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High Times
Joined: 25 Oct 2004
Posts: 744
Location: music written by JK/Toby Smith
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 Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 13:22 |
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Toby Smith in Keyboard Review: May 1997
one guy asked me about Toby's equipment
so as now this information is difficult to get online
i decided to post this interview with Toby Smith
so everyone who reads can learn what instruments give this cool sound they hear in albums of the band plus you can learn some cool things for example about his taste in music
| Quote: |
Alright...
Jamiroquai's Keysman Toby Smith
Sam Molineaux |
Special thanks to Alanna Quirk for providing me with this article.
They're definitely not part of the Britpop scene... Sam Molineaux finds out that these quirky retro funk boys owe more to Uncle Sam than Old Blighty for their musical influences...
It's a sunny afternoon on the streets of San Francisco, and the word is that Jamiroquai are in town. There has been an underground buzz for a few weeks, following the January US release of the band's third album, 'Travelling Without Moving', and the first US single from it, Cosmic Girl, but no-one's really that sure who they are or where they've come from... No wonder. With their strongly American-influenced '70s sound, you could be forgiven for thinking they were native-born, raised on a strict diet of Stevie Wonder and P-funk. Even their name is taken from a native American tribe -- the Iroquois. But these boys are English, in their mid-20s and relative newcomers to the US-flavoured sound they've adopted as their own.
Of course, this isn't their first visit to the States, but this time round there's a new vibe, a stronger more assured sound from an album that shows none of the hesitancy and discomposure of the previous 'Return Of The Space Cowboy'. Outside the famous Bimbos Club in Fishermans Wharf the fans clearly know what to expect. Crowds of kids have gathered, many dressed in the baggy flares and big 'Dr Seuss' hats made fashionable by the band's outrageous frontman, Jay Kay, perhaps eager to get their first live taste of this new retro funk. Jamiroquai are sound checking -- wah-wah keys and deep funky bass leak out into the late afternoon air.
Alternative to Britpop
Formed five years ago in London, the band's first fruit was the distinctive When You Gonna Learn, an instant hit which led to them signing an eight-album deal with Sony. Their first album, 'Emergency On Planet Earth', showcasing this hit and the follow-up, We're Too Young To Die, went storming straight to the top of the UK album charts, assuring success in a market overflowing with Beatles soundalikes.
"We're definitely not a part of the Britpop thing," assures Toby Smith, keyboard player and one half of the Jamiroquai writing partnership. "We do pretty much American black music. All the artists we listen to are black Americans: Roy Ayres, Herbie Hancock, Marvin Gaye, Donald Byrd, that sort of genre. I was late into this stuff, though -- I'm 26 now and I met Jay when I was 22. I hadn't really ever been into that music up until then. It was all house and then before that I was into rock -- David Bowie, Hendrix and stuff. So when I started writing with Jay I was right in at the deep end, but it was good in a way because I wasn't saturated in that type of music so it gave a different angle."
As the son of jazz singer Karen Kay, and having spent a good proportion of his childhood on the road with his mother, both in Britain and in America, Jay Kay was more attuned to the sort of music he aspired towards creating, and with the keyboard skills and musicianship of Toby Smith added to the equation, Jamiroquai have achieved success while bands like The Brand New Heavies and the Young Disciples have remained in the wings. "The whole point of Jamiroquai is Jay," says Smith, somewhat modestly. "He's the difference, you know, because it's the '90s, he's a young guy, he dances the way he dances and he says what he says -- that's what makes us different from the others."
But it would be unfair not to credit Smith with much of Jamiroquai's distinctive sound. As well as writing half the music, and providing the musical support for Kay's vocal and melodic ideas, his keyboard contribution is paramount to their sound. For this, he uses mostly traditional jazz/funk electronic pianos and hands-on programmable synths.
Bargain gear
"What's the point of a synthesiser that you can't synthesise with? If you want a trumpet, go and get someone to play the trumpet. Analogue synths are there to create new sounds, and it's the sounds that do it for me," he insists. "On stage I've got a Fender Rhodes and a Hohner Clavinet; then I've got a new Yamaha CS1x which is like a programmable analogue digital synth, a Nord Lead and a Moog Source. Obviously for live stuff, the analogue synths I use have to have programs -- originally, I played with a Mini-Moog, but it was just a nightmare because I could never get there in time to change the sounds between one tune and the next. So the Moog I'm using now has 16 programs which is very cool."
Smith uses the Suitcase 88 version of the Fender Rhodes, but complaints from disgruntled roadies meant he had to make certain modifications. "I had to take the bottom bit -- the amplifier -- off, because the roadies got so fed up with carting it around. It was only a glorified stand anyway because I wasn't using it. So now I've got this little box which takes a direct out, including all the vibrato and tone controls, which makes it a lot easier. I also use an Electric Mistress phaser and a wah-wah pedal on the Fender. For the rest of the stuff I use an Ibanez Autowah which gives a great '70s sound. It has an auto filter which produces this wow-wow-wow sort of sound. Then I've got delay on the Moog. I have all my keyboards plugged into an in-line mixer, a rackmount thing, so I can mix my own monitor which is important as I've got six instruments on the go a lot of the time." For piano sounds, however, he makes an exception to his anti-digital rule. "Actually, I use a Yamaha P150; it's definitely the best-sounding piano I could find. I ended up using it on the album, too. We wrote Virtual Insanity on it and when we went into the studio to record the song properly I tried it on a Steinway and on a Bechstein, but it just wasn't happening, so I stuck with the Yamaha.
"The Moog Source I found in Canada. It was $100! I've just got an Oberheim OB1 which I bought yesterday in LA. I had a field day in Japan, too -- in every city, I go off and explore the music shops."
Live and kicking
One of the things that sets Jamiroquai apart from many of their contemporaries is their insistence on the importance of playing live -- and always without the aid of sequencers or tape backing tracks. As a result, the stage is pretty crowded, with an expanded band of ten players which includes a horn section, didgeridoo player and a live DJ "scratching on the side". But with such a keyboard-led sound, and only the one keyboard player, it does mean that Smith has to reduce down his keyboard part to cover just the important bits. "On the albums there are a lot of keyboard overdubs. That's a problem live because I've only got two hands! I have to choose the most important line and distil down what people aren't going to miss."
Messing about with their own arrangements is fine, but what really riles them is other people remixing their tracks. It's no secret that David Morales' remix of their earlier hit Return Of The Space Cowboy rescued the sales of their second album -- it was one of the biggest dance club hits of '95 -- but they were unhappy with his treatment of the track.
"We've been unfortunate. At the moment, especially in London, all they play in the clubs is house stuff, which means it's difficult to get our stuff played in clubs, except for alternative clubs. So you have to get these remixes, but the ones that we happen to have had done have been really cheesy. The Space Cowboy one was just cheese, and totally unmusical. David Morales has just done a remix of Cosmic Girl, too, but this time it's a lot better. We also invited Todd Terry to do a remix of it because he'd done the Everything But The Girl remix which was okay -- it worked, but he obviously spent less than two hours doing ours. It's... no comment. It's just a shame that the record companies feel they have to use these remixes; that they can't sell our singles on their own merits."
Even so, their latest album 'Travelling Without Moving' is selling on its own merit. With a tighter sound than the previous two albums and a sharply distinctive funky flavour (they sound even more like Stevie Wonder circa 1973-4 this time), it doesn't look set to move from the Top 40 for some time yet. So what set this album apart from the previous two? "As the band has grown, we've grown as musicians, attempting to find a sound that's really us. I would say that the latest album is a bit of a departure from the last one. The first album did really well -- we were fresh and it was very easy; there wasn't any pressure. But the second album, Jay had a few problems getting it together. He lost his concentration and it was all a bit hurried -- never felt grounded. This time though we had some time for pre-production. Just Jay and I in his studio for a month with a little drum kit and a couple of Tascam DA88s, where we sat down and really got things together. We sketched out about five of the tunes and we were able to think about the direction of the album much more. We had in our minds that we wanted to go the next rung up the ladder and try and get it that much bigger, to get access to more people."
Funky formula
Well, they've certainly done that. In the UK alone, 'Travelling Without Moving' was ranked as the fifteenth top-selling album of '96, despite its September release. With two singles from the album having already outsold any of the singles from the previous album, early April sees the release of a third to coincide with their subsequent UK dates: the heavily keyboard-flavoured number, Alright -- a tune which Smith claims took just five minutes to write. "The troublesome tunes will happen over weeks, but the good ones will take only five minutes. On this album, nearly every tune happened very quickly -- me or Jay would come up with the idea and, bosh, the tune was there. When we had to record them, you have to overdub; that's what takes time -- getting them on tape."
For now, though, Smith is looking forward to the final European leg of their world tour, and he's already formulating ideas for their next album, which he claims is going to feature more programming with a bit more of a club feel, still with the funky vibe, though -- "more sort of early-'80s P-funk". When they return from the States, they're booked in the studio to record the theme music for ITV's new Formula One show -- a consolidation of their passion for music and fast cars -- both Jay Kay and Toby Smith have Ferraris and Lamborghinis in their car collections.
If tonight's performance at Bimbos is anything to go by, they may be travelling but they sure are moving; fusing all the energy of British music with the best of America's recent past, and coming up with a formula that's fresh, funky and solid, unrivalled by any other current live act on either side of the Atlantic. Alright! |
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freeetz!
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Posts: 351
Location: Ukraine
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| Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 21:47 |
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Thank you so much, High Times! Interesting stuff.
I wonder how Toby did all those superb arrangements on EOPE if he hadn't listened to much jazz/funk music before that! He's a genius. 
It's obvious though, that Sam Molineaux doesn't like ROTSC... unfair!  |
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FunkEducation
Joined: 15 Jul 2004
Posts: 3309
Location: Maracay, Venezuela
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| Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 23:26 |
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| Toby Smith wrote: |
| I also use an Electric Mistress phaser and a wah-wah pedal on the Fender. |
Jay used an Electric Mistress on his album Dynamite and didn't work out! hahaha pathetic song!
but incredible interview! it was just an amazing part of the lovely sound Jamiroquai had on the 90's!!!
love u Toby Smith for all the music done!!
_________________
This is FunkEducation, supporting the 1992-1998 Jamiroquai!!
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