TIMBUK3, best known for their hit song The Future's So Bright I Gotta
Wear Shades, enjoyed Top 40 radio success, resulting in multi-album
recording contracts, television appearances, magazine features
and International touring.
In 1987, TIMBUK3 received a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist.
Their unforgetable video was nominated for MTVs Best New Artist Video.
Television appearances included Saturday Night Live, Late Night With Conan O'Brien, Austin City Limits, MTV and Solid Gold, among others.
Besides headlining their own shows around the world, TIMBUK3 opened for
Bob Dylan, Sting, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, James Brown and others.
Commander William Walker of NASA's space shuttle Endeavor played
Timbuk3's music in outer space - the highest rotation an earth-bound artist can achieve.
Timbuk3 disbanded in 1996. Six years later they were inducted into the Texas Music Hall of Fame.
Both pat and Barbara have since gone on to pursue solo projects.
pat ON PAT, TIMBUK3 AND WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW."My "official" recording career began in 1980 with the first Pat MacDonald & The Essentials album, Lowdown, released on 12" vinyl by Mountain Railroad Records, a regional indie headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin. The closing song featured a cameo vocal by my girlfriend at the time, Barbara Kooyman, who also co-wrote the music. It was the album's only co-written song, ironically titled "Makin' It On My Own." A couple years later, with a growing musicality and greatly reduced surname, Barbara K joined The Essentials, playing fiddle and singing backup.
In the next two years, we married, had a child, and recorded the EP, Essentialist Propaganda before splitting off to form the duo Timbuk3 and moving to Austin, Texas. Our live rhythm section consisted of homemade drum and bass tracks played on a boom box.
That's when my "official" recording career took off. Our debut, Greetings From Timbuk3, contained a crowd-pleasing carryover from The Essentials days called "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades." It went to Billboard's top 20 and our little duo became an "overnight" success.
From 1987 through 1995, Timbuk3 made lots more albums but never followed up the hit. During that time, my main job (which I absolutely loved) was to keep cranking out songs to make albums to fulfill recording contracts. We might have sustained the initial success longer if we'd toured more, but we enjoyed home life and home recording, investing the recording advances into equipment for our backyard studio. And that follow-up hit was always just a hook-laden chorus away.
But I wasn't trying to write hits. And I wasn't trying to write a hit when I wrote the hit. I was just trying to write songs. Well, I knew I could write songs, but now I was trying to write albums, and enjoying my work, my "official" recording career.
After Timbuk3's breakup I moved to Spain and was provided the means to produce several more "official" projects for the German label, Ulftone. Many European critics said they were my best, most cohesive work yet. Troubadour of Stomp, my first U.S. label release in ten years (and perhaps my last label release ever) (I'm hating labels at the moment) has been getting similar reactions. No longer judged on "hit potential," I've now been accepted as an "album oriented" artist. December, 2007
Pat has the salt and pause of an elder statesmen when he speaks about his philosophy of music and life. When asked about his denial of over a million dollars in advertising, he makes a point to state that his own opinions on the subject should never condemn anyone else in their choices. "Everyone has to find their comfort zone," he says, "Music adds magic to a product being sold, but for me, the product robs magic from the music. I made a promise to myself a long time ago. It's good to keep promises you make to yourself." -Jason Broome, PERFORMERMAG.COM
