Phil Collins did it, Dave Grohl did it, and there's no reason why Tim Hart can't do it.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Boy & Bear drummer has released his second solo album, The Narrow Corner, and is proving, just like his fellow rock percussionists Grohl and Collins, that he has the skills and talent to also be a frontman.
"There is something with drummers, definitely, if you think of Levon Helm (the Band) Don Henley (The Eagles) there is that thing," Hart told AAP.
With Sydney band Boy & Bear, Hart isn't pushed to the back to hide behind his four band members. They have a diplomatic arrangement, sharing songwriting duties, harmonising together and positioning Hart towards the front.
So the record is not about getting time in the spotlight but fulfils more of a literary desire for him.
"I guess for me I love reading and I love lyrics. I love the way the English language kind of works so I love writing lyrics, so my solo project is my outlet for that," he said.
The album takes its title from a Somerset Maugham novel of the same name which inspired the theme of Hart's record.
"Somerset Maugham wrote a book called The Narrow Corner and it was set in Indonesia in the '20s or '30s and it's just all about expectations," Hart said.
This album explores the expectations put on Hart by himself but also by others, in particular his peers from Yagoona, the suburb in south-west Sydney where he grew up.
"Coming out of a lower socio-economic area of Sydney, I guess to have any level of success in music was not something that a lot of people had done in the area I was from. And I don't know that necessarily to be a musician was the coolest thing," he said.
"There's a lot of people who don't get what it is that I do from where I grew up and that's fine. There's an element of respect for it, people think 'oh that's cool' but they don't really understand it. Number one, they all think I'm a millionaire and number two, a lot of people have this perception that I think I'm too good to interact with them, but neither one of those things are true."
Hart gets the chance to have his say in a live setting as he tours the new album around the country.
"For this tour it's just going to be me," he said.
"So the onus is on me which is scary but also wonderful."
* Tim Hart will perform in Leadbelly in Newtown, Sydney on Friday and will head on to Newcastle, Melbourne, Nambour, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.