Introducing #214 - Toy Car
Liverpool musician Shaun Hough returns with a brand new outfit in the form of Toy Car, and his debut single ‘Somewhere In Between’. We caught up with him to find out a little more about it.
Hey Toy Car - how are you? So your debut track is finally out - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
I feel like I’ve just got money off my car insurance, it’s great to finally have it out there. It’s been a long time in the pipeline and so much work has went into this project, it’s very exciting.
It is called ‘Somewhere In Between’ - can you tell us what it's about?
Sort of like if, instead of wonderland, Alice ended up in Bad Boys 2 extended edition. The song focuses on being trapped in the wrong place mentally and physically. It’s very suggestive, I like being able to leave interpretation to the listener so my style of writing is very open lyrically and could mean different things to different people.
You are based in Liverpool - what are your favourite things to do there? Where do you go for adventures?
I like to play live as much as I can in local bars around the city centre, it’s a lively place and you meet some very interesting characters. My favourite place in the city is St James Gardens behind the cathedral and is somewhere I like going for inspiration and ‘adventures’. I also like watching Liverpool FC when I can.
It's a city with a massive musical history, how has that influenced your music?
Well being from Liverpool the Beatles music never leaves you alone, which is great because I love them, but there are also lots of great artists that influence me. Recent artists like Sugermen and The Vryll Society I was a big fan of, especially live. But there is so much variety on the scene in general, it’s hard not to get inspired from Liverpool.
The track was recorded by EADES, how did that come about?
So I lived in Leeds for about 3/4 years and was in another band with Tom and knew Harry well from the scene. When I came back to Liverpool I had so many songs and wanted to get them recorded. Eades had there own studio and had some really good ideas for how to record my tracks for the EP. Basically they are really good friends and I knew how good they are at what they do so was it an easy choice.
What are the key influences in your music?
The writing wise; John Martyn, The Strokes, Beatles, Queens of the stone age to name a few. In the studio we were after a modern retro raw sound and looked towards more recent artists like Willie J Healy and Twin Peaks. Our good friend Will from DAISY BRAIN recorded with Eades and we were interested in some of the sounds they produced in their sessions.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never listened to your music before?
Raw sounding retro indie chaos, I think that would be a good way of putting it. Like being in a pitch black space with a box of matches and each match is a song if that makes any sense.
