Toby Corton is leading the way in the new indie movement; his indefinable sound draws on many influences from old folk to modern pop, he is the undeniable king of Brick lane. Fresh from The Premises, the studio outside Liverpool Street where he records, I met him to discuss his recent success and his plans for the future.
I sit in a small coffee shop opposite Old Spitalfields Market. It’s reminiscent of old English Tea Shops, cakes in glass domes and the menu full of crumpets with assorted toppings. From his choice of meeting place it is clear that he is in touch with English roots. I am sitting, slowly sipping on my vanilla cappuccino eagerly anticipating his arrival. I was quite excited to meet the man behind the current hype and find out what he’s about.
The bell above the door tinkles and Toby walks in. He notices me sitting in the corner and gives a small wave. He walks across the original wooden floorboards, dressed in bleach blotted skin-tight jeans, a striped blue and white tee and a baggy grey jumper. As his plimsolled feet tread the creaky floorboards, he lifts his edgy sunglasses to reveal the piercing blue eyes that are easily recognisable from the cover of his debut album.
He sits opposite me and offers his hand across the “Old English Pub” table. “Hi! How’re you doing?” He signals to the waitress and orders a hot chocolate, as Coffee stops him from sitting still. “It gives me too much energy and it makes it hard to sit still. It can be a bit annoying if I’m in the studio for a long time.”
So we carry on talking, and after a couple of vanilla cappuccinos, he’s told me all about his childhood and where he grew up. “My childhood was pretty unspectacular. I didn’t always enjoy school, but as I grew up I learnt to ignore people that tried to put me down and I focused on those that I mattered to”. I asked if he was bullied at school and his response was, “I wouldn’t say bullied. It was more people just didn’t like me and judged me because I was into music”. Any experiences he had as a child clearly haven’t affected him; he is brimming with confidence and is very open and honest with all of my questions. But there is no better reason to have confidence in one’s self, than having the current number one in the album charts.
I was quite interested in finding out how Toby became interested in music and what fuels his creativity. “I’ve always written songs. Well the lyrics to songs anyway. Ever since I can remember I used to get ideas in my head, write them down and sing them to my mum and as all mothers would, or should, do when children are at that age, she told me they were brilliant.” He laughs. “And when I found some of them lurking around at the back of cupboards, I had no idea no idea what they were about, I really couldn’t help but laugh at them.” He then goes on to tell me he has been writing songs properly since he was about 15 or 16. “ Well I started to write properly when I got my first guitar. I taught myself chords by searching out songs I liked on the Internet, learnt them and I just remembered the chords. I pieced all sorts of chords together and just thought about situations I had been in or others around me and wrote lyrics.” It’s clear to see from how he describes his music that he is very passionate about it and that when he writes he wants all of his songs to have meanings, unlike much of the modern day Pop vomit we are constantly bombarded with.
Recently Toby has come under some criticism from the media for being too cold towards them and for being a bad role model, to the younger generation that are buying his music. He tries to explain that he is doing all he can to change the negative perception of him. “It’s hard to be in the public spotlight all of the time and to be honest I’m still adapting”, he tells me. “My mum is probably the strongest inspiration and role-model I have in my life and something she told me has always stuck. If you give everything to everyone you lose yourself. I try to live by that principal, it’s good to maintain a bit of mystery, if I told everyone everything I’d have nothing left for myself and everyone would know everything about me and they’d no-longer be interested in me.” So that goes someway to explaining why people may have this negative pre-judgement of him. Who can blame him for being even a bit shy when it comes to the media; after all we sometimes forget that he is only 18, his weathered voice sometimes disguising his youth.
After hearing all about his childhood and his musical inspirations, I realise I haven’t asked him how he got into music in the first place. So I ask him. “A lot of hard work”, he jokes. He realises I was hoping for more and continues, “Well... I started of putting videos of my songs on Youtube. Just me singing with my acoustic (guitar) and then I started getting really good feedback, so I decided to audition for some local pub gigs, and then I got approached to perform at Koko. I say perform as if it was me all alone.” He stops to laugh then continues. “I was supporting Florence and the Machine just as she was starting to get big so it drew in quite a big audience and it went from there really.” It seems as though luck has played quite a big part in the take-off Toby’s career. He tells me that he doesn’t like to think of his music as a career and says that he thinks the word “career” suggests a start and an end. He recognises that he won’t always experience his current popularity but he says, “Music’s what I do and I hate to think that I will ever stop being involved in music. Nine to Five just isn’t for me!”
I thought this the most appropriate place to end our interview and outside the weather have changed, from the sunny beams of midday to the rain showers of the late afternoon. But true to himself, Toby slides on his sunglasses and walks out as if the sun was still glaring.
Toby’s album “In Your Eyes” has been in the shops since the first Monday of the month, and I honestly recommend that as soon as you’ve put down this magazine you rush to your nearest shop and purchase it before there all gone. It really does make addictive listening.
No comments:
Post a Comment