Andy Toomey Releases New EP Masterpiece With Touch Guitarist Markus Reuter And Drummer Zach Alford
After last year’s successful sessions with Stick Men produced Toomey’s bold prog EP Perseus Calling the songwriter was excited to continue the trend. Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts prevented Bassist Tony Levin and drummer Pat Mastelotto from participating, so drummer extraordinaire Zach Alford (Bowie/NIN, B52’s, Psychedelic Furs & many more) stepped into the breach with Stick Men touch guitarist Markus Reuter and a plan was laid.
Due to the somewhat last-minute nature of the sessions the decision was taken to do virtually no prep work and write in the studio. Toomey says “This is something I’ve always wanted to do, but also WAY outside my comfort zone. Professional music production costs being what they are, coming in cold is an even more risky venture than usual. Thankfully, Markus is a consummate improviser, and his encouragement gave me the confidence to go with it. I’m so very glad I did!”
The resulting EP, Masterpiece, is another tour de force, coming across as both fearless and timeless. The backing tracks were cut on a Saturday in August with uber engineer Scott Petito (Scott Petito Productions), who provided a rough mix for Toomey to come up with lyrics, which they then recorded the next day. Mixed by Bassist/producer Fabio Trentini and Markus, the new EP crackles with life, evoking Pink Floyd and Nine Inch Nails, with a heaping helping of Toomey’s usual inventiveness.
Of the title Toomey says “Being somewhat self-effacing, I wasn’t too comfortable calling my own record a masterpiece. That just happened to be the title of one of the tracks, which unsurprisingly is about a woman, and a rather evil one at that. Once again Markus came to the rescue, saying “This actually tracks as a masterpiece and deserves the name.”
Hi Andy! Good to see you again! How has your year been so far?
Things have been pretty chaotic for everyone. I’m trying to hunker down and stay focused on music and art.
The response to Perseus Calling was really good, and I’m very pleased to have gotten Masterpiece out on schedule.
We settled on shorter, quarterly releases and we’re getting ready to record a 3rd EP in Berlin at the end of May, so that is really exciting.
I have a full-length album to release in July, and then hopefully the Berlin project will come out in September.
You’ve said diving into the studio with no prep was way outside your comfort zone. What surprised you most about creating Masterpiece in that spontaneous way?
I was surprised at how fresh it sounded. Usually, by the time I have a project complete I’ve listened to the songs a thousand times.
Because these songs appeared spontaneously as if by magic, I listen to them now and they still surprise me.
You had originally hoped to reunite with Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto—what did it mean to have Zach Alford step in, and how did his energy shift or shape the sound of this EP?
Yes, that was disappointing at first because I absolutely love playing with those guys. It all worked out though. Tony recommended Zach and his resume speaks for itself. Normally I would be playing guitar and singing, guiding the band through the parts and so on.
So it was great to be able to play bass or piano, and come up with lyrics and melodies on the spot. We did few retakes, and where we overdubbed it was usually single takes, so there’s a kind of rich spontaneity to it, whereas Perseus Calling is a bit more orchestrated.
The EP title, Masterpiece, came from a song about a rather villainous character—but now it’s the name of the whole record. How did that shift in meaning feel for you?
The song title was kind of tongue in cheek, ah but whose cheek? Likewise, the album title is part boastful, part self-deprecating humor. Plus that song is (I think) the strongest, so it made sense as a title track.
If you’re only going to listen to one song, that’s the one that will probably hook you. I’m usually completely wrong about that kind of thing by the way. It always surprises me what people like the most.
On Perseus Calling the song The Vampire King (the one that happens to be in Fripp’s NST tuning) was the one everyone raved about and I wouldn’t have guessed that.
You’ve mentioned this project evokes Pink Floyd and Nine Inch Nails—two very different sonic worlds. How do you balance those influences with your own signature voice?
To paraphrase Miles Davis, it can take a long time to sound like yourself. I am into a ridiculously wide variety of music and styles that I listen to and incorporate into my work. In fact that tendency toward diversity has been a real hindrance in my career.
I have heard many executives and label types tell me they loved my songs but couldn’t figure out how to package me. I guess that’s a roundabout way of saying I’m always trying to synthesize a lot of different things
and filter them through my own peculiar lens. To me, Pink Floyd and Nine Inch Nails have a lot of overlap. They do things that are conceptual, the albums stand as single artistic statements, the songs blend together and sequence well, lots of psychedelic angst…
That’s the kind of thing I hope I am developing.