• Timmy the Teeth

"You gotta think about death," says Cedar Hills-based folk singer-songwriter and musician Timmy the Teeth. Not so much that you focus too much on that inevitable big sleep, but just enough to remind you to live in the present.

That's an idea Timmy explores on his new full-length album, Just Another Day. "When you look too much in the future or you live too much in the past, you neglect the current state and the now that we have right here," Timmy says. Instead, all you can do is take life "one day at a time."

To record Just Another Day, Timmy collaborated with local singer-songwriter Joshua James, with whom Timmy has toured as a drummer in his band. Produced by James at his home studio, Willamette Mountain, Just Another Day features contributions from James and other "brothers" brought togetherthrough past tours and musical collaborations, including singer-songwriter Isaac Russell, aka RuRu, who's also releasing a new record at the same show at Velour on Feb. 20.

Compared to Timmy's often solemn 2012 debut album, White Horse—also produced by James—Just Another Day has a more accessible, human-scale scope. While on White Horse, Timmy often sang symbolism-rich, Bible-influenced lyrics about apocalyptic natural disasters, the lyrics on Just Another Day—such as the halcyon, achingly familiar scenes depicted in upbeat opener "Oh, How the Times Have Changed"—are poetically mundane.

Timmy chalks up his new album's lighter tone to a shift in his mental outlook. "[White Horse] was a little more dark and had a lot of minor notes in it," he says, but recently, "I've noticed myself listening less and less to that type of music, with just the emotional state that it kind of put me in." That better mental state, he continues, "comes across as my music being a little more lighthearted, and not so serious or cryptic in my expression."

That's not to say Just Another Day isn't sometimes serious—albeit created with more major chords than White Horse—but "it's easy to listen to, and it's honest" about topics that are universally applicable to the human experience, Timmy says.

And the focus is definitely on living in the present. "Live what you want to see," Timmy says. "If you like things about the past or you wanna see things changed about your future, just make it happen. Today's another day to do it, just live your day, day by day."