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Native Instruments introduces Symphony Series Brass Console maker Harrison has a $79 DAW that goes up against the big boys MoMinstruments Elastic Drums app reviewed Artists Features Reviews News Martin Gore goes crazy for classic and modular synths on his new solo album TOTO: The Synth Statesmen of Progressive Pop Return Cameron Carpenter plays “Singing in the Rain” Lessons Play Like … Theory Technique How To Keyboard 101 Style Learn Gregg Allman’s classic rock organ style in 5 easy steps Get bigger, better synth pads with these 5 simple techniques 5 ways to play like Jimmy McGriff Blogs Video Store SUBSCRIBE! All Access Subscription Tablet Subscriptions Renew Customer Service Give a Gift Newsletter Subscription TOTO: The Synth Statesmen of Progressive Pop Return BY JERRY KOVARSKY July 13, 2015 Their stats are staggering. The members of Toto have collectively performed on over 500 albums over the course of 38 years, amassing over half a billion unit sales and 200 Grammy nominations. Few popular groups feature even a single keyboardist-meets-producer as accomplished as either David Paich or Steve Porcaro, let alone the one-two punch of both such titans collaborating seamlessly in the studio and onstage. Their mutual respect for one another is readily apparent, and their obvious bond—which comes from growing up together, sharing amazing musical experiences onstage and in the studio, and enduring heartbreaking personal losses—shone during our recent talks. We learned about their 14th studio album Toto XIV, the inspirations and synths behind its individual tracks, and how they’ll recreate their famously layered, keyboard-driven recordings on the world tour that hits U.S. shores in August. Throughout, we were struck by how much they focused on serving the song as opposed to showing off their chops—advice for every musician to live by. Toto XIV started as a final contractual obligation. Did that give you a feeling of freedom? David Paich: I think so. That was the beauty of being released from the shackles. We knew weren’t gonna get on pop radio, so we got to do what we did on the very first album, and the fourth album, and pretty much all of our albums, which is be ourselves. Steve Porcaro: Instead of the guys fighting some of my more ambitious ideas that would take an investment of time, they encouraged me to do that. They know that’s part of what Toto is now. DP: There was something very cyclical about it. We were making the record half a mile from where we started our first demos. So we all had this mindset of, “We’re back full circle here.” I look and I see [guitarist] Steve Lukather, I see Steve Porcaro, I see [lead singer] Joe Williams. David Hungate [bassist] is back. It’s like a time warp, but it’s a contemporary-sounding record. I can honestly say it sounds like nobody else. It’s not an overly indulgent record. You’re crafting great pop, not taking long solos. DP: That’s because Steve and I haven’t finished overdubbing on it yet! [Laughs.] SP: We love song structure and we still love a progressive pop single. We long to do the next “Owner of a Lonely Heart,” or whatever stretches boundaries. DP: Having worked with great producers like Sir George Martin and Quincy Jones, what I took away from them was that [even though] they’d have all this production, they’d listen and say, “Is there a song underneath all that?” I wanted to make sure that no matter what we did production-wise—and Toto can layer better than anybody—that we never lost sight of the melody and the lyrics. Let’s talk about some of the cuts. First, “Running Out of Time.” DP: That was one of the songs that we wrote together. Joe Williams and I were in the room, we put up a drumbeat, and Steve Lukather started playing that riff. I have a Hammond in my studio: “Aristotle,” my old Deep Purple, cherried-out A-100. We start rocking out, trying to live in the moment, and it came very quickly. SP: My stuff on it came after the fact. I often take two basic, filtered sawtooths and make a kind of Clav sound for comping. I love being able to dial in how thin it is and how it fits in the track. You hear it in some of the breaks in the verses. It reminds me of something you might hear on a Joe Walsh record. For the solo and the breakdown at the end, I used a sound that I’ve been using in scoring a lot. It’s from this software called Plectrum from Vital Arts, which I really dig. There’s this real biting patch that sounds like a cross between struck piano strings and gamelans, with this really cool attack. “Holy War”? DP: Lukather, CJ Vanston, and Joe wrote that together. CJ basically had what he wanted on that, and because he and Lukather are pretty good piano players, they pretty much had it. It’s like the Beatles. If John’s playing keyboards on something, Paul doesn’t have a problem, and vice-versa. SP: “Holy War” was first cut as a three-piece. It was drums, Luke, and Lee Sklar on bass, and it was this kick-ass Jimi Hendrix version of the song that sounded done to me. When that’s all they were hearing, they filled the void. And Lee, who’s one of my favorite bass players in the world, had played it with fingers, which just sounded huge. But there was no room for all the ideas that I had. It was one of those times when we made an executive decision. We redid the bass part with a pick, which is a typical thing Toto has done to open up some space in a track. I had a second-verse string line and a lot of orchestral stuff that got tossed out at the end of the day. But they did keep the very end, where it’s supposed to be a synth solo, but it’s me kind of whacking out these huge brass stabs alongside Lukather. What did you use for that? SP: There’s a Yamaha CS-80 in there along with some DX1. But it’s mostly the CS-80 and I’m using the ribbon controller to smack it down. I actually doubled it with my Logic ES2 synth, which has this great pitch-bend range that’ll go down three, four, or five octaves. “21st Century Blues.” It was CJ Vanston playing piano in the outro? DP: At the very end, yeah. He did the template for that, because he wrote it with Luke. It’s a meat-and-potatoes song. My head goes back to when I did the Pretzel Logic album with Steely Dan. You have this slow, groovy, triplet blues happening. And there’s electric piano on it, a little grand piano, and some Hammond. And the rest is, we got Tom Scott to do the horns, and CJ just blew on the end. “Orphan”? DP: “Orphan” went through a lot of changes. When I first made the demo, I was doing a rock ’n’ roll ska thing. The piano was just doing this half-time, Bob Marley kind of reggae thing. That wasn’t really translating to what the band was envisioning. Joe went over to the piano and sang it, but he was just playing a D and an A, and letting it ring out. So I came up with some simple, Coldplay-ish piano parts, where you can go through four or five chord changes but just let the root and tonic ring. Then Steve made it contemporary sounding by adding his synths. It’s always a surprise and everybody smiles after he’s done his thing. Because it’s subtle, but it makes the song sound modern and valid. “Unknown Soldier”? DP: Brother Jeff Porcaro and me, we bonded way back. Jeff had this fascination with the American Civil War, and his favorite book was The Red Badge of Courage. It’s about the last guy in the Civil War, a drummer. And when this album came up, I had already been starting to write some thoughts down on the subject, little essays and stuff. I got together with Luke and played him a little piece I had, and we were looking for something that made us feel that warm and fuzzy vibe that we got from stuff like Elton John’s Madman Across the Water. Just something organic that had 12-string acoustic, piano, and maybe some strings. It was a chance for us to talk about all the young boys that have died all the kids that are still out there. Plus, we’re still fighting the war for freedom and racial equality here in the United States as we speak.

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