tobyslater biography



"Internet music anarchist" - XFM

"Remarkable voice" - The Tip Sheet Tip Sheet Unsigned Record of the Week 6 March 02 "Check out the excellent video on the website. Tip Sheet has always been a fan. Sign this!"

"Emotive rock with a tortured sound" - the Austin American-Statesman (re: South by Southwest festival gig, Austin, Texas)

Forthcoming gigs listed at tobyslater.com/gigs

tobyslater arrived onto the UK music scene as singer and songwriter of Virgin Records act Catch, having been managed by Hall or Nothing, who have represented acts such as the Manic Street Preachers, JJ72 and Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Catch's first single "Bingo" was released in September 1997 to some critical acclaim, described as "charming and seductive" by the influential music industry publication The Tip Sheet, which awarded the single Record of the Week. "Bingo" reached number 23 in the UK national charts and Catch were invited to play Top of the Pops, BBC TV's legendarily longest-running music show. In France, the song was voted among the best singles of 1997 by respected rock magazine Les Inrockuptibles.

Also among the press coverage came plaudits such as Smash Hits' Single of the Week and a multi-page cover story for cutting-edge fashion magazine Dazed and Confused. "Believe in magic", wrote Melody Maker; "Toby or not Toby? No Question", exclaimed the London Times in a full-page article. Internationally, Catch also made progress, scoring a radio hit across Europe and particularly in South East Asia, where "Bingo" won a Thailand number one hit. It was at this time, while travelling between countries as diverse as Denmark and Indonesia, that tobyslater first discovered the power of the Internet, after being bombarded with e-mails from listeners and subsequently starting up a busy international e-mail discussion list. This close relationship nurtured with Catch's fans would turn out to be a godsend when Catch's A&R liaison, the managing director of Virgin Records UK, left to run the American sister label. Soon Catch found that they had lost their biggest champion in the firm and after a number of changes of staff within the building decided to negotiate their way out of the deal and head separate ways.

Slater's bandmates from Catch formed a new group and moved on to sign to Polydor Records; tobyslater spent some time travelling and landed in Los Angeles, where he performed his first solo gig and forged a new, slightly darker direction while living on a shoestring playing local bars and cafˇs. There, Slater's long-time influences (David Bowie, Jeff Buckley, Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, the Beach Boys, New Wave, soul) inevitably fused with contemporary American rock music, making for a spiky but perhaps unusually melodic blend. Unfortunately the immigration service came knocking and tobyslater was forced to return to London - just in time to meet a talented backing band formed from the embers of Fire Records act Salamanda and London Records band Charlie. Meanwhile, having witnessed in California the fervour surrounding the online music scene, Slater's fascination with the Internet escalated, until in March 2000 he launched the website www.tobyslater.com, which was to become an online listening post and community for all those interested (or not interested) in his music.

As hoped, the website is proving an excellent launchpad for tobyslater's second attack on the music scene. Gaining anywhere up to 3,000 unique visitors a day from more than 100 countries across the world, the site offers music downloads, video, writing, artwork and cellphone ringtones among other features. It was voted by the public as one of the Top 100 music sites on the entire Web as part of the UK's Online Music Awards and a trimmed-down micro version of the site was licensed by TV company World Productions (makers of hit dramas such as "This Life" and "The Cops") for their BBC TV show Attachments and its accompanying website Seethru.co.uk. Uniquely, tobyslater was the first UK act to be promoted as part of controversial file sharing service Napster's exclusive "Featured Artist Program" alongside international acts such as Kristen Hersh, Sigur Ros and Guided by Voices. The promotion gained a great deal of press coverage and resulted in tens of thousands of downloads of Slater's song "THE NEXT LIFE".

But the focus is still very strongly on the songs, and tobyslater has been fortunate enough to work with some of England's most interesting producers, such as Andy Lovegrove of AwayTEAM who works from the studio of million-selling rock band Radiohead and has produced Mercury Award-winning act Badly Drawn Boy; Stephen Street cohort Cenzo Townshend; and Baz Cox who engineered nu-metal band Vex Red with legendary American producer Ross Robinson. tobyslater was one of only a handful of artists to play two showcases at the prestigious In The City 2000 music festival in Manchester, England, with In The City's own review stating "...there's enough here to suggest that lightning does strike twice." And although first real-world single "CONSUMPTION" is not yet released, "virtual single" release "FOR YOU", which was made available via the Internet in a special beta trial with American/Spanish joint-venture company Trymedia Systems, was awarded as MP3 Song of the Week in no less than four separate media outlets across the USA, UK, Belgium and Hong Kong. ("Beautiful, simplistic and all-too-short" - The Update; "Slater's songs are trimmed of fat and thrash elastically. The whole package - site, music, attitude - is a kick" - Topica.) The song was chosen to accompany the end credits of the documentary "Secrets and Lines" for national UK TV station Channel Four and up-and-coming illustrator William Eagar, designer of the cover art for British rock band Muse, was moved to create an intriguing full-length animated film to accompany the song.

Slater's understanding of and passion for distributing music over the Internet means that he's been invited to speak at several conferences such as IIR's Music.Online, DDMI Europe, In The Web 2000 and In The City/Interactive City - even lecturing as a Visiting Professor to Breton Hall College of Music. He has also been interviewed by all manner of publications including Spanish broadsheet El Pais, German website Telepolis, popular US technology site Wired.com and the New York Post, as well as appearing in the BBC TV documentary "That Thing", talking alongside members of US rock group Metallica about Internet file-sharing, and on national radio station BBC Five Live. Though his vision may be independent and individual, tobyslater was chosen by British Music Rights, a UK trade body for composers and songwriters, to represent its "Respect the Value of Music" campaign. Slater's comments and interview appears on British Music Rights' website, press statements and other publicity alongside those of well-known artists and composers such as Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, Don Black and David Arnold.

Taking a lead from the prankster ethic of some of his non-musical idols such as Joey Skaggs, Michael Moore and Kalle Lasn, in December tobyslater launched PressPlayster.com - a biting parody of the major-label online subscription services such as MusicNet and Pressplay. The site has been covered by the Hollywood Reporter, MP3 Newswire, ChartAttack.com, Reuters and German newspaper Der Spiegel, receiving nearly 450,000 unique visitors so far, including visits from all the major labels, Microsoft, the RIAA, IFPI and RealNetworks; tobyslater even received messages of support from employees at secure digital music companies including Liquid Audio! But the PressPlayster satire runs hand in hand alongside Slater's ongoing fascination with the political side of life - obviously the politics of music and the digital arena, but also the culture-jamming of major companies, the emphasis on environmental and social issues over profits espoused by writers such as George Monbiot and Naomi Klein and more recently the growing peace and anti-war sentiment. The thoughts section of www.tobyslater.com contains several similar spoofs as well as more serious full-length opinion pieces along these lines - visitors to the site are encouraged to chime in with their own responses on the site's messageboard or contributions page.

tobyslater's forthcoming single release, "CONSUMPTION", mixed by Mark "Spike" Stent (U2, Madonna), is his solo debut and is already picking up specialist play on the UK's XFM, SBN and Radio One (John Peel). Following his packed showcase at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, the single has been championed by 101X KROX, DMX Radio, and high-rotation on Ohio's WOXY FM; US indie magazine Pop Culture Press, which added CONSUMPTION to the covermount CD of its South by Southwest issue, describes tobyslater's music as "Smart, hook-heavy songwriting...that rings emotionally true...we have played it incessantly since it got here."

The disc contains two remixes, one by UK number two-charting electronica act The Cuban Boys and two videos, including a high-quality version of the Consumption film shown at starbuckscocacolagap.com, which has become a viral Internet hit with over 89,000 downloads since the end of February. Drawing on Slater's preoccupation with the anti-globalisation movement and sounding not unlike an updated, electro take on the revolutionary anthems of Billy Bragg or Elvis Costello, the song takes a visceral yet acerbic strike back at the corporations who shape our lives.

Perhaps your own employer is listed in the roll-call....

further information, music, video, art, net radio, ringtones and more at www.tobyslater.com