Timothy Michael Koch; born on Pease Air Force Base, Portsmouth, NH
nicknames: TK, Tim, Timmy
loves: “My wife Ashley, my two dogs Rhea and Molly, my mom and my brother,
a select few among all those, past and present who I have called friends, all of whom I love dearly.”
“In high school I ran a mile in 4 minutes and 36 seconds, 4 seconds short of my school record. Now I smoke a pack a day. I spent a lot time running from the cops in high school, for things like toilet papering the nearby park and stealing political signs from people’s yards (the inspiration for our high school band name Traub, a state senate candidate in 2000). But due to my running abilities and knowledge of the back roads and rail trails in my hometown, I was never caught, except for that one time when I was 18. We were carrying a keg through the park from my friends house, where his parents were having a holiday party, to my garage. In order to lighten the load we decided to fill our cups for the journey. The cops were waiting for us on the other side of the park. It’s hard to run with a keg.”
“I started playing trumpet in 4th grade band . I was still playing that same trumpet senior year of high school even though it was terribly dented, and was still playing that same dented trumpet in Sgt. Dunbar and the Hobo Banned. At the urging of my mom, my brother taught me some guitar chords in 9th grade. I didn’t take to it well, and he tried again my junior year of high school. This time I picked it up and almost immediately started a band with my pals. We named the band Traub after Jim Traub, a candidate running for State Senate (I think?) in 2000, his was one of the many political signs we stole from people’s yards. We were the only rock band that existed in my town. We played covers of Jimmy Eat World, Steppenwolf, Radiohead, Simon and Garfunkel and The Strokes among others. We also played a few original songs I wrote. We put on probably the first and only basement rock show to ever happen in Oneida, NY.
“Sgt Dunbar and the Hobo Banned formed junior year of college (2005). Before that I played bass in an art-rock band called Proost!. I have numerous real and imaginary side projects: the Hoborchestra, Suburban Pistol League (southern rock), Prince Henry the Navigator (colonial-era inspired hip-hop), Respect Benedict (matrimonial music), Sad Toast (cheery grunge), Man Scouts (fucking punk rock), the Yamaha PSR-300 (noise), and Sidewalk (a capella Pavement cover-band), to name a few.”
“The B3nson Collective, which formed around the nucleus of Sgt. Dunbar and The Parlor, is unique, I think. Maybe it’s not, but it feels special enough that I think it must be. Never would I have expected to find myself surrounded by such a talented group of people, but more importantly, they are supportive, loving and plain wonderful human beings. When I “gaveled in” the start of the first B3nson meeting in 2009, I had no idea how important it would become to so many people, or that The Parlor would be doing a national release of this caliber under the collective’s umbrella.” -TK