Toy Matinee - Bringing Substance Back Into Top 40
by Patrick Alexander
“No strings...no expectation. We had the opportunity to do an album we cared about simply because we cared about it. The best part of making music is in the doing of it, without the pressure of having to create a hit or meet anyone else’s specifications.”
So says Patrick Leonard on the origin and direction of one of the most original new groups in recent memory. Together with Kevin Gilbert, Leonard has formed Toy Matinee and released an eponymous album on Reprise Records.
In these days of ordinary music and disposable top 40 radio, there is a growing need for music with substance. Toy Matinee is here to fill the void.
Patrick Leonard brings with him the creative experience of working with the likes of Julian Lennon, writing and producing work for Bryan Ferry’s Bete Noire album, as well as putting his stamp on Madonna’s Like A Prayer and I’m Breathless. In 1988, Leonard was judging the finals of Yamaha’s Soundcheck competition. One of the groups performing was a band called Giraffe, a San Jose-based band featuring singer, songwriter, and musician Kevin Gilbert.
Says Leonard: “What Kevin was doing really hit a nerve, and after talking to him and discovering he was into all the same source music I was (Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Genesis, etc.), I started to think that maybe [a partnership] could work..”
Giraffe won the competition and went on to take the Gold Prize in Yamaha’s International Band Competition in Tokyo. Despite this, Gilbert broke up the band to devote his time to his new partnership with Leonard.
Teaming up with producer Bill Bottrell (Electric Light Orchestra, Traveling Wilburys, Thomas Dolby), and “with lots of help from” Brian MacLeod (Wire Train) on drums, Guy Pratt (Pink Floyd) on bass and Tim Pierce on guitar, Kevin and Patrick have created an album of energetic, melodic and, at times, disturbing pop tunes filled with sarcasm (“Last Plane Out”), hope (“Things She Said”), despair (“There Was A Little Boy”) and richly laced with metaphor throughout.
“There’s a new generation that has nothing to compare this music to,” asserts Gilbert. “What’s fresh for them is the idea that music can expand and develop without losing its relevance. These days, that’s a breathtaking concept.”
Since the album’s release, late last year, their suspicions have been confirmed. The album has been selling extremely well without the aid of a single, and has been getting massive airplay, especially on Los Angeles’ KLOS-FM.
“The influence and inspiration behind this music is a decade old, not twenty minutes old,” concluded Leonard. “It’s great to realize that there’s a wide audience of people out there hungry for music that can move them in many different ways. But even if there weren’t, this is still what we all plan to be doing for the foreseeable future.”