The Tim Henson Documentary | Becoming A Modern Day Guitar Icon

Tim Henson is best known as one of the two guitar players in the band polyphia which is seen a steady rise in popularity after a guitar playthrough for their song and passion went viral on YouTube back in 2013. at a young age Tim also known as the worst has captivated an audience of guitar players across the world with his Innovative style virtuosic technique and rising star power now in 2023 Henson is an influencer and globally recognized rock star with a collective following of over a million people across the social media accounts additionally he is a partner with one of the largest guitar brands in the world Ibanez it appears that there's just no limit to how far Tim Henson can take the guitar how did a young kid from the Sun Belt of America become arguably one of the most influential guitars of the past decade in this video we'll answer just that by outlining Tim's inspiring jury to modern rock stardom stay tuned Tim Henson was born on November 19 1993 and was raised in Plano a city in Northern Texas by Chinese mother and Caucasian father the musical influence started early in Tim's life his mother played violin in piano and when he was just three years old she enrolled him to pick up the violin himself in interviews Tim has stated that during this time he would practice two hours a day and had strict Russian violin teachers that would reprimand him for making the littlest of mistakes he hated it it wouldn't be until the early 2000s that Tim would have his first experience with a guitar at age 10 Tim was becoming disgruntled with his study of violin and the stigma that came with being an orchestras would one day see his father coming out of his office with an electric guitar where his curiosity and interest in the instrument would lead him to become one of the most influential players of our time he just didn't know it yet you see when Tim was 10 years old his friends were getting in the skateboarding and he was looking to fit in and in his mind it made much more sense to be seen with a guitar than it did to be seen with a violin which was thought of as nerdy there was a lack of congruence between how Tim thought of himself as a child and how he appeared to the external world in an interview with API musicians Tim states that his mother enrolled him and his siblings into Chinese school and they came home crying because they didn't seem to fit in Tim would describe his experience growing up in Texas as never being seen as Chinese Enough by his Asian peers but also not being seen as wide enough by his white peers either growing up in this way may have contributed to Tim's need to fit in and express himself in a way that would allow him to get the approval of his peers guitar was a catalyst for this early on Tim while being in multiple orchestras started learning the basics of guitar through his father who had been in garage bands his entire life Tim's father taught him the basics like cords scales and simple songs soon after Tim would regularly practice the guitar as a coping mechanism against the violin it became his Escape in a medium blog post by one of Tim's childhood friends Alvin recalls an experience with adolescent Henson when asking how he was so good at violin in Guitar Tim's response was practice Alvin Then followed up by asking how much Tim practiced and which Tim responded I don't know like 12 hours a day to say the guitar was an obsession for young Henson would be an understatement Tim's father would introduce him to Black Sabbath and some of the first songs Tim learned to play on guitar were by this band eventually one day Tim's father would play music from the legendary Jimi Hendrix for the first time in the car with Tim present who would fall in love with the way that Hendricks would merge lead in rhythmic playing he became hooked and started his first band under the name Timmy Hendrix just one year after playing the guitar at around 12 years old Timmy in a YouTube video that can be found on his YouTube channel is jamming out with some childhood friends playing guitar behind his head just like Jimi Hendrix this recording was burned onto DVD and a young eager Tim would go around a school selling copies of it to his classmates preparing him for the early days of polyphia a band that didn't even exist yet during these formative Years Tim began to get a burning desire to genuinely become the greatest guitar player of all time because of his classical background with violin Tim understood how to get good in an instrument which pushed him to keep practicing and improving his skills on the guitar the rise of social media platforms like YouTube made information regarding the guitar much more accessible to anyone that played or wanted to play Tim used the internet to teach himself guitar and accelerate his progress with the instrument he would use the internet to learn how to play fast from guys like Paul Gilbert soon enough violin became second to the guitar in his life Tim would drop out of one of the orchestras he was a member of as a teenager and only remain in the school orchestra until he was 18 to appease his parents he would leave his violin in his locker and would show up to recitals unprepared because of how he felt the instrument made him appear to others while in Middle School Tim began listening to Chiodos and similar bands from this time until the formation of polyphia Tim would play in bands in the Dallas Fort Worth Texas area when Tim entered high school he began listening to death core bands like White Chapel job for a cowboy and Black Dahlia Murder which heavily influenced his playing style at the time he was skilled enough to play very technical music at age 15 and would hang out with 19 to 20 year old musicians that had the chops to play and perform this type of music in the local scene this technical death metal sound would be the foundation for polyphia's early work and between 2010 and 2011 Tim would connect with one of polyphia's founding members Brandon burkholter through Myspace which would eventually pave the way for his future success soon after exchanging some guitar and drum tracks with Brandon burkholter online Tim would begin cultivating and developing a relationship with Scott LePage a guitar player that also grew up in Plano and attended the same schools as Tim together with some other musicians from Texas they would form the band Palisades and begin writing songs together eventually Palisades would have to change their name to polyphia after an established and signed band Marilyn is dead made a name change with a few lineup changes that settled with Tim Henson and Scott LePage as guitar players Brandenburg holder on drums and vocals as well as Hunter Vaught and or Lane dusk in his vocalist polyphia would be set to release their first EP titled resurrect on November 13 2011. around this time Tim would have found himself in trouble with the law multiple times on weed possessions and would be stuck at home because of his probation that lasted through much of his time in high school this forced him to focus on refining his guitar playing and learning skills like graphic design that he believed would help him further his career as a musician he had to beg his parents to let him work on polyphia which became his major outlet outside of school work after some time polyphia would change their lineup once again ditching vocals completely and bringing on Clay Gober who would become their bass player solidifying polyphia as a four-piece instrumental Act towards the end of high school Henson started listening to progressive metal bands like periphery Animals As Leaders Veil of Maya and born of Osiris religiously and this would cause the band to Pivot from a death core sound to one that was closer to Gent with high school nearly coming to an end Tim would be unsure about what career path he would follow fellow band member Brandon burghalter wanted to go to Berkeley College of Music and Tim figured he would follow suit while preparing to get into Berkeley Tim would discover virtuoso guitar player Guthrie Govan who would capture his attention and help further develop his skills on the guitar through content available on YouTube unfortunately Tim and Brandon would end up getting denied entry into the prestigious Music School Tim would be met at a tremendous Crossroad when it came to pursuing a career in music he knew that music school was not an option at this point and polyphia wasn't an extremely serious project this would slowly begin to change though as Tim started researching some of his favorite guitar players at the time guys like Misha Mansour from periphery and toast on a bossy of animals as leaders he watched interviews to figure out how they were able to succeed and support themselves as musicians after failing to get into Berkeley and starting to see the potential the internet had to offer him in polyphia Tim enrolled in the University of Northern Texas with the intention of becoming a full-time musician in the back of his mind however Tim's time at UNT was short-lived and he would only be a student there for a single semester before dropping out and enrolling into a community college for a year or two while putting all of his energy into making polyphia work while all of this was going on in the background Tim was figuring out ways to make money to support himself and to invest into the band in terms of his career timid worked at a GNC selling vitamins and supplements and he would later land a job at a custom t-shirt printing business named big frog in an interview with the needle drops Anthony fantano Tim states that the first 400 paycheck he got from GNC was used to create the first ever batch of polyphia Merch this shows just how serious he was in making a career music happen after dropping out of college Tim was not limited in his ability to secure a decent job because he had taken the time to learn the basics of graphic design through YouTube during his probation Tim was able to land a graphic design internship which gave him enough experience to eventually land a nine to five at a graphic design firm at 19. while working these jobs Tim was focused on executing polyphia's plan they would use social media to share their music utilizing platforms like Facebook Instagram and Twitter to direct message their music to strangers in the hopes that it would resonate with some of them the band would also play shows on the weekends and drive around the Dallas Fort Worth area selling tickets to people to attend their shows and even pay for people that were short on cash they did this to increase the head count at the venues some of which the ban had to pay a fee just to be able to get on stage for some exposure it wouldn't be until July 17 2013 that the ban would catch a lucky break that would significantly impact their trajectory the playthrough video for polyphia's song and passion was uploaded on this date this as well as their previous efforts on social media would be the Catalyst that would allow the band to pursue music full-time and passion went viral and was getting the band more attention than anything else they had put out at the time before and passion went viral on the 21st of April 2013 the ban had released the Inspire EP and as part of their marketing strategy they leveraged the audience of the circle pit a metal promotion site to do a giveaway for some merch and a copy of the EP in an interview with the circle pet the band stated the following when asked how they got started our band wasn't always this serious under a different moniker we began as any other group just being high school students with Big Dreams we grew up together as best friends learned a few things about the industry and buckled down to start rolling with the tide about a year and a half ago one of the biggest things that we've learned and we feel the quality that allows us to have the presence we do is that we realize that you must be good at much more than just the music these days the entertainment industry is facing a swarm of do-it-yourselfers an independent artists that are giving the corporations a run for their money the more you realize that your art is a business and not just a band The more control you have over your career and personal successes little did they know that less than a month after this interview they would begin to reap the benefits of this attitude and understanding of the music industry early on the impassioned playthrough video Broke ten thousand views then 50 000 views and eventually would get hundreds of thousands of views within a year during this time the band continued to release playthrough videos for other songs one of which featured virtuoso guitar player Rick Graham this was a big win for the band that got them a tremendous amount of exposure and a swarm of new followers at this time Tim was becoming disgruntled with his work as a graphic designer he learned a lot about e-commerce from his co-workers but the itch for a career music was gnawing away him and he could no longer tolerate the nine-to-five life after expressing his dissatisfaction with the senior designer his place of employment Tim was told that if he wanted to quit he should just do it with polyphia's growing online popularity and seeing his peers around him stuck in these positions for decades Tim knew he needed to take the leap of faith to truly give polyphia his all after six months at the job Tim quit his position as a graphic designer and polyphia would begin preparing to ask the audience they were able to build through their past efforts for a donation to record their first ever full-length album on April 2nd 2014 polyphia announced across our social media channels that they would begin working on their first ever full-length studio album titled Muse at this point Tim and the rest of his bandmates needed money to professionally record the album as well as a van so that they could begin touring across the United States fans had the opportunity to purchase merch bundles from Indiegogo a crowdsourcing website that would help make all of this happen the band had asked for 16 000 US Dollars and was able to reach that goal in just 13 days after the launch of the campaign the campaign would eventually end with donations totaling over 33 000 US Dollars was 1142 backers contributing to it the whole thing was a resounding success right before the launch of the campaign Tim had confessed to his father that he had dropped out of school and was getting ready to ask the internet for money something that he had kept a secret although upset and skeptical his father would become more understanding of his decision it wouldn't be until years later that Tim's mother would learn about this as Tim and his father would continue to keep it a secret until polyphia became a more stable and lucrative venture Tim and the band would go on to record their debut album used shortly after the Indiegogo campaign the album was mixed and Mastered by Nick Sampson of I am Abomination and featured notable guitar players Eric Hansel and Mario camarine of Chon Nick Johnston Aaron Marshalls of intervals and a few others this would get polyphia even more exposure as they made the most out of the success of the Indiegogo campaign on September 2nd 2014 the band released their debut studio album Muse timid this to say six days later today is the final day that the first week sales of polyphia's album will be recorded CD sales first week sales in particular are the most important thing in regards to a band's ability to successfully move forward this is not about money a band sales history is the greatest determining Factor regarding the tours they're put on and really just the general Faith people have in them on the business side of things if you have ever been curious as to how you can directly help this band move forward as an artist of some relevance know that buying this record today has a 110 percent chance of helping us even our ability to continue making music relies on how many records we've sold in the past seven days I can vividly remember the countless sleepless nights myself and my bandmates endured to make Muse a reality polyphia is an independent group of artists There Is No Label pumping money into us and no master Puppeteer molding us behind the scenes what you see is what you get your support goes towards recording Transportation marketing and a number of other things that we simply cannot exist without infinite love to anyone who has ever supported us in any way infinite love to those who continue to do so I hope that you might be willing to part with 9.99 in order to help this ban move forward and thrive Muse would go on to Peak at number 76 on the Billboard charts now it was time to hit the road the money the band got from the campaign allowed them to purchase a van a 1994 Ford Econoline they purchased for 1500 US Dollars and they were now able to go on tour and begin building an audience offline back when Tim was in college he had the opportunity to go on tour with a metal band and had gotten his first glimpse of life on the road this wasn't an enjoyable experience for Hansen and early on in polyphia's career tours were a source of Misery the band's van was unreliable and there was financial hardship a notable experience from the band's early days touring occurred in December of 2014. this was when their van broke down while they were touring with slaves whose front man was Johnny Craig at the time polyphia was added to the roster just a few days before the tour and the turnout was low this combined with the van's troubles and the extremely cold Canadian winter caused the band to quit the tour early eventually the band would spend 12 000 US dollars to get a new van but they continue to have difficulties with breakdowns and it wasn't until later on in the future when the band could afford tour buses that Tim and the crew would be okay with being on the road Tim describes the early days of touring with polyphia as paying their dues in an interview he did with nebula music podcast Tim was able to endure tremendous amount of hardship leading up to this he had worked himself to the Bone managing his schoolwork job and the band before the impassioned playthrough went viral and in his own personal life he had gone through a lot to make all of this happen and some public Facebook posts that give a glimpse into Tim's life before the band began touring we can see that he went through a breakup and even at an instance where his band was attacked by another one on the scene calling polyphia a bunch of spoiled rich kids this disregarded the amount of work the band had done and infuriated Tim whose childhood friend Alvin described as coming from humble beginnings in a medium blog post Alvin says I noticed this in passing but I remembered Tim once buying lunch with a special reduced lunch pass it knocks the price of our school's lunch from three dollars to 40 cents Tim was not born of privilege there were other problems I remember that I'm not sure Tim would want retold in a nutshell it goes beyond what a typical kid should have to endure there is also strain between Tim and his relationship with his parents in his Pursuit for Success his parents were worried and in a Facebook post he wrote when your parents think you're on drugs because of your lack of sleeping and eating a little thing called ambition keeps me up so that I can work and better my life how ironic after working so hard and going through so much to finally be in a position most musicians could only dream of he began to dislike being in a band however his love of Music allowed him to persist regardless of the difficulties that arose from touring in the following Years Tim would go on to play over 58 shows in 2015 31 shows in 2016 50 shows in 2017 and 67 shows between 2018 through 2019 before pandemic would put a hold on touring persevering along with his bandmates to make their dreams come true after the success of muse polyphia had more momentum than ever but they were still a relatively unknown act unless you were a fan of guitar culture and guitar Centric music they didn't hold the same level of appeal that they do now and Tim hadn't yet distinguished himself from the quartet to be the figure he is today regardless the collaborative efforts through Muse put them on the radar of substantially more people and they began reaping the benefits from their early successes in the form of content collaborations with major guitar companies and endorsements from Brands like Ernie Ball Ibanez DiMarzio Dunlop and fractal audio and a January 2016 interview with music connection magazine the band now a trio after parting ways with Brandon burkhulter announced that they would be releasing a follow-up album to Muse on March 11th of that same year on April 8th of 2016 the band dropped their first single from their forthcoming album Renaissance and began the super Sean Bros tour with another Rising instrumental act this would enhance their popularity even more as now the band would begin having major guitar Publications writing about them as they began climbing the ranks in the music industry at the end of their 2016 run polyphia would now be made up of Tim Henson Scott LePage clay Gober and new Drummer clay ashleman the new lineup and momentum from bigger shows alongside recognition from Key industry players would continue to embolden Tim in the band with all of these things coming together Tim knew that he would have to make a big change to realize a vision he had deep within himself one that would not be apparent until the release of their next studio album so he moved out to Los Angeles California shortly after the promotional run for Renaissance Tim began making industry connections with some producers and artists out in LA and made the decision to move out to California for several years to nurture these relationships and help polyphia realize a new sound around this time in his life he would begin to become more recognized outside the band as he became much more active on social media and started to drastically alter his appearance with makeup painted nails and an ostentatious sense of fashion Tim would intertwine himself in relationships within the producer Community with guys like Y2K no trust judge beats more goth beats and little Aaron to help him develop a new sound and level up his production skills polyphia had already changed their sound drastically through the records trying to create more accessible music but Tim wanted to create something completely different that the world had never seen before in a Facebook post from before polyphia made major Headway Tim had expressed passionately that the music he wanted to create doesn't exist yet and made it a point to announce that with the release of Renaissance that polyphia's records would no longer be classified as progressive rock and just be called music a new sound would be in the works and the band would release an EP titled the most hated which showcased guitar work that was totally different to anything else they had created previously with much of the production being influenced by the audio Engineers he was connected with out in La Tim began falling in love with rap and hip-hop music and was looking for ways to incorporate these elements in the music he was expressing through polyphia there were tons of guitar players Rising on social media but as Tim took the time to craft a totally new style and approach to the instrument people started paying more and more attention to him although the band looks at the most hated EP with some mixed feelings it opened them up to a new audience and laid the found foundational framework for the music that would take them to the next level Not only was the band getting more attention from social media but Publications began writing about the more and more and Tim began to be seen as the face of polyphia during Tim's time in Los Angeles he had many social media posts go viral most notably his how to make a riff video became his introduction to many through social media the most hated was released afterwards in polyphia and Tim Henson became synonymous with each other he was becoming a rising star but it wouldn't be until the next chapter of his life that Tim's star power would really begin to actualize on the first day of the superchon Bros 2 tour polyphia would release a single that solidified them as trendsetters in the world of guitar and take them to the next level of success May 24 2018 was when they released their hit single goat which took the Internet by storm this song was the first single release from their 2018 album titled new levels new devils and was an absolute game changer for the band as they had showcased a controversial new sound that was unlike anything else out there in the world of music and guitar the main hook of the song began getting covered countless times by guitar players from around the world and posted on the internet and many reaction channels cover the song exposing the new track to many more people helping the band pick up greater Steam and as a byproduct Henson who was becoming more and more synonymous with Bolivia began receiving an outpour of attention for his work as a guitarist in an interview with music radar both Tim and Scott would describe their new style of playing as making rap music with the guitar during the promotional Run for the record the band took on the personas of arrogant Carefree rock stars creating controversy in an area of Music where it was rare to see this would serve to be both beneficial and detrimental to the band in their image as people's awareness of them grew it was beneficial as someone understood the satire but bad because a lot of people began to view Ensign as an arrogant jerk like anyone who reaches a certain level of success Tim has become a polarizing figure and this is when it really started to show many love and adore what he has accomplished and he is a source of inspiration for many on the other hand there are those who are opposed to everything that he stands for and even envy him greatly regardless the band was able to push through and new levels new Devils was able to Peak at number 61 on the Billboard charts being another significant moment for the band with all of these things adding up and Tim's new neck tattoo helping him stand out even more amongst his peers he finally started to see a level of Fame that went beyond social media he was becoming a certified Global rock star and was beginning to shape an entire generation of guitar player players who are all starting to look up to him and all that he was doing he was young stylish and had a very unique approach to playing that began to get the attention of people across the world his persistence paid off and the seeds he and his bandmates planted many years ago allowed the band to become a lucrative source of income Tim wasn't done though while the promotional cycle for new levels knew Devils was in the works Tim was building up his personal brand not only did he stand out as a guitar player but he was also beginning to stand out as an entrepreneur as well in spite of the growing controversy Tim secured a deal with Ibanez and released his first signature guitar the thbb10 which ended up becoming a massive success showcasing how much selling power the Brandy was developing had while in La Tim began working on his own production shops and doing work for artists like young bands baby no money black bear and would also have done work on a collaborative internet Money Records project founded by none other than Taz Taylor and Nick Mira Not only was Tim beginning to become a guitar icon but he was also beginning to penetrate the music industry and making connections with major rappers like Machine Gun Kelly snot and trippy red elevating his status and personal brand even more all of this would come to a screeching halt and there would be nothing but radio Silence from both Tim and polyphia Tim would move back to Texas and his energy for the next few years would go towards personal business ventures like his collaboration with neural DSP audio engineering work and polyphia's most ambitious project to date which would certify his position as a rock star the band's fan base and Henson's popularity would continue to grow in the background while they began working on their fourth studio album fans were getting antsy as polyphia had not released music in about three to four years and although they knew there was a record coming information and detail surrounding the mysterious album 4 was incredibly spares the online communities that existed for the band would talk and anticipation waiting for the release and finally on May 10th of 2022 the band would release the first single off of the new album titled playing God the video would go viral and have the same effect goat did when the main hook of the song would go down as a legendary riff many guitar players would begin learning it and sharing it online adding to its virality the band was finally back and the remember that you will die promotional cycle would bring them to the highest levels they've ever reached as they began collaborating with established world-class musicians like Steve Phi Chino Moreno and Luke Holland remember that you will die would finally be released on October 28 2022 through a highly leveraged deal with rise records and become a top charting album through Apple music hit number 22 on the Billboard top 200 and become number one for Billboard's U.S top Hard Rock album charts an absolutely major accomplishment for the band with Tim being the face of the band this meteoric leap in their success and expansion of Their audience would mean that his personal brand would reach one of the highest levels of star power as his name was now associated with celebrity class musicians so much so that he would perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live with baby no money in early 2023 Tim's influence with the guitar is far-reaching and his journey to get to where he is today took his entire life he has secured his own line of guitarist through his partnership with Ibanez called the tree of death series and his band is consistently selling out bigger and bigger venues in a recent Facebook pose Tim had this to say about how far his band had come ten years ago today we dropped Inspire and pre-sold 200 tickets so that we could open up this show fast forward to now we will be playing to 4 400 people at the factory which sold out six months ago in advance with no support see you all tonight in an Ernie Ball String Theory interview he even said this I had this idea that I wanted to be the best guitar player on earth when expressing this Henson would even be ridiculed by his teachers for not thinking realistically about his life but nonetheless he persevered and in the eyes of many who look up to him he may very well be the best guitar player in the world through his band polyphia he has been able to cultivate what is essentially a new genre of music and the generations of guitar players succeeding him are taking notes and applying his style of playing to their own beginning to make a dent and what the guitar stands for and can sound like it will be difficult to determine just how much of an impact he will have on music as a whole but what he has done so far in a world where the guitar icon was thought of to be lost and gone is truly incredible his story isn't over yet and only time will tell just how far Tim Henson will take the guitar

Channel: Ben Seraphin

Views: 239,047

Keywords: timhenson, polyphia, guitar

Id: 1jc-Jgr7sAw

Length: 35min 7sec (2107 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 04 2023