It’s 2003 and the five-piece seemingly emerges out of the blue. Singer Keshav Purushotham, guitarist Christian Voß, keybarder Evgeni Kouris, Thilo Schmelzer on bass and drummer Felix Günther find each other, compose, meditate on new sounds. What comes out is the vision of a band. Timid Tiger want to render homage to playful, but always danceable indie pop. Their finespun guitar pop songs take the indie dancefloors by storm. Amazingly tuneful, lively and strangely international. Their English lyrics are little storytelling gems, a subtle invitation to sing along included. Timid Tiger quickly establish a pretty good reputation. 2004 sees the release of the single Miss Murray on the Cologne-based label Highcat records. The song is later re-released on L’age d’or and becomes an instant hit that helps the band to create a buzz beyond the borders of their native country Germany. Fräulein Murray finds its way on a whole bunch of compilations, on movie soundtracks („Der Fischer und seine Frau“, „Wo ist Fred?“) and on the rotation lists of radio stations – then the irresistible uptempo tune conquers Great Britain. The five-piece grab their LP “Timid Tiger And A Pile Of Pipers” and visit Britain to play concerts, support shows for Graham Coxon (Blur), festival gigs and eventually their own tour. Their live qualitities and the tight airplay all across Europe help to establish a growing fan community for the little cartoon tiger and his ambassadors. It looked as if Timid Tiger would succeed to become a pleasantly non-embarrassing German pop export to proudly present the European neighbours. What followed then, singer Keshav describes as a “heavy blow”. Hamburg-based label L’age d’or goes bankrupt after two years of collaboration, the future of Timid Tiger turns into insolvency estate.

It’s 2009 and Timid Tiger struggled their way back. It was about time. "Electric Island", the first album in four years came into being at the studio of the same name. The band has a new line-up and has changed direction musically. Christopher Martin on bass and Steffen "Steddy" Wilmking in charge of drums and production mark a new start for Timid Tiger. The songs sound lusher, more mature and clearly more electronic but still haven’t lost their crowd pleaser qualities. Timid Tiger have grown up in a good way. The twelve songs build a bridge to connect four years of forced hiatus, among them short-pants-sing-a-long-pop with lots of piano ("Electric Island", "House Of Love", "Gadget Girls”), drenched in addictive melodies, beautifully arranged and accompanied by either a classic “bab-ba-dah!" or a synthesizer-produced chorus. Also included are fragile singer/songwriter odes ("The Gardener") and a Timid Tiger that stands firmly on the dancefloor presenting body locks and smooched by the spirit of R’n’B (“Palm Beach bar”, “Ghost Town”). Timid Tiger worked a lot on remixes and mash ups in the past years and it shows. The production is tight and the band has moved to a new perspective. "Changing our line-up and building our own studio was very liberating," explains Keshav. The New York Times and the Washingon Post published raving reviews of their versions of Briney’s "Womanizer" and Lenny Kravitz' "Are You Gonne Go My Way" and the band decided to collaborate with the US music blog prettymuchamazing. The PMA.EP contained new songs and remixes and was available as a free download. A great way to introduce themselves to new fans – the EP was downloaded more than 30,000 times.

The band’s artistic perspective is summed up as follows: “We don’t want to divide, we want to unite. Genres and styles are mixed up, decomposed, redistributed equally, completed and put back together. Assorted live drums and fat beats, electric string instruments and crisp and creaky bass lines. A handful of analog synthesizers and whining keyboards. A bit of anything.” The cheerful blend has turned the young pop kitten into a club-compliant tiger animal.

The next chapter of the not at all finished Timid Tiger chronicles has an amazing start obviously. A band re-discovers itself and struggles its way back to the top. Enjoy the story!