Understated Quality: In Depth With ToiToi

From where we’re standing identity and ethos is something that is a bit lacking out there in club land, it exists in places for sure if you look deep enough, but a bit too often things are, well a bit predictable and lacking in identity and community. There are of course plenty of crews who are just that, their own family units connecting on similar principles and passion points and get on with doing what they do and doing it well. Toi.Toi is one of these units that as well as having an identifying aesthetic when it comes to the sonics you are exposed to at their underground gatherings of the like minded but really when you talk to its founding parents Isis Salvaterra and Claus Voigtmann you also discover it’s all about a feeling and a philosophy centered on quality. Quality sound and quality, true friendships. As well as the party element to their collective Toi.Toi over the last year have established themselves as an agency, working with a caste of artists they have connected with during their years of engaging in the electronic music sphere and this weekend they will be returning to Room Three bringing along residen Nicolas Lutz, Dewalta and Ion Ludwig to share their sounds (Claus will also be DJing too, naturally). To mark this event wanted to do something a bit special a year on from the agency’s establishment and really take a look at what has taken place over the past year and this has meant for Isis and Claus. So as well as journeying to Toi.Toi HQ for an in depth catch up with the ringleaders, we also asked their core crew photographer Daddy’s Got Sweets to provide photo documentation of the agency and parties path from strength to strength as we look forward to the next Toi.Toi outing in Room Three this weekend. So it’s great to see ToiToi back in Room Three this weekend. Isis: It’s really special this time because I’m celebrating my birthday, it’s the first time in fabric for Ion Ludwig and it’s the 1st anniversary of Nicolas’s residency and Dewalta and Claus are putting out their HelloRepeat? EP so everyone has something to celebrate. Claus: We've been waiting over a year for this record to come out so I can’t wait for it to come out. It can be quite a prolonged process, what about the ToiToi label that’s going to launch soon right? I: Yes we’re on our way the first release is Mr. G with a remix from Daze Maxim which is really really good he's the one who inspired us to do the label so he had to be the first artist we released. We’re just finalising distribution so it should be out the beginning of next year. Claus: We don't want to rush things with the label, it's such a labour of love so we want to have everything sorted properly. The last time we spoke you were just starting to launch the agency it, was quite a big move for you Isis when you committed to doing music full time? I: It has been the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. I had another career aside from music like Claus is an architect, I always worked in something else but I always had the music side of things. It was a side thing but I felt I had these artists whom I love and are my friends, I’m really proud of having them but I felt I couldn’t be in this limbo where I had the job. I felt I need to dedicate fully to my artists, the last one to be added to the roster was Ion Ludwig and when he came on board I thought I really need to go for it now. HelloRepeat? D'Julz & Isis I knew it was going to be heavy, but it was a lot heavier that I thought. But I went through it – I think it was harder because we were having events every 2 weeks in the summer which is when I left my job to focus on the agency. It wasn’t to do with the artists it’s just your routine changing from going to an office every day, then coming home and working from home in the evening. Claus is in the studio and works from home so the whole thing about changing your life to what time you do your work. But I’m really happy to have done it and I would really advise to anyone that if you want to cross over to working with music only, do it. You already had quite close ties with these artists as well do you think that’ s helped? If you asked me a year ago if I would have my own agency I would say no. Because I was always passing artists around and I work with a lot of agencies really closely but I think organically it came together. Audio Werner was sat in this room and asked if I would do his bookings and everything just came together. These are my friends and I enjoy their music and helping them out, I’m anal about sound you know when they’re doing their lives and go into it with them. I think it makes all the difference being friends and having a really close relationship. Your role isn’t really restricted to booking agent really either is it? C: The role is being big mamma. I: Yeah, pretty much. That’s another thing as well. I do my own press, I do my own writing and when I take an artist on a re-write their biogs and go through their discographies and just submerge myself into the artist. At some agencies they outsource a lot of stuff with travel but I like to personally take care of it so it is a lot of work and yes it does mean that sometimes I work 20 hours a day but it means that the direction is actually moulded, to bring these artists where I want them to go and they love that. Sometimes they come to me and say ‘I love that you’re my agent but you’re also here with us and partying with us and you know about sound, you work with us and the sound engineers’. So yeah it’s more of a philosophy rather than just being an agent and doing contracts and stuff like that. Audio Werner There can be issues sometimes issues where values like quality of gigs lapses sometimes.. I: I know with Ion Ludwig who has decided not to DJ even though he can. He’s just a live artist and that alone is a huge statement in terms of how many gigs he can have. Being a live artist he’s saying that instead of having 4 gigs a weekend he’s having 2. There’s nothing more offputtting than having a live artist and giving them horrible sound and not the right conditions so it’s my job to make sure they’re all taken care of. Otherwise it’s not worth it. With the DJ there is flexibility maybe the deck isn't working properly which happens a lot but for a live artist this guy sitting in the studio preparing his live and he's wanting it to come out exactly like that. C: You know how your track sounds so when you get to a place and it just doesn't get the energy across then you're kind of frustrated because you spend all the hours in making the track sound amazing. So if the club doesn't offer that and get it across to the crowd then it's a bit of a let down, I can imagine even not being a live artist myself. You can imagine it especially with live sets a lot about them are about riffing off a vibe I: We’ve had Audio Werner live and these are guys who have their whole studio with them. They’re literally bringing there studio with them so it’s a lot of effort on their part. I think I’ve become a bit known in Europe for giving sound engineers and promoter a hard time. When they ask for a live I tell them we’re going to start at the tech rider before we look at the booking. It needs to be that way I think. It’s good to hear about someone having such strong values when it comes to integrity of sound, to talk about the artists a bit more how do you feel they have developed over the last year? I: I studied politics and cultural studies, a humanities subject it’s about understanding people. You’ll have Nicolas Lutz who’s really South American and on fire and then the Germans like Claus and Andy who are really mellow and nice so it’s been more about developing the relationship and also the communication. I think a good example is Nicolas Lutz who became a resident for us a year ago and because of the model that unless you make music it’s not so easy to sell them, I knew it was going to be difficult because obviously his name isn’t travelling with releases with music so I worked really passionately on it, in all my writing and everywhere I went I was talking about Nicolas this and Nicolas that. Another one I think is Claus because of his productions and how we worked, finding a balance from being resident of ToiToi, owning it and being a producer and DJ. For example when it’s a really important party when we had Zip, Craig Richards and Ben UFO Claus stepped back and said this is a really important event for us I’m not going to play I’m just going to help you run it. It’s about that balance for him when he is a promoter produce or DJ. This year what I’ve tried to do wasn’t aimed at increasing their gigs it was creating us an identity. I brought the identity from the events to the agency meaning this type of music and the philosophy that it is about. For a lot of agencies it’s an admin role but for us there’s a philosophy. C: It's a collective. Dewalta James Dean Brown How do you both find the balance between being involved in the party side of what you’re doing at the weekend and doing the work in the week? C: For me you have to have a natural rhythm. I: For me it's night it hits me at night, i could have slept for three hours it doesn't matter when I hit midnight I'm the most productive. So all my promoters and contacts they probably get their emails at 4am. And for you Claus when it comes to your production, when you go into the studio are you quite methodical about it? C: For me I like to have a certain rhythm it might be from me coming from Germany. I’m a night person when it comes to the weekend and going out but during the week I like to wake up fairly early and start pottering around there. By midday I’m in the mindset of creating music and star t to get going, come night I have a project rounded up ideally. I like working through the night as well it's a different energy, I think it influences a person creatively in different ways night stuff is generally more techno at least for me more darker stuff and during the day it's more jazzy different different stuff. But I like that. It sound like you’re creating a lot but it still takes a lot for you to get to a place where you want to put out something on a record C: The creation of music, it’s not necessarily to put it on a record. It's the kind of energy in you that you need to put out all the time. Like I just made a downtempo thing over an hour that will never be put out anywhere it's just for me to play around, and only a few selective ones will be put out on a record that stand the test of time a little bit so i let it sit a little bit and after a while if it feels right do you put it out . Do you test a lot of it out in your sets? C: I actually very rarely play my own stuff but I like trying it out, for example in fabric is the best place to try it out - on the 16th when we come down I'm coming down a bit earlier to just try a few tracks in room one. It’s so cool being able to do that… C: There are some people who put unfinished stuff on Soundcloud but you wouldn't exhibit an unfinished painting so I haven't put anything out on Soundcloud only my close friends hear what I’m making, so it’s only when the record comes out that you can actually get to hear my sound. I: But then I think it's really nice because I think that's really a factor of who he is. I guess there is an issue now with maybe because it’s so easy to put things online there isn’t such restraint or quality control in effect… I: It comes down to more than people saying I’m just going to release this one digitally, but it’s more like if you’re playing records then why don’t you aim for something that you really love and what you want to carry on. It’s a walking contradiction. It’s like with us when we were going to start our own label. We’re not against digital, we’re just vinyl lovers and what it brings with it. The cultural exchange and how it travels, the technique and the aesthetic around the mixing and the beauty of it. And Yes it is a romantic thing but it would be completely contradictive if we came and said we were going to do a digital release. Not because we don’t like it but it’s about who we are and we don’t want to be a walking contradiction. Nicolas Lutz at fabric That is reflected amongst all your artists I think, the vinyl culture and it not being about the hype necessarily but more about engaging in that culture and not about they hype but about people buying and playing records they love I: Yes they become cult labels like Perlon and that’s why I follow them it’s this element of understatement. It’s so humble it’s all about the music and the artist, they don’t really care about what people are doing over there. It’s more about saying this is what I love and this is what I’m doing and that’s what the whole philosophy is and the quality. Some people say that ToiToi is too cool, and you’re too cool and you know what those people are probably not on my dancefloor but I cannot do things thinking about how this is going to affect what other people think. I look at my dancefloor and my dancefloor is looking at me and this is the quality I expect. It’s very simple – you’re like here’s me, here’s you, here’s the music. Let’s go. You’ve done a lot of work to get to that point, I guess it’s exclusive in the sense there’s a guest list but the way you communicate is very involving of people who what to be a part of it… I: All we ask is that when you’re sober during the week you send a name to us. For us that means a lot, you would be surprise that for a lot of people they think that can’t be bothered. If you can’t be bothered to send a simple email that already tells you the kind of people we have, people that want more and are looking for more. They’re curious. It’s about dance music, it’s the most interactive form of music there is. If you go to a concert you’re just a receptor, we want you to take part. C: The energy of the crowd dictates how the DJ plays as well, if the DJ realises there is an uneducated crowd and they’re just there to get wasted and have some fun then they probably won’t pull out their really rare and special records you know. I: I always say there is a really personal aspect. You make it special for the artist too. The first ever time I saw Ben UFO it was when he was playing the birthday at fabric, he was pulling out a record that was Perlon and he said it was one of his favourite labels but he has very little contact with it. I said I’m going to change that and I did. It’s just about giving something else. Not only do you make it special for the crowd but for the artist too. I always say don’t just get the artist but get the best out of the artist because by giving them something special you’re going ot make it special for the crowd too. This relates again to doing bookings, it’s not about just making a booking for the sake of it. When you ave this personal aspect you can make something really special. That’s why we didn’t announce the line up for it [Toi.Toi’s birthday this summer] our crowd gave us total trust for that party. Then when they got to the door and found it was Craig Zip an dBen the level of excitement was huge. Ben and Zip were bringing basically the UK and Germany and putting them together and back to back in the end, people were like oh wow what’re they going to do? This element of surprise made it so, so special to everyone. To us, the crowd and the artists. And that’s the main theme this personal aspect. It’s really rare for someone to approach doing a party like that especially in London, I think we find as well that giving the artists a special environment brings out the best in them too I: I think Terence Parker played Room Three not so long ago and when I was leaving with Judy she got this email from Terence and she was smiling. He’d said this is one of the 200 gigs that you get when you go into a place and it's ever so professional yet so human and I think that's the mix of professionalism is a business driven idea in terms of how effective you are and how things work but then you go in and then you just embrace them. It's human with Judy and Craig an Rami and everyone that works there is just this really element of you're taken care of and it's not because they have to but it's because it's from their heart and you can really feel that. That's the beauty about it.