MP3 Song
Run
THE SONG
Great production, arrangement and songwriting. The lyrics are very colorful as is the music. This is great pop/jazz that would do very well on contemporary jazz stations everywhere.
THE CD
A fantasticly produced cd with strands of Steely Dan and Sting drifting through. The lyrics are just as well crafted as the music that provides the foundation. The dynamics and style here are simply amazing. Mitch is definitely one talented individual.
BandRadio
Contact Info
Web site:
Mitch Tobias
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California, the mythical Promised Land and music business center? Original music that comes from a place where all it's inhabitants are from somewhere else (essentially) will undoubtedly (idealistically, hopefully) reflect those varied landscapes and sensitivities. But is there a San Francisco "sound", an L.A. "sound"? Well, if they indeed exist, there would be about 10,000 different opinions on what that "sound" might be. But let us not confuse "sound" with "voice". See the difference? A new band hydroplaning on the coat tails of a third generation Goo Goo Dolls puppet clone is a "sound". Being awaken at sunrise to the chant of 20 Chinese monks in a monastery hostel is waking up to a "voice". Mitch Tobias is not a Buddhist monk (in fact he was Bar Mitzvahed) but he grew up listening to "voices" - and is carrying on the tradition.
Growing up on Elton John, The Beatles, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, Frank Zappa and (his favorite) Mr. Rogers, Mitch was always impressed by archetypes. When he began writing music at the age of 8, his efforts didn't much resemble the above mentioned artists - rather, a combination of pre-teen fantasies, cliches, and excuses to play his favorite chords. Up until 16, he was infected by KISS, AC/DC, Aerosmith and Van Halen. Everything written in that period will be kept under lock and key indefinitely. (Although he does love a good metal kick in the ass frequently.) How easily we get distracted from our roots and the sources of our primal streams! (Especially in environments that demand less than true, original voices.)
"When I was16 or 17 I picked up Zappa's 'Mothers of Prevention'. This is the album that spawned from the senate committee hearings on the censorship of rock lyrics in which he took actual spoken statements from the hearing and turned them into instruments. (Including Al and Tipper Gore!) Combining them with the music he generated, Frank managed to build this composition that encompassed humor, sophistication, foreign textures and unorthodox arrangements. It's an emotionally charged piece that made the little hairs on my arms rise, made me laugh. . . and cry too."
While Frank might not be palatable for all, Mitch adheres to his philosophy and refusal to adhere to the purity of genres. (Sting seems to share this point of view as well.) Mitch believes that everyone has a voice (whether or not they know it yet). "I can't stand it when someone says, "I'm not a musical person". How are they supposed to know if their parents told them to shut up when they were 6?" He borrows from all over the place - Sting, Paul Simon, Phish, the squirrel outside his window, the smell of wild fennel, whatever. The net result - Mitch Tobias.
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