Tim’s love affair with dance music started at a relatively late age when, during his first year of university, he visited the famed Nottingham house night – Lovezoo, and it opened his eyes and changed his life forever. Since then, Tim hasn’t looked back, and has been making up for lost time.
His love of house soon progressed onto techno, electro, breaks, and finally his biggest love – trance. Eager to get involved with the scene in whichever capacity he could, he started promoting one of Nottingham’s biggest underground events – Firefly. As well as promoting other established names including Product, Touch, and Crasher.
Tim’s passion continued to intensify, and it wasn’t long before he decided to start playing himself. He had spent hours watching, learning, and practicing on his friends’ vinyl, before he eventually got himself a set of CDJs. Since then he has practiced continuously, honing his skills and steadily building his confidence.
Having played several house parties, Tim got a short-term residency at a bar whilst on his summer holidays in Hong Kong. Playing all things dance, from house to electro and breaks to techno – Tim’s confidence in playing in front of crowds grew and grew. His energetic displays proved to be quite popular with the intimate crowds he played for.
Tim is a versatile DJ, adept at playing both the slower genres like techno and house, as he is at the faster genres like trance. However he will be the first to admit that his biggest love is trance. “I don’t want to be pigeon-holed as anything because I do love playing all sorts. But trance – especially some uplifting trance with a fast, driving bass-line, is definitely my main passion.”
There have been many influences in Tim’s music career, ranging from Eric Prydz and Alter Ego, to Ferry Corsten and Gareth Emery. But perhaps Tim’s biggest influences are his good friends, Neil Bamford and Mike Beaumont (both up and coming DJs/producer), whom he considers as his main inspiration behind becoming a DJ. If you had to choose a style to define Tim’s DJ-ing, you’d be talking about the likes of Sean Tyas, Aly & Fila and John O’Callaghan, who are advocates of the 140bpm (or faster!) school of mixing. Throw in some melodic breakdowns and some deep, driving bass-lines, and you’ll have an idea of what Tim Rand is all about.
After graduating from university, Tim got together with his good friend, Jamie Harrison and decided to form Vaccinate. This has allowed him to showcase his talents in a more appropriate arena, working alongside some already well-established names such as Gatecrasher resident, Joe Napier, Goodgreef resident, Matt Everson, Passion resident, Genix, Ben Gold and even Jon O’Bir! Tim is also gearing up to play at various other events including Excessive Pressure, Rompastomp, Elusive, and even the Digital Society Invitational. 2009 is shaping up to be a good year indeed for the young man from Hong Kong.