Toy

oy’s origins are complex. Once a side project of another collaboration, it grew wings and gained momentum after the line up was selected. Wanting to have access to the entire sound world available now, a process of constructing our instruments began. From the acoustic we worked backwards, deconstructing and reconstructing, engineering and re-engineering what we felt was to be the final set up. Working in electronics, there are no rules. Only exploration.
Thankfully, with the people involved now it has finally stabilised in September of this year. The skeleton of the band is Tomas Gall, a Slovakian Jazz drummer extraordinaire now pushing the boundaries of rhythm itself with an electro-acoustic hybrid kit that is more orchestra than instrument. The muscle of the band is David Duffy, a MA composer and bass player, filling the low end with every conceivable sound possible. Harmonically, James Fortune uses the familiar guitar in unfamiliar ways, surrounded in an analogue laboratory, pulling at the walls of the parameters of each song. Trying to weave through this is Peter Power, another MA composer and writer who provides the voice, when a voice is needed.
These roles however are loose and dynamic, each member playing what’s required for each song. Ultimately for us it’s about the final sound, not about the roles. We see ourselves as producers performing live. We hope we are seen simply as Toy. No one above another, no instrument more important.