An interview with Toshin
An interview with Toshin
What inspired the name of the band and what are your influences?
Toshín is Tosin’s (my actual name) alter ego. Toshín (Toe-sheen) came from Tosin (Toe-sin), mainly because when I came to college everyone kept mispronouncing it. It kinda stuck, and here we are 5 years later! My influences vary from Aretha Franklin’ to Tank and the Bangas and James Brown to RuPaul but it really depends on what I’m listening to in the moment.
How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?
Our writing sessions usually start off by me getting an inspiration from something that happened in my life and I bring the idea to the band and we jam the idea. We also jam as a band in rehearsals and if something sticks out we take it and develop the jam into a song. Recently, not being able to rehearse, we’ve been writing remotely from home, sending demos and ideas back and forth between us all.
How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?
Our writing sessions usually start off by me getting an inspiration from something that happened in my life and I bring the idea to the band and we jam the idea. We also jam as a band in rehearsals and if something sticks out we take it and develop the jam into a song. Recently, not being able to rehearse, we’ve been writing remotely from home, sending demos and ideas back and forth between us all.
Why do you write the sort of music that you do?
We write our songs mainly because we love them but when we dive deeper we want to share a message of self love and being the version of ourselves to our fans. We love writing heavy and dancy tunes for gigs (when they come back) so we can have a dance and good vibes with our fans. Almost all of our songs come directly from a life experience, so it makes it easier to write music that we really care about and want to share with the world
How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
Our live set can change depending on the night, but mainly we aim to have as much fun at our shows as we can. This means that we often do some covers among our own songs, and we find that a high-octane show that we enjoy playing generally makes for a happy and receptive crowd! We’re really lucky that there’s a growing community of people who want to share this experience with us, and we can’t wait to get back in a room with them and dance our asses off!
How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
Our live set can change depending on the night, but mainly we aim to have as much fun at our shows as we can. This means that we often do some covers among our own songs, and we find that a high-octane show that we enjoy playing generally makes for a happy and receptive crowd! We’re really lucky that there’s a growing community of people who want to share this experience with us, and we can’t wait to get back in a room with them and dance our asses off!
What plans do you have for the future?
We’re working on a cool collaboration with some really talented friends of ours at the moment. I can’t say any more right now, but we’re mega excited! Follow us online so you don’t miss it.