Growing up, there was always music in the home of Tim Johnston's family. Tim's "extreme shyness" as a kid, though, meant it would be a while before he would sing with anyone else but his sister.

"In my teenage years I got more confident," remembers Tim. "My sister started a band and dragged me to sing in church, but before that I would never have done it."

As well as Muswellbrook, NSW, Tim and his family lived in Queensland, which he credits with deepening his love of music. "When we moved schools, it was a really musical school, so I thought, ‘I’m gonna turn over a new leaf, I love singing’, and I joined the choir," Tim says. "There were a lot of Aboriginal and South Sea Islanders there and they have really great gospel songs and I really just fell in love with that style of music and soul as well, from mum and dad’s records."

As a minister, Tim's father and his family lived in the manse next to the church and at night, Tim would head next door to sing to the empty pews. "I'd just sing for a couple of hours into the night,” Tim recalls. “I got lost in singing and music, that’s just my love. But it’s totally different, though, when you start doing it in front of people!"

“I didn’t believe I was talented enough to get out there and do music full time,” says Tim, who’s been working as a barista in a Newcastle café. “It’s been a bit of an uphill battle against myself – to keep my own confidence to keep pursuing it.”

Now he’s in the Final 12 of Idol, though, Tim’s contemplating a future full of music, in addition to some other goals close to his heart. “I’d love to be doing music full time, to be a recording artist and to be touring,” he says. “I just love being with people and connecting with an audience…And I’d love to have a family some day, get married, and I really want a dog!”