The Gig Cartel - Artist profiles: Toby Jepson

Toby Jepson  made his name as the singer/songwriter in UK based rock act 'Little Angels'. The band enjoyed 10 UK top 40 hits and their last studio album - 'JAM'- went straight in at Number 1 on the first week of release. The band played all over the globe supporting many of the major acts of the time, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, ZZ Top, Bryan Adams, as well as headlining sold out shows all over Europe. They bowed out at the Royal Albert hall in 1994.
Since then a career as a solo artist has been augmented with stints as a vocalist with 'Fastway', Scottish Rockers 'GUN' and most recently with 'Dio's Disciples' containing the final line-up of the late Ronnie James Dio's band, touring the world as a celebration of his life and music. 

For the past few years Toby has been developing a growing reputation as a producer, working on releases from young acts such as The Virginmarys and The Answer as well as classic rock groups including Saxon and Chrome Molly. 

Having grown up listening to the rock greats, Hendrix, Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, and in recent years being a kindred spirit and fan of the work of Rick Rubin and Jack White, Toby's approach to production is solidly based in songs first and performance as the key to creating convincing music. Heavy emphasis is put on making sure the songs are prepared and well chosen ahead of often exhaustive rehearsals and pre-production periods, rather than relying on modern recording techniques to be the defining reason why a recording comes to fruition. 

It is hugely important to Toby that music is 'real' and 'alive' and that the listener can believe in the performance. 

With regard to the actual techniques of recording the audio, a largely traditional approach of great rooms, the best vintage and modern mic's coupled with tried and tested mic pre's and outboard is the approach. More often than not, a 'live' based 'takes' scenario is employed to capture the essence and often the magic of the artist as they interact with each other in the moment of performance. Toby is also a solid user of pro-tools, but regards the system as a recording machine rather than a 'fix all' tool. 

With the developing music business, it is a clear part of the producers skill to be able to make great recordings on a budget and so, having had to make solo records under this situation for many years, Toby is used to bringing in records on time an on budget as well as playing close attention to the art and craft of recording.