You may have spotted Tim Van Dammen behind the drum kit for droll, pop / dance group Collapsing Cities. The band with the dance sensibility and sardonic point of view became an Auckland favourite & (after a jaunt to the grey skies & paddocked lands of the UK in 2008) the foursome pocketed the hearts of many, from UK pub crawlers to elitist indie gig-goers.
What you might not know, is that Tim not only drums but creates music videos for Collapsing Cities & various bands through his own company  BlurandSharpen (with friend Tim Flower). The art school graduate's visual work has been turning heads in the music community & recently gained him a prestigious finalist nomination for C4 Best Music Video at the 2009 Vodafone NZ Music Awards (for Sola Rosa 'Turnaround').  We talked to Tim about the everyday business of directing, producing & being a musician...

What is your job and who do you work for?
I own a production company called Blurandsharpen, I am a director and producer of music videos and ads. I also drum in Collapsing Cities.

What does a normal work day entail for you?
Every day is different depending on what we are working on.  Most days involve a mixture of:
-discussing ideas with musicians/clients
-booking equipment and locations
-storyboarding
-shooting tests
-editing and compositing
-researching for ideas and reference material and
-sending millions of emails.

How did you get into the music industry – any specific training?
I used to play the drums at school, then we started Collapsing Cities during Uni. I started making our videos & other people started asking for me to make theirs. We started doing so many that I had to start a company to cope with the workload.

What’s the best thing about your job?
I love all of it, but most satisfying is when you make something that you’re really proud of and the people who you made it for love it too.

What’s the most challenging thing about your job?
The hours, I get about 5 hours sleep a night. Everyone has tight deadlines and I have to work hard to make sure that the standard continues to improve.

Do you have any advice for people who want to get into your field of work?
Just go and do it, start making videos. I used to run around making movies as a kid and that continued through school & uni - now it's my job.
If you want to do it it's easy, you have to start and not stop.

Why do you love music and why is it important to you?
There isn’t a way to describe the feeling when you’re playing on stage to hundreds of people and everything is clicking perfectly, it’s the best. If music is good it hard wires into your emotions, it's such a direct form of communication - it's overwhelming and it creates images in my head. I’m lucky to be able to make those images into a reality.

Below: still from stunning BlurandSharpen video for The Checks 'You & Me'

Check out BlurandSharpen's work www.blurandsharpen.com/

Check out Collapsing Cities myspace