Sparrows Wheel

Seeing the Future - The Vision of Barbara Kooyman

Barbara Kooyman can see the future. She peers into a time that today is mostly misty, lingering in the distance, and she understands with great clarity what she must do. She’s been called to make the world a kinder and gentler one, one that does no harm and leaves plenty of room and resources for creativity. In her life she has scaled the musical heights, created hit songs, sold multitudes of records, and appeared on Saturday Night Live. Despite all of that, she knows her most important work has just begun.

Born in Wausau, Wisconsin, she began her artistic quests early having moved to San Antonio, Texas, picking up the guitar and starting to write songs at the tender age of 11. “I heard my neighbor playing a guitar and I got very excited about somebody being able to make beautiful sounds like that. So, I tried to learn to make those sounds myself.� After honing her craft in her early 20s in the music scene in Madison, Wisconsin, she tried out New York with a fresh batch of songs and a completely new way of presenting them. “We recorded drum tracks and bass, and me and my partner would go out on the street corner and start the boombox and play our guitars.� This trio (a man, a woman, and a boombox) eventually became Timbuk3, and after a move to Austin, Texas and an appearance on MTV’s “Cutting Edge�, they inked a record deal with Miles Copeland’s I.R.S. Records. Their first release, Greetings From Timbuk3, yielded the top 40 hit “The Future’s So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades�, an upbeat, sing-able ditty about a weighty and very menacing subject. “It was really about Nuclear War,� says Barbara. “I think that would have surprised all the people who thought it meant something else.�

Though Timbuk3 is history, Barbara’s future still burns bright. She continues to be a prominent and influential songwriter and performer in the Austin area, and she has launched a new project called “Artists for Media Diversity�, a vehicle with a powerful goal - enlisting talented recording artists and songwriters to establish a new source of support for public radio stations around the country. The inspiration came to her one day while she was walking in Germany. “All of a sudden it hit me,� she says with the joy that often accompanies great revelations. “This will make a real difference when it takes off.�

Her idea has the added benefit of allowing talented recording artists who are often ignored by mainstream corporate radio to have a legitimate chance to find an audience. Barbara explains the elegant and simple beauty of the idea: “Artists are heros, community radio wins, and the world gets to hear important messages that definitely deserve to be heard.�

And, there it is.

The Future.

Very bright. Now where did I put those shades?

Photo by Winker