Influences: TOY

The sounds that inspire new album 'Clear Shot'...

TOY have always worn their influences on their impeccably attired sleeve.

A band who know their records – everything from psychedelic to industrial, Krautrock to indie pass through their collections – TOY are able to re-interpret these sounds in fresh, inviting ways.

New album 'Clear Shot' arrives on October 28th via Heavenly, and it feels slightly more raw, slightly more direct than their opening two records.

Songwriting that delivers psychedelic hypnosis, 'Clear Shot' gradually unravels at its own pace. Eager to hear more, Clash invited TOY to jot down a few Influences.

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Bernard Herman – 'Vertigo Theme'

We watched quite a lot of Hitchcock films when we were writing 'Clear Shot'. The soundtrack to 'Vertigo' is one of our favourites. It's full of suspense with amazing orchestration. It has this great motif in it that actually gives the feeling of falling or looking down from a dizzying height. You can hear all these tricks in other films he scored too like Psycho or Taxi Driver. We loved the idea of trying to convey that kind of atmosphere into our songs.

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Lubos Fiser – 'The Magic Yard (Valerie and Her Week of Wonders)'

Lubos Fiser is this great Polish composer that did music for weird otherworldly films and television in the 60's and 70's. The film this is from is a great vampiric love story with wondrous eerie music. Broadcast were quite obsessed with the film and I think wrote their own soundtrack or a few songs based around it. Love the artwork for the posters as well. It looks really creepy but also quite alluring, a bit like the film I guess.

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Mercury Rev – 'Chasing A Bee'

We spoke to Grasshopper from Mercury Rev about possibly recording this album. They have a studio in Woodstock which we would love to record in one day. His guitar playing on the first Mercury Rev album is phenomenal. The way he uses distortion in such a melodic way and his use of dynamics. There are points where you don't think it can get any louder then suddenly it takes your head off. That's something you don't hear very often any more.

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Fairport Convention – 'Farewell Farewell'

Dom said he's been listening to this quite a bit recently. It's a beautiful song. We've always been big fans of their records. It's great when they started using some more traditional instruments on this record and the next one, 'Full House'. There's a great song called 'Dirty Linen' on that record where Richard Thompson and Dave Swarbrick have a guitar and violin duel. Both instruments almost sound like they're the same thing.

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Psychic TV – 'Godstar'

'Allegory Of Self' is such great record. Really like their covers of 'Good Vibrations' and 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart' as well. 'Godstar' has this great pop sensibility and insistence that I think influenced us in some way. It's also got these great celebratory lyrics whilst being about the death of Brian Jones and how he was essentially abandoned. I think we like it when there are two conflicting ideas going on within a song whether it be between lyrics and music or vice versa.

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'Clear Shot' will be released on October 28th. Catch TOY live:

October
28 London Rough Trade East In-Store

November
18 Bristol The Exchange
19 Brighton The Haunt
20 Southampton Engine Room
22 Birmingham Rainbow Rooms
23 Glasgow King Tuts
24 Liverpool Magnet
25 Newcastle Riverside
26 Leeds Wardrobe
28 Nottingham Rock City Basement
29 Norwich Waterfront
30 London Brixton Electric

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