Toby Driver
Encyclopedia
Toby Driver is a multi-instrumentalist
Multi-instrumentalist
A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...

, songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

, and artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

, best known for his work as the frontman of the experimental
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...

 bands maudlin of the Well
Maudlin of the Well
maudlin of the Well is an avant-garde metal band from Boston, Massachusetts. Their music contains elements from many different genres including doom metal, indie rock, jazz, progressive rock, post rock, progressive metal, death metal, gothic metal, as well as chamber music, ambient music and New...

 and Kayo Dot
Kayo Dot
Kayo Dot is an American avant-rock/experimental music group that was formed in 2003 by Toby Driver. They released their debut album Choirs of the Eye on John Zorn's Tzadik Records label that year. Tzadik's descriptive label on that album reads: "Kayo Dot powerfully integrates elements of modern...

.

Driver creates the majority of the album artwork associated with these bands, performs the majority of the lead vocals, and has written and arranged most of the music for both bands. Upon Jason Byron's departure and the subsequent break up of maudlin of the Well, Driver also assumed the role of primary lyricist for Kayo Dot, although Byron is credited as a lyricist on Kayo Dot’s earlier releases. Although several members of motW continued on when the band dissolved and reformed as Kayo Dot, Driver is the only remaining member of the original line-up of maudlin of the Well who is still active with Kayo Dot.

Biography and early work

Toby Driver was born in 1978, in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

, and currently resides in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. During his high school years, he recorded several albums under the moniker "Spoonion" using tape recorders and a karaoke
Karaoke
is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...

 machine. He later released his favorite cuts of these albums online as collections.

He attended Hampshire College
Hampshire College
Hampshire College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1965 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts...

 in Amherst, MA, where he formed the band maudlin of the Well and where they recorded their debut album. During this time, he also studied under venerable jazz composer Yusef Lateef
Yusef Lateef
Dr. Yusef Lateef is an American Grammy Award-winning jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator and a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community after his conversion to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam in 1950.Although Lateef's main instruments are the tenor saxophone and flute, he is known for...

.

Style and musicianship

As evident in the bands and projects to which Driver has contributed, he generally utilizes unconventional styles of song-writing and song structure. Many songs he writes use odd time signatures, range from ten to twenty minutes in length, divert from typical riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....

-based structure, and employ elements of many musical genres outside of traditional rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 and heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

, often shifting between these styles within the same song. Songs often incorporate musical qualities suited to styles as diverse as death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....

, minimalism
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...

, chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

, post-rock
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...

 and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, while seldom completely conforming to any one specific genre.

Driver’s vocals are accordingly diverse in range and style. Driver uses a normal singing voice, screams, shouts, occasionally uses death vocals
Death growl
A death growl, also known as death metal vocals, guttural vocals, death grunts, and harsh vocals among other names, is a vocalisation style usually employed by vocalists of the death metal and black metal music genre, but also used in a variety of heavy metal and hardcore punk subgenres.Death...

 (not to be confused with band member Jason Byron who contributes vocals in early motW also), as well as occasionally singing falsetto
Falsetto
Falsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal folds, in whole or in part...

 and using spoken word
Spoken word
Spoken word is a form of poetry that often uses alliterated prose or verse and occasionally uses metered verse to express social commentary. Traditionally it is in the first person, is from the poet’s point of view and is themed in current events....

 (see Kayo Dot’s Choirs of the Eye
Choirs of the Eye
Choirs of the Eye is the debut album by Kayo Dot, released on John Zorn's Tzadik Records in 2003.-Overview and musical approach:In maudlin of the Well the compositions were often "brought to life" using astral projection, a relatively New age phantasmagorical practice which involves lucid dreaming,...

for an example of all the styles listed above).

A multi-instrumentalist, Toby Driver is credited on various albums as playing the following instruments:
  • guitar
    Guitar
    The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

     (acoustic
    Acoustic guitar
    An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...

     and electric
    Electric guitar
    An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

    )
  • 12-string guitar
  • baritone guitar
    Baritone guitar
    The baritone guitar is a variation on the standard guitar, with a longer scale length that allows it to be tuned to a lower range. It first appeared in the classical music realm...

  • bass
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

  • double bass
    Double bass
    The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

  • various keyboards
    Musical keyboard
    A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument, particularly the piano. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeats at the...

     including piano
    Piano
    The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

    , organ and synthesizer
    Synthesizer
    A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

  • laptop mellotron
    Mellotron
    The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin Music Master, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard intended for music...

  • clarinet
    Clarinet
    The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

  • cello
    Cello
    The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

  • bells
    Bell (instrument)
    A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually a hollow, cup-shaped object, which resonates upon being struck...

  • percussion
  • gamelan
    Gamelan
    A gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included....


Bands

Driver was a founding member of maudlin of the Well in 1996. They disbanded in 2003, and Driver went on to form Kayo Dot that same year, using the songs for what would have been motW’s fourth album for Kayo Dot’s first album, Choirs of the Eye. Kayo Dot has since experienced various line-up changes, with Driver remaining a core member along with violinist/multi-instrumentalist Mia Matsumiya and motW alumnus Terran Olson. In 2009, due to fan requests and contributions, Driver reformed maudlin of the Well to record the digital
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...

 album Part the Second
Part the Second
Part the Second is maudlin of the Well's fourth album. It was funded by donations from fans and released for free on the internet in three formats, including a FLAC-encoded 24 bit version. The fans who donated prior to the album's release are credited as executive producers. Donations of any...

, reuniting with guitarists Greg Massi, Josh Seipp-Williams, and drummer Sam Gutterman. The album contained five newly released songs, some of which were composed—partially at least—in the early days of the band (as far back as 1997), with lyrics co-written by Jason Byron and Toby Driver.

Driver has also released an official solo album on John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...

’s Tzadik Records
Tzadik Records
Tzadik Records is a record label based in New York City specialising in avant-garde and experimental music. The label was established by the eclectic composer and saxophonist John Zorn in 1995; Zorn is the executive producer of all Tzadik releases...

 label, and has appeared as a guest musician and/or vocalist on several other projects. He also formed the side project Tartar Lamb
Tartar Lamb (band)
Tartar Lamb is an experimental avant-garde band, consisting of Toby Driver and Mia Matsumiya, both leading members of the experimental band Kayo Dot. The band originally was formed in 2006 as a means for Toby Driver to experiment with his ideas for a guitar-violin duo. The duo released their first...

 with Mia Matsumiya in 2007. He currently records and tours actively with Kayo Dot, and very occasionally plays shows with Tartar Lamb. In rare occurrences he also plays live shows as a solo act, with different band line-ups.

Work with other bands and artists

During 2005 and 2006, new music ensemble Newspeak commissioned Toby Driver to write a piece of music for them to perform, which he titled, "Subject Can't Wake Up on Film."

In late 2007, he began writing a "suite of gloomy songs" to be performed during the Hunt Studios' Winter Series. He played bass guitar, Jeremiah Cymerman played alto clarinet, Tim Byrnes
Tim Byrnes
Tim Byrnes is a New York City trumpeter and composer. More recently, he has added synthesizer to his repertoire. He recently started a music project called Hazel-Rah . Byrnes is also a graduate of New York University...

 played a Fender Rhodes, and vocals were provided by Yoshiko Ohara of Bloody Panda
Bloody Panda
-History:The band was formed in 2003 by Yoshiko Ohara, an established visual artist based in Osaka, Japan, who "decided to spend her savings on a trip to New York City, brand new recording equipment in tow, with the idea that she’d move to America to make music, this despite the unfortunate fact...

. The project was originally slated to be released in 2008 under the name D.U.M.E., or Death Unto My Enemies, named after the variety of vigil candle. Golgonooza Records was expected to release the material as part of a split 7" with Byrnes' band Hazel-Rah, but the release was cancelled by the label. Driver and Byrnes are still looking for labels interested in releasing the split.

In 2008, he recorded with post-rock band Gregor Samsa
Gregor Samsa (band)
Gregor Samsa is a band from Virginia formed in 2000 and fronted by Champ Bennett. It takes its name from the main character of Franz Kafka's novella The Metamorphosis....

, playing various instruments for them on their album Rest
Rest (album)
Rest, released April 1, 2008, is the second full-length album by Virginian post-rock band Gregor Samsa. The band posted the tracks online at Imeem before the album was released...

and touring as part of the band in support of said album. He also debuted a new piece of music called "Dolphin's Paralimbic Lobe," performed by the Josh Roseman Ensemble with Toby sitting in on bass. In September 2008, he performed as "The Morbid Stripes", playing bass guitar with Jeremiah Cymerman, Daniel Means and Terran Olson on woodwinds. Also in 2008, he appeared on the second disc of the self-titled album by Pyramids, doing a remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....

 of the song “The Echo of Something Lovely” along with Colin Marston
Colin Marston
Colin Marston is an American musician and record producer residing in NYC. He graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music technology in 2004, and runs The Thousand Caves Recording Studios, located in Woodhaven, Queens, while not on tour with one of his four active...

 (Behold... The Arctopus
Behold... The Arctopus
Behold... The Arctopus is an experimental metal band from Brooklyn, New York, United States.-Biography:Behold... The Arctopus was formed by Colin Marston and Mike Lerner, who had been playing guitar together for over a year-and-a-half by the time they found a drummer. Their demo We Need a Drummer ...

, et al.) and Ted Parsons
Ted Parsons
Ted Parsons is an American drummer most notable for his membership in bands such as Swans, Prong, Godflesh, Killing Joke and Jesu.-Biography:...

 (Swans
Swans (band)
Swans are an influential American post-punk band initially active from 1982 to 1997, led by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira. The band was one of the few groups to emerge from the early 1980s New York No Wave scene and stay intact into the next decade. Formed by Gira in...

, Jesu
Jesu (band)
Jesu is a post-metal band formed in 2003 by Justin Broadrick following the breakup of Godflesh. Jesu was the name of the last song on the final Godflesh release, Hymns, and Broadrick decided to adopt it as the name of this project....

, et al.).

In 2009, Kayo Dot toured with and opened for Trey Spruance
Trey Spruance
Preston Lea Spruance III or "Trey Spruance" is an American composer, producer, and musician, perhaps best known as the leader of the multi-genre outfit Secret Chiefs 3 and for his work as guitarist and keyboardist with Mr. Bungle...

’s avant garde band Secret Chiefs 3
Secret Chiefs 3
Secret Chiefs 3 is an instrumental rock group led by guitarist/composer Trey Spruance . Their studio recordings and tours have featured different line-ups, as the group performs a wide range of musical styles including surf rock, Persian, Arab, Indian, death metal, film music, electronic music,...

, during which time Toby doubled as the SC3 bassist.

In February of 2010, Toby curated The Stone, John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...

's donation-supported performance venue in downtown New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. During this time, several unique performances were given, including an evening of improv
Musical improvisation
Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians...

, wherein Toby shared the floor with notable avant-garde, Tzadik Records
Tzadik Records
Tzadik Records is a record label based in New York City specialising in avant-garde and experimental music. The label was established by the eclectic composer and saxophonist John Zorn in 1995; Zorn is the executive producer of all Tzadik releases...

 artists such as Ikue Mori
Ikue Mori
, also known as Ikue Ile, is a drummer, composer, and graphic designer.-Biography:Ikue Mori was born and raised in Japan. She says she had little interest in music before hearing punk rock...

, Sylvie Courvoisier
Sylvie Courvoisier
Sylvie Courvoisier is a Swiss composer and pianist.Courvoisier was born and raised in Switzerland. In 1998, she moved to Brooklyn, New York, where she currently resides. She co-leads the Sylvie Courvoisier/Mark Feldman Quartet and leads her own quintet, Lonelyville, and the Trio Abaton...

, and John Zorn himself.

In April 2010, he began session work on the new Asva
Asva
Asva is a village in Laimjala Parish, Saare County, on the eastern part of Saaremaa Island, Estonia....

 record, "Presences of Absences".

As Spoonion 1

  • Community of Sinners
  • Chiffon Gob
  • Acoustic Sex
  • Clone
  • According to the Law
  • Dreaming Winter Awake

As Spoonion 2

  • On the Thoughts and Principles of Dragons
  • A Tree and Its Fruit
  • Space Music
  • How to Find God
  • Opposition Day
  • The Secret Violence of Poison

With maudlin of the Well

  • Through Languid Veins (demo, 1996)
  • Begat of the Haunted Oak: An Acorn (demo, 1997)
  • Odes to Darksome Spring (demo, 1997)
  • For My Wife (demo, 1998)
  • My Fruit Psychobells...A Seed Combustible
    My Fruit Psychobells...A Seed Combustible
    My Fruit Psychobells...A Seed Combustible is maudlin of the Well's first album, released in 1999.-Track listing:# "Ferocious Weights" - 7:35# "A Conception Pathetic" - 7:03# "Undine and Underwater Flowers" - 8:47...

    (1999)
  • Bath
    Bath (album)
    Bath is maudlin of the Well's second album. It was released alongside its companion album Leaving Your Body Map in 2001, shortly before their break-up.-Track listing:# "The Blue Ghost/Shedding Qliphoth" - 7:57# "They Aren't All Beautiful" - 5:36...

    (2001)
  • Leaving Your Body Map
    Leaving Your Body Map
    Leaving Your Body Map is maudlin of the Well's third album, and was released alongside its companion album, Bath, in 2001, shortly before their break-up.-Track listing:# "Stones of October's Sobbing" - 7:25# "Gleam in Ranks" - 4:16...

    (2001)
  • The Secret Song (single, 2001)
  • Part the Second
    Part the Second
    Part the Second is maudlin of the Well's fourth album. It was funded by donations from fans and released for free on the internet in three formats, including a FLAC-encoded 24 bit version. The fans who donated prior to the album's release are credited as executive producers. Donations of any...

    (2009)

With Kayo Dot

  • Choirs of the Eye
    Choirs of the Eye
    Choirs of the Eye is the debut album by Kayo Dot, released on John Zorn's Tzadik Records in 2003.-Overview and musical approach:In maudlin of the Well the compositions were often "brought to life" using astral projection, a relatively New age phantasmagorical practice which involves lucid dreaming,...

    (2003)
  • Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue
    Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue
    Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue is the second album by Kayo Dot.-Track listing:#"Gemini Becoming the Tripod" – 10:43#"Immortelle and Paper Caravelle" – 9:42#"Aura on an Asylum Wall" – 7:44#"___ On Limpid Form" – 18:00...

    (2006)
  • Don’t Touch Dead Animals (2006) (split
    Split album
    A split album is a music album which includes tracks by two or more separate artists. There have been singles and EPs released in the same nature, which can be referred to as split singles and split EPs respectively...

     LP
    LP album
    The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

     with Bloody Panda
    Bloody Panda
    -History:The band was formed in 2003 by Yoshiko Ohara, an established visual artist based in Osaka, Japan, who "decided to spend her savings on a trip to New York City, brand new recording equipment in tow, with the idea that she’d move to America to make music, this despite the unfortunate fact...

    )
  • Blue Lambency Downward
    Blue Lambency Downward
    Blue Lambency Downward is the third album by Kayo Dot.-Track listing:All tracks by Toby Driver#"Blue Lambency Downward" – 10:00#"Clelia Walking" – 5:29#"Right Hand Is The One I Want" – 6:54#"The Sow Submits" – 4:02#"The Awkward Wind Wheel" – 3:30...

    (2008)
  • Champions of Sound 2008 (2009) (split double 7" with Pelican
    Pelican (band)
    Pelican is a post-metal quartet from Chicago, Illinois.-Biography and description:The band is known for its dense combinations of different melodies and extended track lengths. Its distinctive sound draws from stoner rock, doom metal, post-rock, and other influences...

    , Stove Bredsky, and Zozobra
    Zozobra (band)
    Zozobra is a metal band that was first conceived by Caleb Scofield during 2006. He was joined by Santos Montano for the band's first release, Harmonic Tremors in 2007...

    )
  • Toying With The Insanities Vol. 1 (2009) (Candiria
    Candiria
    Candiria are an American band from Brooklyn, New York. They blend various styles of music, including heavy metal, hardcore, jazz, hip hop and ambient. Candiria have often dubbed their sound "urban fusion".- History :...

     Remix album)
  • Coyote (2010)
  • Stained Glass EP (2010)
  • Gamma Knife (2011)

Other appearances

  • Tusk – The Resisting Dreamer (2007) (vocals)
  • Gregor Samsa
    Gregor Samsa (band)
    Gregor Samsa is a band from Virginia formed in 2000 and fronted by Champ Bennett. It takes its name from the main character of Franz Kafka's novella The Metamorphosis....

     – Rest
    Rest (album)
    Rest, released April 1, 2008, is the second full-length album by Virginian post-rock band Gregor Samsa. The band posted the tracks online at Imeem before the album was released...

    (2007) (clarinet, guitar)
  • Pyramids – Pyramids (2008) (remix of “The Echo of Something Lovely”)
  • Gregor Samsa
    Gregor Samsa (band)
    Gregor Samsa is a band from Virginia formed in 2000 and fronted by Champ Bennett. It takes its name from the main character of Franz Kafka's novella The Metamorphosis....

     - Over Air (2009) (clarinet, vibraphone)
  • Asva - Presence of Absences (2011) (vocals)

External links

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