon-lit, palm-tree lined, gently arpeggiated soundscapes and gated snare. Some artists have started to deviate and introduce various elements: From harsh, robotic saw-edged industrial cyberpunk; heavy-hitting nu metal grit; dark and brooding darkwave and post-punk; to high-gloss EDM and saccharine mainstream pop sounds. Some even have moved on to early ‘90s treatments, declaring the era as the new trend in nostalgia.
However, some of synthwave’s leading artists retain a strong anchor in maintaining the longevity of the genre by staying true to the foundations of its culture. All make a compelling case that the genre is indeed not a fad with an expiration date, but rather a timeless concept of art that yet still has to reach its peak - or arguably, still on a steady climb in its current trajectory. One of these proud bastions is the illustrious Jordy Leenearts, more popularly known as TIMECOP1983. Over the course of the last decade, Timecop1983 has steadily grown the solid foundation of his career as a top synthwave artist and producer - a name that is globally recognized in all synthwave essential lists. With a multitude of collaborations with fellow esteemed artists under his belt, 8 studio albums, and a brand new record Faded Touch, Timecop1983 has not shown signs of slowing down - nor his touch fading at all.
Faded Touch carries the refined fingerprint that is signature to Timecop1983’s sonic aesthetic. Since his debut full-length record, Journeys (2014), his approach to synths has always been elegant and painterly - almost reminiscent of the late painter Bob Ross’ gentle-mannered and sensitive nuances. His form of arrangements is pared-down and more low-key than some of his contemporaries, yet his art comes alive through his sentimental gradation - often invoking pillowy, tender memories of childhood pasts and time long gone. Inherently, his work directly alludes to the success of the genre itself- its power to transport listeners to bygone eras filled with themes of romance, longing, and hope. However, Jordy humbly muses that his music is not a reflection of his persona at all - “(I’m) not as romantic or as artistic” - and refers to himself as a much simpler, down-to-earth guy whose only agenda is to create and express music as he hears it without any superfluous projections often associated with being an artist.
But Jordy’s work tells a more poignant story in Faded Touch, his latest 11-track offering created in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Darker, atmospheric and more progressive than his previous works, Faded Touch starts off with a somber yet hopeful intro with Holding On To Memories. Fellow synthwave great, Josh Dally, lends his vocals to half of the record and first joins in the tales of heartbreak in Falling. The shimmering, arpeggiated track, Emotions, cascades and sets up the bridge to a powerful anthem of forlorn and regret in Feel The Same, also featuring vocals and guitars by Dally. Moments In Time starts off arresting time and holding it in suspense right before a full-bodied heavy snare drops and punches all the right places; brassy synths hover in tasteful, undulating maneuvers. The record accelerates and finally gets its first peek of bright neon lights in One Night, before shifting gears into the moody yet serene New Beginnings, and the very hopeful, sun-kissed dawn in Forever. Dynamics take a leap along with Dally’s heartfelt vocal performance in the up-beat romance in Chemical. The record neatly finishes off with yet another brooding yet hopeful track in Alone, followed by a heartbreak-themed finale in Did You Move On which features some unexpectedly fresh, otherworldly top lines.
Beautifully emotive and thoughtful with impeccable execution, Faded Touch secures its place as another solid synthwave hallmark that ushers the genre into a new classic space, poised to transcend time here on out. With his latest highest-grossing offering, Timecop1983 lights a beacon that synthwave is indeed alive and well, and is in fact here to stay for a very long time.
Photo Courtesy of Timecop1983
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ABSYNTH EXCLUSIVE ///
In an exclusive interview, Jordy Leenearts opens up to Absynth editors about his thoughts on his work, the synthwave genre and his collaborations.
Jordy, for those who are new to Synthwave, please tell us where you are from and how did you initially get into music? When did the Timecop1983 project first start?
So, my name is Jordy and I was born in 1983 (hence the name). I live near Eindhoven in The Netherlands, where I have lived almost my entire life. I live together with my girlfriend and our cat.
I have been making music since I was 12 when a friend of mine gave me a floppy disk with a tracker for MS-DOS. But I didn’t have any musical background and didn’t know how to write or read notes, but I loved the idea of making my own music so much that I just kept playing with the tracker. And after a while I started creating my own ideas, but because I didn’t have a musical background and I didn’t know enough about music I never finished anything.
But after some time of playing around (like 15 years on and off) I heard the soundtrack of ‘Drive’ and I decided I wanted to make this kind of music too.
Back then I didn’t know Synthwave was a thing and to get inspiration I started looking into the genre and I fell in love. So after some experimenting I created my first song and Timecop1983 was born.
How long have you been writing and producing, and what had brought you to the nostalgia genre?
It wasn’t until 2013 when I discovered Synthwave through ‘Drive’ that I got into making music more seriously. When I saw ‘Drive,’ two years after its release, the music and the cinematography just came together for me. It just clicked. The music fitted so perfect in all scenes and it felt new, yet nostalgic. That’s when I decided to make this kind of music myself. I didn’t have any expectations of it, but I was listening to a lot of Synthwave on Soundcloud and thought to myself that I had to release something on there as well. And it was received surprisingly well, so I knew I found my genre I wanted to focus on.
Speaking of nostalgia were there any favorite childhood memories you’ve had back in the ‘80s that inspired a lot of the emotional spirit you put into your sound?
Yes! I can very clearly remember a cassette tape my mom and dad used to play in the car. It had 80’s music on it and I loved that tape sooo much. I can clearly remember Ghostbusters (my favorite of the tape) and Abracadabra from that tape and I think those two songs alone were the spark to ignite my love for the 80’s.
When I create my music I try to create a feeling of nostalgia that reminds me of that time. The feeling of being free, without any worries.
A lot of your full-length records, especially the 2014 debut “Journeys” and 2016’s “Reflections” provide listeners with emotional mirages, invoking tender memories, reflections of the past as true to nostalgia as it could be. A lot of them are delicate and poignant in nature. How would you say have you grown creatively, emotionally and artistically between each major offerings up to the most recent release, “Faded Touch”? Do you think it’s important for artists to have their own life journey and philosophies reflect back into their art? How much would you say the nature of the Timecop1983 discography is as a true mirror of the artist behind it all?
For me, making music isn’t really reflecting my own emotions. I just write whatever comes up and make that into songs. It might not sound as romantic or as artistic, but I just create whatever I like to make. It does not mirror me as a person at all actually! From my music you’d think I’m this very romantic guy, but i’m not!
I don’t think music or any art should reflect an artist’s journey of life philosophies. Sometimes art is just art. Artists often feel like their art should “represent” something, but personally I don’t think that’s necessary. There’s nothing wrong with artists having a belief or a life goal they are working from, but I think I’m too much of a down-to-earth kinda guy for that. Of course I want everybody on earth to love each other, but I’m not pretending that I can change the world with my music. I just create music that I like, there’s nothing more to it.
However I do try to create a story with my albums. Not from a certain philosophy, but I try to select songs on an album that fit together. I think it’s better described as themes. For ‘Night Drive’ the theme was more of a dark feeling of driving alone on the road at night and with Faded Touch Josh Dally and I tried to tell the story of a relationship.
You have collaborated with majority of what would be considered the synthwave pantheon, your fellow top-level contemporaries like Ollie Wride, Dana Jean Phoenix, Jessie Frye, The Midnight, Lebrock, The Bad Dreamers, and Josh Dally. How do you normally approach collaborations and choose which artists you collaborate with? Are collaborations a way for you to encourage camaraderie and keep the spirit of synthwave alive?
Yeah, I have been very lucky to have collaborated with a lot of bigger names in the scene. I’m 1000% sure that without these collaborations I wouldn’t have grown to where I am now, so I’m eternally grateful to each and every one of the artists I worked with. Also, collaborations spark my creativity.
The collaborations start in different ways. Sometimes people ask me if I want to work with them and sometimes I ask them. I don’t have a set way of approaching collaborations, but most of them have started with me making the music and then they write and record the vocals. I never started a song from pre-recorded vocals alone.
Collaborations most certainly keep the spirit of Synthwave alive! It’s just great to work with other people and to expand your horizon. I hear my instrumentals all the time and don’t think it’s special anymore after hearing the same song 2500 times when finishing it. So a collaboration adds new spirit to my music, and I absolutely love that.
TIMECOP1983 with FM-84, Photo by Andrew B. White
Speaking of collaborations, over a year ago one of your collaborations “My Delorean” had come under fire when your project collaborator, then-emerging pop artist Laura Lee Bishop, also known as Primo, broke out with her story on The Beyond Synth podcast (and later on her own journal) about receiving the lesser “feature” credit despite of her writing and production work on the track. Many are familiar with the publicized details of her side of the story and the resolution. However, many are also still waiting to hear from Timecop1983 for a response or a comment. Do you care to share your own perspective on this matter?
I do not want to go in too much detail about this, because I want to forget the whole issue, but her statements in the Beyond Synth podcast and on her own blog were only partly true and I feel like she’s been trying to put me in a dark light on the matter.
Primo blamed me for taking credit on the track. Yes, I did not add much to the track. But we agreed on this and I was very open with her on this from the very beginning. I told her multiple times the song was almost perfect how she wrote it. She was totally fine with me just mixing and mastering the song and then releasing it as a collaboration. She said it would help her a lot as an upcoming artist. Although in the end, I did add some elements to the song and I made some changes to the arrangement.
Secondly, she said I didn’t want to re-upload the song. This is true, because my aggregrator said we might lose playcounts and monetization (we agreed on a 50/50 split) and I didn’t want that to happen. The song was doing great and I didn’t want to risk having it removed from playlists when we uploaded the new version.***
She also blamed me for not taking action on changing the release quick enough. Yes, I should’ve pushed my aggregrator some more to help us out after they sent me their standard response that changes to releases weren’t possible. But she did not give me enough time to figure that out. She made it public pretty quick after she asked me to change it and went around my back to contact my aggregrator directly to ask to make changes.
And finally, she blamed me for making her just a featured artist on the song. But that is just wrong in my opinion. She made the artwork where she added the text with herself stated as the featured artist. I also sent her various “final” versions of the song where the file was clearly named “Timecop1983 – My Delorean (Feat. Primo)” and she didn’t say a word about it, so I thought she was ok with this.
In the end I had to read in her blog post that she wasn’t feeling well during the time we worked on the song. She never said anything about how she was feeling. She just agreed with everything. So I could not have known she wasn’t happy with the terms.
I didn’t have a clue how she was truly feeling until after the release. If I had only the slightest clue she wasn’t happy before the release I would have surely talked to her about it and we would have fixed these things straight away. No questions asked.
I’m glad we fixed everything in the end, but it’s too bad she wasn’t open with me on her feelings and she had to make it public after the song was released.
What do you think is the future of synthwave and where it is going?
I keep reading stories that “Synthwave is Dead” or that the hype is over, but I disagree with that. I haven’t had as many listeners on the streaming platforms as I have now. I’m amazed every day by how many people listen to my music.
On one hand I hope Synthwave will grow even bigger, but on the other I don’t want it to become a hype like Dubstep, where everybody listens to it for a few months or years and then it dies out.
I do think it’s becoming harder and harder to get into the scene if you are new. There’s so many people that make Synthwave these days, so it’s hard to stand out if you are new to the scene. Even if you are really good. And unfortunately I don’t see that changing soon.
What would you say is the most important thing about being a musician today and what continues to inspire you and drive you?
I think marketing is a very, very important thing about being a musician these days if you want to grow bigger and make a living out of making music. Just as important, or maybe even slightly more important than making good music. I mean, you can make the greatest song of all times, but if nobody hears it is it still the best song ever made?
For me I get my drive from seeing all the responses to my music. Of course I create the music I love and like to make, but seeing that other people like this music too drives me to make more music!
Do you have new releases planned for the near future?
I just released my album ‘Faded Touch’ with Josh Dally in April and don’t have a specific release planned anytime soon. I do plan to create a EP which will be more like ‘Night Drive,’ but don’t have a ETA on that.
I am working on some other cool projects as well. I’m getting into my longtime dream of making soundtracks. Can’t talk about specifics yet, but I’m currently working on a soundtrack for a short film and start working on a soundtrack for a podcast soon. I hope to keep doing this in the future.
TIMECOP1983, FM-84, Josh Dally. Brooklyn, NY. Photo by Andrew B. White
In 2018, we saw an epic massive performance with you, FM-84, Ollie Wride and Josh Dally altogether on stage in Brooklyn. Will we have another one of those in the near future? Any tour plans slated?
Oh, that was a magical night! During that same weekend we all even joined the stage with The Midnight as well, since they were playing in Brooklyn too. Good memories!
All my shows came to a grinding halt because of the pandemic. My last show was in September 2018, which seems like ages ago… I do plan to go on tours as soon as things are back to “normal”. Actually I’m working on a better live show with Josh Dally, so you can expect something new on stage as soon as we can. However, I do need a vaccination first and I’d like to play for a full room. I don’t feel that comfortable on stage and especially not when there’s only like 50 people allowed. In some strange way I feel less bad playing for hundreds of people instead of a few…
Anything else you would like to share? Last words to your fans?
I want to thank everyone who listens to my music and I hope to meet them at my shows again soon.
Also, I’ve teamed up with Timeslave Recordings to create a merch shop on my website (www.timecop1983.com) soon!
TIMECOP1983, FM-84. Brooklyn, NY. Photo by Andrew B. White
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***An ISRC (International Sound Recording Code) is an industry-standard code that is used to identify individual sound recordings in audio and video. An ISRC is unique to the audio associated with it so that each individual recording can be identified. According to the International ISRC Registration Authority Guidelines, any new version of an existing sound recording with changes to the mix, mastering and metadata requires a new ISRC to be issued. Adding a new ISRC number to a previously released track will not automatically add new play counts and retain playlist placements that were accumulated by the original – it is effectively seen as a ‘new version’ and starting from scratch. In addition to this, re-using an existing ISRC on a new recording or variant is prohibited. In this case, the parties’ resolution implies a new version of the track (with changes to the mix, mastering and metadata details) was re-uploaded and re-distributed with the ISRC code from the original version, deviating from the standard ISRC guidelines.
