Interview with Toby Corton of Sounds Queer
Undercurrent chat to neo-soul singer and queer community leader, Toby Corton ahead of the Sounds Queer Christmas party, which is set to take place at Juju’s on Saturday 17th December 2022.
Toby Corton is a gorgeous force of nature; instantly disarming with his cockney accent and cheeky grin, and the perfect person to share a margarita with on a blustery Tuesday in December. A self-proclaimed ‘queerative’ (that’s a queer creative, FYI), he is a successful solo artist in his own right, describing his sound as ‘jazzy British soul’. Toby is also a champion of community building in the London live music scene, having co-founded collectives State Is Flow and Sounds Queer, both of which aim to support emerging artists and encourage collaboration.
Tonight Toby is playing with State Is Flow at Ninety One Living Room as part of their new monthly residency which takes place every first Tuesday of the month. State Is Flow is a London-based collective composed of music artists and creatives. Formed just this year, they have already graced the likes of the Roundhouse, and are revered for their jam nights which span Soul, Jazz, RnB, Neo-Soul and more.
Talking about tonight’s show, amidst the hubbub of the sound check, Toby tells me how much he enjoys the opportunity to collaborate and perform in a group setting. ‘Contrary to what my friends might say about me, as a singer, I don’t always want to be the centre of attention. I love singing and I love performing, but it’s nice to shift the spotlight a little and also have the energy of your fam around you.’
As a solo artist, Toby recently released ‘Roll With It’, which premiered with Wonderland and has enjoyed a great reception. It’s a melancholic track peppered with uplifting cords and a playful music video that features a literal interpretation of the title, with Toby gliding around in a pair of retro roller skates. ‘I'd been working on this track over the course of the pandemic, and there are some amazing players on it - you've got David Mrakpor who’s part of Blue Lab Beats and my friend Sophie Faith who's an amazing singer. It’s great to have it out in the world after sitting on it for so long, but it’s important to recognise that you've just given creative birth to something.’
Speaking of ‘creative’, Toby is also a photographer, and his eye for visuals really shines through in the series of music videos that he puts out. ‘I like to keep it quite irreverent. Obviously ‘Roll With It’ isn't about roller skating, and I actually can’t roller skate, but I like the idea of flipping stuff on its head. A lot of my music is introspective, so with the visuals it's good to do something a bit more fun.’
The video was shot in East London, where Toby was born. ‘So I was born in Homerton, and then we moved to Woodford Green, but as I got older and gayer, I was like right, I don't really think that Essex is for me! Me and my mates started to hang out around Brick Lane when we were about 14, and my nan who had lived in Shoreditch would worry when we went there because it used to have such a rough reputation. She lived on Broadway Market above the butchers, which is where my dad was born, and they were always scrimping and saving to move out.’
‘It's still got a big nostalgia element - there are a few spots near here, like E.Pelliccis. Those little vignettes really remind me of my family on my nan's side, and my childhood growing up around those cockney accents. There's a very specific banter, everyone's always taking the piss, and now I understand where I got it from.’ he tells me.
The conversation moves to Toby’s project Sounds Queer, who are set to host a festive celebration of queer live music and DJs at Juju’s next week. ‘My manager set up a chat with another artist who was moving back to London, because they wanted to know what the queer live music landscape in London was like, and if there were any promoters. As we were having this conversation, we both came to the realisation that there wasn't anything. It was kind of this thing that we thought should exist already, though there are probably a couple of reasons as to why it didn’t.’
‘Obviously the queer community is known for its amazing club culture, but by its very nature it has had to live underground, so our communities have naturally evolved around that as the central pillar rather than live music. Throughout history there has been such a heavy influence of club culture, and you see it with drag as well, but the community doesn't exist as much around queer musicians.’
‘A big thing for me is storytelling. If you're going into a room as a queer artist, especially those who are from more marginalised parts within our community, there’s not really a grassroots music space for you. What they'll look like traditionally are generally white, cis, heteronormative spaces - they’re pubs. That's historical, and obviously it's part of the culture in London, but if you are from our community, you might be less likely to get up at an open mic in a pub and start singing about your experience as a queer person.’
‘With Sounds Queer, it's about creating a space in which queer artists can perform to queer and ally audiences. And it works two-fold as a safe space, whether you're a performer or in the audience. It's about the spectacle around it as well, whether that's having drag involved, or queer DJs, and just trying to convert the support we have for club culture to our queer artists.’
The Sounds Queer Christmas party plays upon the inherently camp nature of Christmas, but Toby stresses the dichotomy between this and the fact that it can also be a hard time for queer people seeing family.
‘Christmas is the fucking gayest thing in the world, but at the same time, the premise of it is inherently traditional. I'm quite lucky in that I get on with my family, and they've never had a problem with my queerness, but that's not the same for everyone, so I know it can be a difficult time for a lot of people. At the same time though, queer people are very resilient and very good at community, so it's really nice seeing lots of queer friends who maybe aren't going home, but want to spend it with each other.’
First up on the line-up is Bessi, who Toby gushes ‘is an amazing artist, who’s also part of the State Is Flow collective. They’re an incredible multi-instrumentalist and producer, and one of my favourite songwriters ever - full stop. I'm lucky enough to have the pleasure of listening to them making music as well, and I already know all the words to their songs which haven't even been released yet. They'll definitely kick things off nicely.’
Next to take to the stage is Geo Jordan. ‘We’re super lucky to have Geo as well, another multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist and producer, who recently came off a world tour with Jungle where he played bass and keys. He’s working on a solo project at the moment, and I can’t wait to see him do his thing again.’
‘Then we've got Tina Edwards who's a DJ for Worldwide FM and Jazz FM. I saw her play at Wild Paths, and we connected because we were both on panels at the music conference there. When we were booking the Sounds Queer Christmas party, it just made sense for Tina to play.’
‘Barbs is our resident host, she’s an incredible drag queen and a performance artist. A little known fact about her, which may deceive you sometimes with her drag, is that she studied at the Royal College of Music and is a talented pianist. I believe she actually got into music school with an audition piece that she played on a modded piano that had dildos stuck to it! She's a very multi-faceted performer, and I could watch her all day.’