Toyz
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Interviews
Forum Description: Original interviews with Prog artists (which are exclusive to Prog Archives)
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=89711
Printed Date: December 22 2024 at 18:51 Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Toyz
Posted By: ExittheLemming
Subject: Toyz
Date Posted: September 22 2012 at 02:22
Toyz (Arjan van Gog) interview
by Torodd Fuglesteg
28-11-2011
Your biography has been covered
in your ProgArchives profile so let's bypass the biography
details. Which bands were you influenced by and why did
you choose that name ?
Those are hard questions, both of them. Given that much of the music
is guitar-driven, being written for the most part by our guitar
player, I guess it's kinda inevitable that guitar heroes, such as
Vai and Satriani, have had some influence to the extent of making
the guitar the main lead instrument. No attempt is made however to
sound like those guys, far from it in fact, and I think both the
guitar playing as well as the arrangements and overall TOYZ sound
are rather distinctive.
The origin of the name is not entirely clear but it had something to
do with wanting it to sound happy rather than dark and sombre,
something that reflected the playfulness of the music. It was chosen
for the sound and it's positive connotations.
How is it to run a band in the Netherlands now and how is the music scene there ?
I guess it depends very much on what kind of band you are talking
about. Progrock has always been fairly popular in the Netherlands
but it's a small country and the genre is not as popular as it once
was. The type of music that we play does not lend itself to being
played in just any bar as background music, there'd be no point in
doing that so we don't do that. Now that we have our new CD out we
hope to attract more attention and be able to play live a lot more
than we have done, more like when we had our first album out.
Your début album Remember was
released back in 1998. Please tell us more about this album.
There's been several versions of that album actually and they were
all burned CD-R's rather than proper pressed CD's. The latest
incarnation has only three songs but it's the first one to feature a
proper fulcolour booklet and CD label. We've sold all copies but we
may have it re-issued if the new album generates sufficient
interest.
How would you describe the music
on this album ?
Very melodic, guitar driven with lush keyboards (mostly strings and
piano) and a solid foundation provided by bass guitar and drums.
Some of it might make good music for a movie, you know, the epic
kind.
The whereabouts and history of
your band since the release of this album is not known so
please update us on your story from 1998 until today.
After the album release TOYZ has had a rather successful period,
playing all kinds of festivals in the Netherlands (Westerpop, Bospop
and may others) and not restricted to just the progressive rock
scene. After that followed some experiments wit a female American
singer but somehow that didn't work out. At some point the keyboard
player decided to leave the band because of, cliché, artistic
differences and although an attempt was made to continue the band
eventually went into indefinite hiatus.
At some point I came into contact with them thinking they were still
actively looking for a keyboard player but that turned out not to be
the case. I did start another band with Peter and some other people
and we spent quite some time writing songs but the magic just wasn't
there. At some point talk begun of starting up TOYZ again with me on
keyboards and that's what eventually happened.
Unfortunately our former bass player was unable to commit himself to
TOYZ so we had to start looking for a replacement for him as well.
That search has taken us very, very long. Might well have been two
years or more, I don't care to remember. After a false start with
someone else we finally found our guy and set out to a new album
since we had many songs ready to be recorded. And we really did have
many songs ready, however during the recording process we've done a
significant amount of re-arranging and expanding many of the songs,
especially in the keyboards department. We've taken our time doing
that and we hope it shows in the final product.
A new album has just been
recorded and is ready to be unleashed upon us. Please tell us
more about this album. Music wise, what is the difference
between the new and the old material ?
Probably the biggest difference is in the keyboard parts which are
more prominent and now feature actual solos including Moog-like
synth solos, a Hammond solo or two, piano solo piece and so on.
Overall the arrangements are a bit more complex and intricate than
on the first album with more variety in sounds.
What are your plans for the next 12 months?
Play as many live gigs as possible as that's what we enjoy doing
most. It's also the best way to promote and sell our new album of
course, apart from increasing our web presence and participating
more in social media such as facebook, something we have completely
neglected to do until now.
We're hoping to plan a small tour with the support of one or two
other bands to support the new album. We also hope to be support for
some of the bigger acts. Ultimately we hope to play on festivals as
we firmly believe TOYZ is perfect for that.
In the music department we're already working on material for a
follow-up album and that's something we'll continue to do as well.
Can't say much about what direction that's heading yet though, we
have lots of material but there's so many things we can do with it
in terms of arrangement, structure and we'll probably be making
significant changes to all of it before it gets committed to disc.
To wrap up this interview, is
there anything you want to add to this discussion?
I hope people will come see us live, we like to think we put up a
good show and since our last gig we even have our own light-show,
completely synced to the music. We should probably put that on DVD
some day.
Thanks for the interview.
Kind regards,
Arjan van Gog
Toyz PA page can be found here: http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=6265" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=6265
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Replies:
Posted By: tupan
Date Posted: September 27 2012 at 09:55
I've added their new album: http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=39086" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=39086
------------- "Prog is Not Dead and never has been." (Will Sergeant, from Echo And The Bunnymen)
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