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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 Dec 28, 2004 13:58 |
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~~~~~~~TOBY SMITH EXCLUSIVE ~~~~~~~
Toby Smith: From pop to property
The last place you would expect to find the co-founder and keyboard player of Jamiroquai, Toby Smith, is living in an old country vicarage dreaming of a future as a minor-league property tycoon.
But six months ago Smith left the band which, with frontman Jay Kay, reinvented urban white funk for the Nineties. 'Property is the only thing I would have done if I hadn't been a musician,' he says.
The only immediate giveaways are the black-and-white photographs taken by Smith on the arch across the kitchen. These include several of Jay Kay, the man with whom Smith co-wrote most of Jamiroquai's best-known hits over ten years until his sudden departure mid-tour last May.
'We are still very good friends,' says Toby. Jay Kay lives up the road in Princes Risborough in an even more traditional Georgian pile. 'It was rendered all over in white - it looked like an American shack,' says Toby. He advised his friend to strip the render and 'get back to the bricks'.
'He's just finished replacing the whole of the outer shell brick by brick at a massive cost - I'm not going to say how much. But it looks amazing.'
A keen interest in exterior decor is not the only surprising thing about Toby Grafton Smith - to give him his full name.
The 32-year-old son of a City banker - educated at Marlborough College in Wiltshire, where he was a music scholar - was offered a place at Trinity College, Cambridge - to read architecture before dropping out to join the rave club scene.
He was in London playing for a variety of bands when a friend introduced Jay Kay. A month later Jay arranged another meeting - at which he proposed a songwriting partnership. 'He said something like, "Stick with me, son," and I did. And thank God I did. We wouldn't be sitting here today talking about big Georgian houses if I hadn't.'
Three months later Jay Kay had a contract with Sony, and four months later their first album, Emergency On Planet Earth, was No 1. 'It was so easy,' says Toby. 'I only realised how lucky we were years later.'
When the rewards of the million-selling albums started to come through, he put much of it into property. 'It seemed like the right thing to do. In 1994 the market was depressed. Rather than stick the money in the place most people in my position do - up their nose - I thought I'd rather put it in bricks and mortar.'
He bought his first flat in Wandsworth Bridge Road, South-West London, in 1993, for £78,000 and bought the flat underneath it three years later. He then bought a run-down mews off North End Road - and a children's bookshop and other flats in Wandsworth Bridge Road. 'I've always done a bit of wheeling and dealing. Either cars or property.'
It helps that his partner, Gabby Crewe-Read, 28, with whom he has a four-year-old daughter, Anastasia, has family connections in the interiors business: her mother has an interior design company called Grand Union Design and her uncle is a cabinet-maker.
Her father is the antiques dealer David Crewe-Read, who advised Andrew Lloyd Webber on buying Victorian art. His influence shows in the many whimsical Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite-style pictures Gabby has hung everywhere.
Toby bought the house as a refuge from the intense demands of writing, recording and touring. 'After recording, you'd tour for a year, being away for a month at a time, then back for a week, then off for another month.
'All the time I would be thinking, "What's Chris the builder doing with the RSJs [rolled-steel joists]?" - stuff like that. I love all that.'
In the end, the strain of being away from home told and Toby walked out last summer - it wasn't fun any more.
He was drawn to the area around Aylesbury because it was where he spent much of his childhood before moving to London - coincidentally, the expensive pre-prep his daughter goes to is attached to the same prep school he went to 20 years ago.
'Gabby and I were just driving past the vicarage and said, "That's a nice house." We knocked on the door and said, "If you ever fancy selling, let us know" - and the owner said, "Well, actually, we are."'
They bought it four years ago. Nothing had been done to it since the Thirties so they stripped the place down, including doors and windows, and replaced much of the infrastructure, such as wiring and plumbing.
'We've done everything to this place. It wasn't the kind of house that was sacrilege to do up. It's not listed. We put in the cornicing but the fireplaces and locks are original.'
Such details matter to Toby. 'I caught a builder trying to put a crosshead screw in one of the door hinges and I was like, "Aaaagh!" We had to find the original nail. To me an original window is an antique to be revered.'
There was some structural work. 'We got rid of the second staircase at the back of the kitchen. As soon as I came in I took a sledgehammer to it myself - really satisfying - and made a playroom for Anastasia, putting in another window for more light.'
The house is very light, largely thanks to a new skylight they put in above the main staircase. They also knocked the kitchen through to the dining room at the front of the house.
Upstairs are four large bedrooms and one small one, three of them en suite. The master bedroom easily accommodates their four-poster. Another, decked out in gleaming deep scarlet, he calls, jokingly, his 'porn room'.
Downstairs are three decent-size receptions: the dining room, the sitting room looking out over six acres at the rear and the drawing room.
Toby has done his research. The old heart of the house is early 1700s; the front is 1780, with the main drawing room area done in 1888 (a structural beam is held up with two oak pillars signed with that date).
'We are hardly ever in here - except when I play the piano,' says Toby. The white Yamaha is about the only clue in the house to a pop star in residence - until you get to the studio.
It is a cramped succession of rooms full of keyboards, a mixer desk kit, guitars and drums - and awards for his multi-platinum albums, videos and the like stuffed on shelves. This is one of the main reasons he is leaving: it simply isn't big enough for his new career as a producer/songwriter.
'I'm buying a new house - a Georgian rectory - where I can put in a decent studio. It has a bungalow with it. A lot of bands like to lock themselves away in the country. It's a good way of making the house pay for itself.'
He will miss the house, and particularlythe garden. They have done huge amounts of work to it, turning part of the field area back into lawn and planting trees and hedges.
An avenue of yew and beech was intended to echo that at nearby Ascot House - home to David Rothschild, a childhood friend - but the beeches didn't take.
That aside, the traditional English garden and abundant kitchen garden are delightful. But anyone wanting to keep the gardener on will be disappointed - they are taking him with them to the new house.
Ironically, just as Toby is finding a more settled way to pursue his career, Gabby is likely to be away from home more: she is training to be an actress. 'I've given up the touring life and she's about to embark on it,' he says.
At least he'll be there to supervise the putting in of the RSJs.
.
from "this is london":
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/homes/news/articles/5553331?source=Daily+Mail |
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KMackdaddy1972
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
Posts: 323
Location: Cranston-Rhode Island, USA
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| Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2004 19:03 |
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Awesome interview thatnks for posting it!!
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I used to worry about the future
But then I threw my caution to the wind.....
Peace,
KMack |
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muzzander
Joined: 09 Oct 2004
Posts: 132
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 14:29 |
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damn...i wish i could have a home studio like that...
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Selamat Pagi Dunia |
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KMackdaddy1972
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
Posts: 323
Location: Cranston-Rhode Island, USA
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| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 20:14 |
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I think we all wish we could have a home studio like that...except for High Times that is.
_________________
I used to worry about the future
But then I threw my caution to the wind.....
Peace,
KMack |
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Supersonic1
Joined: 16 Apr 2004
Posts: 773
Location: Rio Rancho, New Mexico, USA
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| Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2004 07:46 |
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It's always nice to read that particular piece on Toby. I hope his project with Jamie Scott turns out well, even though the U.S. stands a snowball's chance in hell of getting it.
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"...I feel that Jamiroquai needs to be taken to another stage now. It really does. Otherwise, I have to be honest, I can see a situation where...there is a possibility that you become lost in the annals of acid jazz history." -- Jason Kay |
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KMackdaddy1972
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
Posts: 323
Location: Cranston-Rhode Island, USA
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| Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2004 14:07 |
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| Supersonic1 wrote: |
| It's always nice to read that particular piece on Toby. I hope his project with Jamie Scott turns out well, even though the U.S. stands a snowball's chance in hell of getting it. |
So true so true Supersonic..but cheer up there are lot of international people here on this site and I'm sure we can score copies from our friends out here. Again I blame the piss poor music industry here in the US for not allowing great music to come here from overseas.
_________________
I used to worry about the future
But then I threw my caution to the wind.....
Peace,
KMack |
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