The return to anonymity was tough. For two years, the group Link Up has yet had great success, after being trained in the show pop stars. The members Lionel Tim, Otis and Matt Pokora have managed to make a name for themselves thanks to a very listened to first album. But the adventure ended as quickly as it began when Matt Pokora left the group. The husband of Christina Milian has indeed chosen to continue in the middle, but alone. A blow for his comrades, and more particularly for Lionel Tim, who had then fallen from above.
“I’ll remember it all my life, it was in our managers’ office. And he said to me: ‘I grit my teeth, I can’t stand what I’m doing anymore, I want to leave, to do my solo career.’ And I said to him: ‘Come on, let’s make a second album, you’re still young’ – he was 19 at the time – and I said to him: ‘Listen, if it doesn’t work, you’ll leave, I’ll understand it .’ And then I had to deal with that, respect his choice and go in another direction, which was variety. But I quickly realized that I was not the priority of the record companyI had to go do something else“, he confided.
I do not blame him
Because indeed, music professionals preferred to put their hopes on Matt Pokora at the time, leaving aside Lionel Tim who never met the same success as his friend. However, he assures him, there is “no jealousy“nor bad feelings.”I suffered from the injustice that was done to the record company, I don’t blame him. It was the record company that wanted to put all its energy into him, and I didn’t have the same promotional budget that Matt could have. They were betting on him. A record company is made to make money and promote artists who are going to work. I was in a variety/pop phase which was not the movement of the moment“, he acknowledges.
A denouement that Lionel Tim did not always accept so well. For a long time, he was even prone to depression, even developing suicidal thoughts. “It was a psychotherapy that helped me because it was difficult“, he admits. This difficult period is precisely the subject of his play To my star which he is currently playing in the Divine Comedy.
Lionel Tim then opened up about the reports they have today: “Every two years, we contact each other, we meet, we have benevolent contacts but it does not go further than that. Already he no longer lives in France, he shares his life between Los Angeles and here and above all he is very busy. Today I understand his choice. If he had stayed with us, he might not have had the same career and when you see where he is, I think he made the right choice. It didn’t help us, but it’s not up to him to help us, it’s up to us to help ourselves.“
Lionel Tim’s interview can be found in full HERE