[2] Leaving Liverpool's Sandown Music College after one year of studies,[2][3] Follin's career began at the age of 15 working at Insight Studios.
[5] Hired by Richard Kay, Tim followed brother Mike in moving to Software Creations[2] in 1987, his first full-time job, where he spent a significant portion of his career.
[3] Within the level 1 music of Ghouls'n Ghosts for the Amiga is a voice sample played backwards saying "secret authority", considered nothing more than a joke by Follin.
Beside contributing the soundtrack with brother Geoff, Follin recorded live sound effects for 1993 SNES title Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends.
[5] Citing a declining work environment,[10] Follin departed Software Creations in 1993 (with his final title there being Rock N' Roll Racing).
Follin joined the development team of Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future as the title's lead composer around mid-1998,[2] leaving Attila Heger no longer responsible for providing the entirety of the soundtrack.
"[13] While with Software Creations, Follin had previously arranged the Starsky & Hutch television series' theme as the title music to the 1991 NES release Treasure Master.
Around August 2005, Follin announced on his website "with much delight" that he had chosen to stop composing music for video games, citing its irregular work not providing a substantial income, light-heartedly adding that the situation caused him "distress and illness".
[7] Within his personal experience, Follin always found the hardest part of creating music to be the concept phase, saying "I probably tear my hair out more over arrangement than over anything else."
[2] Follin felt the idea of computer music was "a silly one to begin with", as soundchips from the earliest platforms (e.g. ZX Spectrum) were only meant to produce sound effects.
[1] Though Follin knew few fellow video game composers, he highly respected Richard Jacques for the amount of work put into his music.
[3] Follin acknowledged that in one instance he went for a more contemporary style when scoring the award-winning soundtrack[2] to Bionic Commando, actively choosing to mimic other people's music for fear of potentially losing his job.
"[2] Follin did not have much time to listen to the work of his musical contemporaries while in the video games industry, a situation he implied as having been a benefit to his career.
Follin speculated that in actively listening to those works, he likely ran the risk of encountering ideas he had not thought of and subsequently becoming discouraged and/or prone to copycatting.
Given another chance, Follin said he would have given more effort toward making his earlier soundtracks better suited to the games, feeling that his failure to do so (despite the compositional quality) likely cost him future work.
[17] Follin also never had the interest to join a demoscene group, though, near the end of his time working with Commodore platforms, he claimed he enjoyed himself when he made music.
[7] His most notable work using sampled instruments was the soundtrack to Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future, an experience he enjoyed, but also felt frustrated with on account of "a lack of equipment and resources – such as a string orchestra and choir!
[19] Several contemporaries of Follin's have cited him as an inspiration or top composer including Richard Jacques,[22] Jesper Kyd,[23] David Wise,[24] Frédéric Motte,[25] Markus Schneider,[26] Matt "Gasman" Westcott,[18] Ramiro "Extremer" Vaca,[27] graphic artist Haydn Dalton,[28] and programmer Dean Belfield.
In April 2010, Follin joined Matt Barraclough and Paul Ambler to form ABF Pictures Ltd., a company making TV commercials, web videos, and music promos.
In 2013, he started a company to embrace his various interests and skills, called Baggy Cat Ltd. Follin has expressed that he does not use recreational drugs, perhaps counter to inferences made by fans of his music.