TOBY: JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE GROOVE!
June 2003
Unless you’ve been living under a rock at the bottom of the sea, you’ll definitely have heard of Maltese DJ/producer Toby! Chances are you’ve even downed a few vodkas to the beat of his metaphorical drum, and, given a shot or two closer to the gods, not even noticed him mixing away up in the elevated DJ stand at the popular vodka bar, Qube. Well, just in case your head has been in the clouds for the past 18 months or so, Toby’s music has been hitting both the airwaves and the clubs at a regular and unrelenting pace, most recently via his energetic remix of Scream Daisy’s Talking To Myself! This is of course only the latest of a lengthy list of songs that Toby has been producing, including hit picks such as On The Shore, Higher and I Don’t Want Your Love, to name but a few! I met up with Toby for a casual chat about music and also about his debut album Journey Beyond The Sun, which is released this month.
What better place to start from, if not the past. Going back through the years, Toby has played in several bands, mainly within a rock sphere – a whole world away from the electronic sounds he is associated with nowadays. I asked Toby what bearing does his musical past as a drummer with rock bands like Theater and Sanity have on his current direction, given the obvious contrast.” Yes, there is a total contrast, but even in a heavy song, we always included melodic breaks and an overall feel to our songs, not just flat out noise with no emotion. I feel it is this same approach that I have carried over into the music I am producing now; it is the reason why I prefer to compose trance music rather than straight-up house, which can be a bit repetitive” Interestingly, Toby actually started off playing piano as a kid, trying his hand at guitar and bass at first but settling for drums because “it felt like a good way to vent out frustration”!
But how exactly does a ‘rocker’ switch over to electronic dance music? Well, if Moby can do it, then Toby can too, I guess! Or, as Toby himself puts it, “towards the end of being in a band, I started to listen to loads of dance music and go to parties – which was a ‘sin’ by heavy metal’ standards, of course – but I eventually got lured into DJ-ing and then writing my own songs”. The DJ-ing itself was already quite rewarding, with Toby earning prestigious slots alongside the likes of international DJ’s such as Dave Angel, Sister Bliss, Quicksilver and Trevor Rockcliff, but the first real fruits of his new labors were the songs Imagine and Forever, The two tracks expressed freely the progressive slant of Toby’s newly acquired taste for uplifting dance music, and reflected his pretty rooted musical background. In hindsight, those dreaded piano lessons as a kid didn’t sound like such a bad thing after all!
Another important factor in Toby’s music is the melodic aspect. “Melody is why I largely stick to trance-influenced music”, he tells me, “but it that doesn’t mean that I don’t branch out into other genres too”. In fact, going by the tracks we listen to at his cosy home studio, there’s all sorts in the mix – chilled beats, electro, house, trance – the lot, basically – but always within a defined level of melodic element. But, what is the difference really? “Well, I can listen to and appreciate a good house track, but a great trance track can go much deeper – when you get the gooseflesh, that’s got to be a great tune, and especially if I’m a bit tippled…”
Euphoric is the word that suddenly springs to mind here and it also pretty much defines the drive behind Toby’s music. Having appreciated the essence of several Toby tracks, including one of his personal favourites called Sunscape (which may or not feature vocals once it is finalized), it is not difficult to get into the vibe of the music. It is admittedly both catchy and familiar – Chicane for example, is the first to come to mind – and with good reason too, since, along with that musical genius from yesteryear, Mike Oldfield, he is one of Toby’s major influences! The trick then must be to steer clear of becoming cheesy, and Toby does this by focusing on enhancing the music’s uplifting vibe, which many will often interpret as a spiritual feeling. Going back to Chicane, think of Saltwater (cited by Toby as possibly one of the greatest songs ever written) – yes, that’s exactly the feeling!
But surely, no one is in a good mood all of the time, so curiously I ask Toby about the songwriting process. As I anticipated, he will not even try to write if he’s in a bad mood. If he’s happy or sad, it’s just fine, but if he’s frustrated or on edge, then it’ll probably be a wicked session on the synth to let it all out, but that’s probably only because there’s no space to have the drum kit on standby for instant therapy! On a more serious note, most of the music actually comes out of the blue, even when he’s sleeping, which of course can’t really be that entertaining for his girlfriend, can it? “Not really (thought so!), but you can’t risk losing a good tune now, can you?” No of course not, which is why having your whole studio a few steps away comes in rather handy I suppose?
And maybe it’s because he doesn’t talk in his sleep, but most of Toby’s songs are instrumental, with only very few vocals interspersed for added effect. ”Yes, well, as I see it, the instrumentals do seem to go down really well in the clubs, but as far as the radio airplay goes, it is the more vocal tracks, like I Don’t Want Your Love, for example, that fared well. Obviously it is rewarding that other people like what I am doing, especially because I have to like the song first before I let anyone listen to it. I am not writing music solely for other people to like – well, maybe just the house tracks”! Fair enough, after all, we know what happens to pop music when the corporate hand takes over – which is why we have so many Britney’s, Barbie Girls and Las Ketchup’s all over the place!
But, back to Toby – actually, back to Toby’s recent remix of Scream Daisy’s Talking To Myself. What was that like, I wonder? “Well, it was a challenge in that adapting a total rock-based song to a dance rhythm can be tricky. So basically, the best thing was to do what I did, which was to scrap the guitars and rebuild the song around sparse helpings of Jotham’s filtered vocals and present it as a new song entirely”. On closer listen in fact, the remix is more akin to Toby’s work than to Scream Daisy’s original. And, as I understand, there are other remix projects in the pipeline, including a pretty nifty remix of a well-known tune. However, since nothing’s finalized yet, that’s all we can reveal right now!
While you’re waiting, however, you may want to check Toby’s debut album, which is focused on venturing beyond the all-too-easy formula of releasing a straightforward collection of already familiar singles. Instead, the album is more of a musical journey that encompasses several electronic genres, including electro, chilled out cuts, tribal beats, house and uplifting trance. Journey Beyond The Sun also involves close collaborations with other musicians, namely Shaun Grech (Syrup), Jotham (Scream Daisy), Coryse Borg and many others.
Meanwhile, there is still other work to be done, such as Toby’s weekly stints at Qube; the occasional performance at some dance event or other; his brand new weekly radio show on Bay Radio and also the odd foreign engagement. You may also want to check out a new compilation called Euphoria (out on EMI in the UK), which will also feature some of Toby’s songs.
Read our August 2003 review of Toby's CD here!
Recommended weblink: www.tobymusic.net
