#196 Duncan Toombs
The making of first single ‘Run’ with Duncan Toombs
When Duncan recorded Rae LEighs music video 'Find A Better Day' in 2020 Duncan talked about wanting to get back into recording and releasing his own music. Now in 2022 he has done just that with the help of his friends he released his first single 'Run' and has many more and an album to come. In this chat they go through some of the challenges Duncan overcame to get to this point.
Duncan John Toombs (born on June 14th, 1977) is an Australian based singer-songwriter, musician and video director. Known widely for his incredible guitar work & creative film making, the release of Duncan’s debut album - STEEL ON STEEL has the entire Australian country scene waiting in anticipation. It features 12 original songs about his life, his family and love. With inspiration grounded from his long-time love of Country Music, Duncan’s songs are woven with tones ranging from Jackson Brown to Zac Brown. This album is a sure bet to exceed everyone's expectations.
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Transcript
Rae Leigh: All right. Welcome to a Songwriter Tryst with Duncan Toombs. Thank you so much for joining me.
Duncan Toombs: Oh, thanks for having me.
Rae Leigh: I'm excited you, you, one of the first people to kind of see my studio set up in my room when we filmed, the music video for find a better day, which I actually play, a little bit of at the end of every podcast as the outro.
So, you know, I've known you for a little while and, and I really respect everything that you do, but I remember then that you told me that you you'd missed music and that you'd been so busy with videos and with COVID and everything that you wanted to get back into music. And it's so exciting to see that you're doing that.
Duncan Toombs: yeah, there you go. And yeah, it is happening. Yeah. My life's leaning back towards my music. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a happier person for it.
Rae Leigh: Good. Yeah. I, I realized a while ago that if I don't do music, that's when I'm not happy and when I'm not happy, I'm just, I'm no used to anyone. So
Duncan Toombs: Yeah, it's this weird thing. Isn't it. You gotta take care of yourself a bit to help others and all this stuff. It's been a bit of a realization COVID was an awakening for me with that stuff. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Awesome. Well, let's, let's start with you introducing yourself. So tell us a little bit about who you are and where you come from.
Duncan Toombs: Well, my name's Duncan. I come from. A family of three, this three dog of two brothers. So there's three of us. how far do you want me to go back? grew up in, grew
Rae Leigh: well, I, mean, is it yeah. Toowoomba.
Duncan Toombs: Grew up in Toowoomba. Mum and dad split when I was young. So I, mum mum was a, a trooper. She just, worked hard to get us through what we needed to get through. Worked a couple of jobs when she had to. And, yeah, she's an angel. My mom range just three on her own. Yeah, single mom. And, yeah, when I was 13, be best mate showed me how to play bad moon, rising on guitar. And I was hooked.
Rae Leigh: how, how old?
Duncan Toombs: 13.
Rae Leigh: Wow. Yeah. Nice.
Duncan Toombs: And, I was hooked. I just fell in love with guitar. All I wanted to be was a guitarist. And, we joined, Michael's me. Mate's mum. He, her name's Lynn McCain, she had, she dragged us along to the, the, to country music club. And there was probably about another, I don't know, seven or nine other young, people we met there and we were called the juniors. They had the seniors and the juniors and we'd watch all the seniors practice their songs.
Cuz they used to have these country music festivals every weekend or every second weekend. It seemed. All across Southeast Queensland. And, so we were the juniors, so the seniors would go first and then we'd go after them and practice ate helpers and show us new chords or don't play that or stop trying to be a rockstar and all that sort of stuff.
You know, stop, stop making so much noise cuz someone would just be hitting something and just mucking around.
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Duncan Toombs: Yeah, but that spawned just a massive love for country music for me, cuz just, all the friendships that were, that were, made back then and all the memories, yeah, just really put country music in my blood.
I didn't necessarily, I liked music before that, I think it's just those relationships and those friendships that were formed. A country music, just, something that I, you know, have been passionate about ever since. So that's yeah, so that's spa and we, you know, we had a, got into our, made our own bands.
We grew up in, a band with Lin and my younger brother and we made Nick, we played drums eventually.
Rae Leigh: gonna ask if you knew Lynn, cuz I think she told me in her podcast that she was from Toowoomba.
Duncan Toombs: Yeah. Yeah, no. No then for a long time, and we grew up playing music together and, you know, actually went out when we were in high school and, yeah, so we, yeah, so we, we started touring and then we, we all moved down with, Andy, my younger brother came down to Sydney early, so he left the band, but we eventually sort of followed him.
Lynn, myself and Joel Oiel. And before, before I knew it, I was playing with other bands. I was, playing on the road with Becky Holland, Adam Harvey, and did five years with a guy called Adam brand.
Playing and Sunbird with Gina and Becky and Sarah, and, lots of other people, you know, so many others, you know, Lee, Regan and Tanya and Troy Sai. And yeah, just became a gun for. Yeah. So I started
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Duncan Toombs: guitar for all those guys for about
15 years. Until that became
well, no, it, it was amazing. I loved it. I very second of it, but, um, what, what I was lacking in my life as I started having a family, I, when I, um, met Amanda and we started having kids, um, was just a bit of balance and all, cause I was away so much touring was so different back then.
In those days you'd go out for two, three, sometimes a month to three weeks, sometimes a. and, yeah, I missed, missed a lot of Jack my first son's, first year, couple of years, you know, because I'd be away so much.
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Duncan Toombs: So I,
Rae Leigh: hard on them. Isn't it? When they're.
Duncan Toombs: yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, they don't notice at the time do they, but you know, when you think, when you look back and go, geez, you know, I was away a lot, but at the time I was, I was uni for finding something, that I could do. And have of my own, so I could not be at the whim of, and not that I didn't like it. I loved what my job and loved what I was doing. But, you know, if an artist is going touring, you can either say yes or you can either say no and you know, here's what it is. If you wanna. Cause I was, I was the breadwinner for the family and, but yeah, so I figured out I liked video editing cuz my wife had.
A bit of video editing gear. So I ended up staying up late all nights, you know, just mucking around on it. Before too long, I'd made a couple of videos for a, some artist. And then I was away. I was, I was in love with, editing and film
and that took off and I started a little film company called the Fillery and then we won seven golden guitars in a row.
And it just really blew up and this has taken over my life ever. Yeah. So then that's been an awesome thing too. It's another whole thing, and, but now, you know, I'm, I think I've always struggled with balance in my life. I'm an all a nothing kind of guy and.
Rae Leigh: I can relate.
Duncan Toombs: All or nothing. And, so now I just, I'm trying to find that balance again.
I, I, I wanna, I'm trying to leave my life back into more music and COVID was the actual, the agent that actually helped me do that because it kicked me off my hamster wheel. So I could no longer go on. You know, even if I, you know, even the gigs, I was doing a few gigs here and there, but I, you know, obviously couldn't go play for people, but I definitely couldn't make videos for people.
It was a lot harder I could do one on one things was, was easier. Like it was just one on one. It was the whole, yeah, getting around the whole COVID thing.
Rae Leigh: yeah, I like what you said about the hamster wheel. I think a lot of people had that hamster wheel stopping moment with COVID of, and which kind of forces you to reflect on your current life situation and
Duncan Toombs: Oh, totally.
Rae Leigh: I actually wanna be? is this, was this, did that, did I plan this or I kind of fall into this and just kept going
Duncan Toombs: And that's exactly what it did. And, I turned towards myself and since then, I've been
trying to. Give myself a bit of time and, you know, put some love into myself. And it's just been awesome. I keep saying to other people, it's like, when they say on the plane, you gotta fit your own gas mask first.
If, if, if they do drop before you put 'em on the kids, otherwise, you know, everyone's not gonna be in a good situation. And it's so true. Like if you don't, what I found is, and I'm not preaching, cuz I'm the worst of the worst when it comes to this stuff. But.
Rae Leigh: Self Love's important
Duncan Toombs: yeah, if you don't
just give yourself a bit of self love
and do at least something, you know,
once a week, just do something for yourself.
Rae Leigh: Mm.
Duncan Toombs: It actually. Yeah, it, it makes it hard to keep going. You burn out and that's a bit of self-care, so, and, and that's exactly what this has been for me, this whole journey I got, I got into my songwriting and, I've got me health in check a bit better still working on it, but, um, yeah, definitely a whole lot better than I was. And yeah, worked on my songs, worked on my singing. And yeah, played all, all these songs. And then I, got to go with some friends and got into the studio. And next minute, here we are. It's my first single run released and, loving every minute of it.
Rae Leigh: How, how does it feel like after all that time? And, and then such a honestly, like COVID was a, a sledge hammer to most people's heads really, and, and lifestyles. But to, to turn that around in such a positive way, and, and the saying in our house world was, you know, turning lemons into lemonade. I feel like you, you're a perfect example.
What you've done with the lemons of life that COVID was, turning into lemonade with this single in, in that whole process of transformation and turning things in a direction that like taking control of the steering wheel really in your life and going in the direction you wanna go, how did it feel when you had that release and you know, and everyone turning around going, oh, he's got music coming at again. This is good.
Duncan Toombs: Yeah. I, don't know. It's it's been, I, yeah, if I have to
describe how it feels, it's, it's, it's been therapeutic. It's been, um, it's been something I've probably wanted to do one day, you know, one day I'll do that. You know, one day I'll do my own songs and I'll put something down and have a recording of myself, you know, one day, Yeah.
I mean, we all do that a lot. Don't we, one day I I'll I'll get to it.
Rae Leigh: Think there was something else that was kind of, um, holding you back? O other than obviously you had a lot of other stuff going on, working touring, filming. Do you think there was something else that kind of like, you didn't feel ready or
you were
Duncan Toombs: uh, maybe some that
Rae Leigh: re sharing music?
Duncan Toombs: not scared, but maybe, um,
you know, yeah. Maybe feeling, feeling like I'm not, I don't know. , yeah, I'm just trying to think. Not really. Um, not definitely not scared, but, I think we all stop ourselves in some way. I don't know how, we all it's, it's like we self sabotage ourselves.
Having a crack sometimes. And maybe it's cuz yeah, we just don't don't believe we are ready maybe. Or, you know what it's the judgment you might get or who knows? It's probably a mix of everything for me. It's not one thing in particular.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Duncan Toombs: Yeah, but a big part of my thing was like, yeah, I've spent my life helping other people do their thing, you know? And then, you know, squeezing myself in here and there just tiny little bits, but never quite enough. Getting back to the self love thing, it's, so it's actually, it's been a massive eye open. It really has because just being able to, not being able to help others, all of a sudden and all this spare time on my hands, I, sort of had no choice, but to look inward and yeah, it's been, it's been awesome since.
Since then, cause I've just been slowly, just chipping away and, and just giving myself, the time to work on myself and, and it's, and yeah, I'm so much happier for it. And I'm able to, I'm able to continue to help other people as well, you know?
Rae Leigh: Exactly. Exactly. I think someone told me once it's like, if you don't take care of yourself, someone else has to, and we all need to rely on other people at some point, you know, when we get sick, we need nurses and doctors or whatever it is that we need. And there is, there's no shame in needing help every now and then.
But it's also rewarding when we are healthy and able to be able to help other people and, we need each other, so that's beautiful. Was there a catalyst outside of just the COVID thing that. You know, that realization or epiphany of self love was like a moment for you where that became something you really understood and started to step in that direction of that.
Duncan Toombs: I'm not sure. if there's there was a certain catalyst, my father passed away last year. And, and that's definitely been a catalyst of, of getting out there and just loving life and, just, yeah, and not worrying about all the, all the crap and just do, you know, just do your own thing and stay in your own lane and just keep pushing, Yeah, so that's, that's definitely been a catalyst, for me, but as far as me releasing my music, through COVID, that was, it was, yeah, it's that was the, the eye opener for me. But I think I've always been, I've always had a drive in me. I've always wanted to push myself and, and anything I've I've wanted to do or, found I love doing, I always try.
I always seem to you. I give it my old I do. I just, I just, if I wanna do something, I'm gonna have a crack. And I think that was,
Rae Leigh: Yeah, do it
Duncan Toombs: drummed into me from my dad when I was young, he always said, yeah, he, you know, she's saying he's big, scary dad, voice. If you're gonna do a job, you do it properly, you know?
Rae Leigh: Yeah, my dad told me the same thing. I think that actually scared me as well though, when I was younger, like, uh, I'm a perfectionist and self professed. Absolutely. And, and it frustrates me, but it took me a long time to get over that concept of. With art. And this is why I struggled with art. My entire life is because there is no such thing as perfect art.
really, we're always striving to do the best that we can, but, art is subjective by nature. And so it, that, that part of me was like, okay, I just need to get it to the best that I can and then release it and then try and do better. And that once I kind of got over the whole concept, It's never gonna be perfect.
You just gotta do as good as you can in that particular scenario, that, that was the freedom I needed to actually start releasing music
Duncan Toombs: Yeah, so
Rae Leigh: And that's why I'm always striving to try and do better. and I enjoy the challenge of it though. So it's fun.
Duncan Toombs: Quality to have. I think you just gotta watch the back end, the mental health side of it. Um, yeah,
Rae Leigh: Exactly. Yeah. And that's the thing is you gotta, I gotta, I have to work out is like, am I not happy with it because it's a me problem. And it's my perfectionist brain stepping in, or am I not happy with it? Because there is something that we could do better, you know, is there an edit or, or a mix that may make it better than what it is?
And if. That's the question I ask myself. And then if it's like for this particular project and the people that we we're all working on, this we've all done the best that we can. That's when I realized, okay. All the other stuff's just in my head , you know, and I,
Duncan Toombs: Yeah,
Rae Leigh: we just gotta get it out there. Tell me about songwriting for you. They, when did you write your first ever song? Is that something that you always did, but you hadn't like released or was that a, a COVID thing as well? The actual original songwriting.
Duncan Toombs: I'll look as you know, playing in the band, with, LIBO tell on Southern steel. I did, I did help. I just sort of, I co-write a few songs. I've always been okay and pretty handy with come up with guitar, parts or lines. And that's always helped me through my years of doing sessions on, on.
Artist, SMS playing in the studio. I've done a lot of that years as well. So I, yeah, co running's always been a thing coming up with parts always has been a thing.
Myself and my younger brother, Andy, we, we, we did a little EP that we never released. We just, we printed some CDs, but we sort of just had a bit of fun one weekend at me mate's house.
It was actually Mick who the guy gave me, me, mate, who, taught me how to play that song. Got me into
Rae Leigh: Oh, awesome.
Duncan Toombs: Yeah, he, we went to his place and he had a studio. So we, we put down a little sort of four track. I think it was five actually, little EP, just for family and friends. I mean, I think we sold a few extra copies here and there, but, never formally released it.
, but yeah, I, I started, that was sort of part of my songwriting just before that. The year before we did that, I think I went to Nashville. My wife bought me a, yeah. My wife bought me for my birthday, a songwriting, a Darrell Scott songwriting course in Nashville.
Rae Leigh: no way. I want your wife to buy me a present. it sounds
Duncan Toombs: yeah, it was,
Rae Leigh: giver.
Duncan Toombs: it was awesome. So I went over to nashville and, yeah. Went to this course and it was just, the best week met so many cool people. But the, the greatest thing that probably ever happened was cuz I I've never been good at English. I'm not the, I'm not a poet. I'm not, I don't like actually don't like reading, I find reading boring.
I've always like, I like visual things. I like, seeing and describing and, and it's probably a big part of the reason why I've got into film and I love film so much. Is I just like the visual side of things, to tell a story rather than words
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Duncan Toombs: I'm probably a little bit too.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. I, I could, whenever there was an option at school to do like a speech or an essay, even though I was shy and terrified of being in public, I knew that I'd do a better job with a public speech and I get a better mark than if I tried to run an essay. so, I guess that's where I get my talking ability from yeah. But it, it,
Duncan Toombs: our thingo.
Rae Leigh: it's hard. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So co-writing was a thing. And then at this, at this Nashville songwriting course, did you do a lot more co-writing there or?
Duncan Toombs: Well, see what happened at the, at the, in the Nashville course was, I, I met a songwriter. I can't remember her name now, but I was trying to write a song and she, she, I was struggling with, you know, coming up with lines or whatever, and. I told her I've never, you know, never been a big fan of reading or, or writing, and I'm not really good at English.
, and she said, look, you don't have to be, she said, there's many ways you can write a song. She said, if you want, try this. And she said, In your mind, just visualize a story or visualize a scene out of it. Like make a movie in your head right now, visualize a scene and all you have to do instead of trying to come up with these words, just describe what you're looking at.
And I was like, oh, why? Okay. So if I imagine something and then I just describe it, I can write that way and boom. I was off. I was like, yeah, I was just like, I can do this then. Since then, yeah, I.
I've been able to, yeah, I just think I, I just visual those things or, or, or just think about certain emotions and I sort of visual.
Yeah. I don't know. Just found my it's set me off on a new path to be able a song write. And from then on, in that's when Andy and I get out little thing, and then since then I've been chipping away. But finally, after all these years, yeah, I, to the point where I've written enough to be able to release something of my own.
Rae Leigh: I, I actually really appreciate. That description of the way that you said visualize something. And then describe what you're seeing, because one of the, the things that I've been learning about myself, but also like I run these songwriting workshops and, you know, we, we just co-write together with groups.
And that is probably the biggest thing is that a lot of like, and I get really bored with it. I guess when I hear it in a song is when someone's telling me how to feel or that they're kind of it preaching. Whereas if they describe. A scene or describe something and allow me to then, you know, recreate that image in my head and re and, and attach my own feelings to it.
I, I don't know. I like that so much better. And I feel like that exercise that you were told, like that's such a brilliant way of putting it
Duncan Toombs: Yeah. it works for me.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. I think it's well, it's, it's just, yeah, it's beautiful. And I love imagery, so, yeah. That's cool.
Duncan Toombs: There you go.
Rae Leigh: Now what? Tell me about this new single run. Did you co-write that one or is it a single that you wrote by yourself?
Duncan Toombs: No. I wrote that by myself. It's a song about, myself and my wife falling in love. Yeah. It's pretty much a love. It's a love. song. Excuse me. I didn't try and go into a deep dive of what it's like to feel in love. It's, it's, it's just the way I was feeling. And all the, the vibes and emotions of, of what was going on back then. But, I just feel like, you know, uh, if you find someone you love in this life, you just gotta, just gotta hold tight and run and just go run through
Rae Leigh: hold onto it.
Duncan Toombs: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: I love that. So with co-writing, cuz you said you've done a fair bit of it. What would you say? You've learned now how to like approach a co-write do you have like things that you always wanna take into it or things that you do to prepare? Is there a co-writing session that you'd say was one of your favorite for some reason?
Duncan Toombs: Look one of my, I mean, my favorite co-writers the one I've I had a friend of mine, Liz Benson, join me on one of my cheerings, which will be on my album.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Duncan Toombs: And probably gonna be a single we're released, but yeah, LO's, just, she's just a bundle of energy and good vibes. And she came along, we got together one night, with my brother-in-law and another mate of mine, Jake.
And we just, we were just jamming and I'd written this song and, um, I, I wanted her to have a cracker writing the second verse for me and.
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Duncan Toombs: Yeah, she, so she, yeah, she, well, I played her, the song sat down and then just gave her like half an hour on her own. And then she said, right. And we just, she jumped on the drum kit and, Dan was on acoustic.
I was on, I was on bass that night and, Jake was on electric and we just, we played my tune and then she, she sang her verse as well and was like, oh my God, this is cool. This is, this is gotta be a Ette now. It's turned into a bit of a, yeah, it's a Ette on the album. And, hopefully it'll be a Monday singles, but yeah, that was, that was such a fun co-write cuz it was just, it just worked. I think my, I might, we gave my brother-in-law Daniel, I think 5% cuz you come up with one word
Rae Leigh: oh, that's nice.
Duncan Toombs: it's
Rae Leigh: Everyone has a different theory.
Duncan Toombs: Dictionary, Daniel SOS. Yeah,
Rae Leigh: handy. I, I actually like writing. Yeah, that's good. I, I was gonna say, I like writing with people who are good with English or good with vocabulary. Most of the time, my husband's really good with vocabulary, but we've learned that it's not good for our marriage. if we try and write songs together, , that's, that's something you only learn if you actually try and do it.
We've written one song together, which he helped me with. I haven't necessarily put his credit down cuz you know, we are married. He owns 50% of everything I do, but it's a murder ballot about marriage. the only one we could agree on. So I don't know what that says about our relationship but anyway,
Duncan Toombs: Uh, well, I, others, I enjoyed, I like I really did when I was out, I was in the Adam Beckley
band for three years. I, I helped write and write a lot of guitar parts with Adam on, the second album and we recorded that up in Byron bay and, yeah, but just the, the. All the jam sessions and all the working towards that album.
They were, they were so much fun cause we know we'd just sit there and work on a song and do, as you go around the room and then, you know, the guitar parts, what are we gonna play? Yeah, there's a lot of twin guitar parts that Adam I did Adam, I did on the second album. So that was a whole bunch of fun too. I really enjoyed those days.
Rae Leigh: It sounds like you you're quite open minded and flexible. And, I love it when like the guitar and the melody can really add, like having a good hook melody on the guitar or piano sort of a lead instrument can make such a difference to a song. I I've talked to different people with different opinions on that, around, whether it's performance or whether it's songwriting.
And I'm a big believer. Definitely is songwriting, but everyone's different. What, what would you say is the best piece of advice that you've heard that you've kind of held onto in the industry? I mean, you've, you've been in so many different areas of the industry as a musician, as a videographer and, with all the people that you know, as well. Plus now doing your own music, what would you say is the most important thing for people to kind of understand or think about.
Duncan Toombs: It's funny, you know, you say that because, troy Castelli said to me, just enjoy it, you know, as far as, the whole musical career thing, just enjoy it, you know, stay in your lane. He said to me, stay in your lane and. Run your own race and,
Rae Leigh: That's creepy because they're
Duncan Toombs: it really resonated with me. Yeah. Well it just, yeah.
Rae Leigh: I said that's really? creepy because there are lines in my next song. That's
Duncan Toombs: oh, really? Okay. Well you go, well,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Duncan Toombs: weird thing is I, I was on netflix the other day and I watched the dusty movie. And there's Troy, doing an interview, talking about slim and Troy's talking about how slim told that to him. Just stay in your lane, run your own race. So he, he, he, he, he, he felt that from, he got that bit of advice from slim and he's, he's passed it on, you know, probably to countless people, but he passed it on to me. So, it was cool to, to see him talk about slim telling him that. And,
Rae Leigh: I love that.
Duncan Toombs: Oh, I love Troy. I've looked up to him a long time. I'm not trying to make him sound old, but you know, when Mick and I were and Landy with teenagers, we used to go watch him play at different places before he, he made it to the, you know, before he won his first golden guitar.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, I love that.
Duncan Toombs: is a true, true gentleman and a true. He's an amazing, he's just amazing, an amazing human amazing singer performer. And he's always, he's been the same the whole way through too. That's what I love about Troy. Since I met him, he's the same guy now. Yeah. But that's good advice. I reckon don't worry about what
Rae Leigh: Oh, it's incredible.
Duncan Toombs: Stay in your lane and just run your own race and it's you against you. And I think that works for a lot of things in life.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, I'm gonna have to go watch that slim, dusty. I've had a few people telling me to watch it and I just, I'm not, I'm not a big TV watcher. But I feel like especially now after hearing that and the relation to how I feel, that's beautiful. And yeah, I got stitched up by my mate, who runs the radio station in Brisbane with, With Troy, he, he got me into play live and he got Troy to play before me.
And then during the interview, he was like, oh, see, now I got Troy, Casa daily to open for you. like, it was really fun, but he was, it was really nice to meet him. And he was, yeah, he was a beautiful guy. But that was my first interview. I said, that's, I feel like that's really disrespectful, but but anyway.
All right. If you could. Collaborate with anyone in the world, dead or alive. Who would it be and why?
Duncan Toombs: Ooh, that's a good question.
Rae Leigh: Hmm. So who's your inspirations is kind of an fun way of asking
Duncan Toombs: say Jerry Reed, I'd love to write a song with Jerry. If he could come back from the. From the other side. That'd be pretty cool. I, I loved him as a guitar player and, as a singer and just as a performer, he had so much, do you know who Jerry Reid is?
Rae Leigh: No. That's why I'm
Duncan Toombs: So, yeah, Jerry Reid is, he's seen a movie called smokey in the bandit
Rae Leigh: Okay.
Duncan Toombs: on ended. I might be showing my age again here too, but, there's a movie
Rae Leigh: I'm writing it down.
Duncan Toombs: Yeah, his name was Jerry Reed. He, he actually, he played the truck driver snowman in that movie. and it was a massive hit in the eighties. Massive. And, uh, he wrote the whole soundtrack
Rae Leigh: in the eighties, so Yeah.
Duncan Toombs: And, it was, oh, pretty cold film. It was his massive film. So if you do wanna watch it, go check it out. Smokey in the bandit. But Jerry Reed is, an was an incredible guitar player. And his whole, his, he somehow seemed to be able to, his, in his recordings.
He somehow brought his whole energy and all his good vibes and he put it into the mic. I don't know how he channeled so much good energy through the speakers. He's just, he's, he's, he's so gifted at doing that. And I try to be like him.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Okay.
Duncan Toombs: I'm pretty, I fall short, but I, I have a go I have a go, but, he's such, yeah, I'd love to, if I could have, you know, half an hour with Jerry Reed and write a song or just hang out and pick some guitar, that'd be unreal.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Oh, I, I love hearing people's inspirations and why, and, and what it is that, you know, does that for you and the idea that you can hear the soul inside someone or the energy that, that, of who they are when if you can capture that somehow I don't, you know, I, I agree. That's a hard thing to know how people do that.
but,
Duncan Toombs: go out and listen to Jerry Reed. Anus smokes, or when you are hot, you're hot, you can just hear the energy inside this follow coming through at you and it's, it's captivating. It's uh, it's not captivating is the wrong
Rae Leigh: me homework.
Duncan Toombs: it is, infectious it's infectious.
Rae Leigh: Well, I've written them down. So I I've got some homework now, some movies to watch some, to some songs to listen to. You said you're working on an album. what's what's coming up for you next, after this fir this amazing single is
Duncan Toombs: Well, I've I've, I've already got an album ready to go. But I ended up signing with, a good friend of mine, Graham Thompson, at compass brothers records, compass brothers universal. So I sent Graham my songs,
a few months back and he got straight back to me and was just really keen to help out if you could. To be honest. I, I had no, as long as I've been around, I had no idea people like yourself and people who released music had to do so much stuff. Like there's so much involved
Rae Leigh: God
Duncan Toombs: a song. It is incredible. And I I'm, you know, obviously I'm busy helping
people with their content still. And I, I was just like, it was, it became really overwhelming.
It's like, okay, I've got this album of songs. What am I gonna do with it? It's like, okay, what do I do? How, what if I, how many, how many, hoops do I have to jump through? Oh my God, this is crazy. So when the, when Graham put his hand up and said he, he came to help out and work together, I, I was like, to be honest, I was a bit relieved.
Rae Leigh: that's good.
Duncan Toombs: Excuse me.
Rae Leigh: It's good to have people that can help out.
Duncan Toombs: Yeah. I was a bit relieved in, I was like, where do I sign? it was great. But the thing is like, I've known Graham for a long time. So I really do trust him. And he's such a, he's a top guy. And when I, back when I was playing guitar for Adam brand for five years, great. He, Adam was with compass brothers.
I think he had a shares encompass brothers back then actually. And then Graham Thompson was Adam, his manager. So I've known Graham for a long, for a long time. And, yeah, it's been, been a pleasure to, to kick off my solo career with him.
Rae Leigh: I love that and it, it it's important. And I like what you're saying that with contracts and music, , it is a marriage and it's so important to have trust and that open relationship there. And, I actually find that that's the hardest, probably most important thing that I've discovered in my music career, a very short one and what it is, but the people that you work with will define. What your career is because there are people out there re representing you. And, yeah, I, I I'm I'm I try to be very selective as far as. You know, who, who I open up to and who I trust because you know, the last thing you want is to there's just so there's so many horror stories out there about people signing the wrong contracts, you know, and then it's just setting 'em back years and years
of hard work in their art and that sort of thing.
So I think it's good to be cautious. yeah. And to take your time, and not rush into anything and like the fact that you knew someone that you, you were very lucky, but that's not something that you can just do straight away. You know, you obviously knew him from the fact that you'd been in the industry for such a long time.
And that's important for people to understand that it wasn't just something you jumped into. So I love it. That's kind of the end of my official questions. Is there anything else that you would like to share? I'm gonna put your socials and your music and everywhere. People can see it and hear it into, the description of the podcast.
And there will also be a whole blog on the website somewhere@tris.com with all of your links and information about the podcast and yourself. Is there anything else you'd like to share be with everyone before we finish up?
Duncan Toombs: I'd just like to say
thank you to, thanks for the interview and thanks for having me on the podcast. And, uh, just a big, I'm just really grateful. Um, to be in this place where I am, and I'm grateful to all the musicians who played on my songs.
I'm grateful to Scotty bird for helping me, Scotty bird and Ron McCormick helped me produce my album. And, yeah, it was just amazing to have them, on board and on, on the team, so to speak. So, yeah. Thank you so much to those guys. My wife and my kids, always, you know, obviously I've been in the music industry a long time and they've always been, my wife's never been anything but supportive. And we've always seemed to make it work somehow. I don't know how, but we've got a, you know, got a roof over our heads and the kids seem to be happy and they're doing well. So.
Rae Leigh: all need. We all need supportive partners. Otherwise it makes it very tough.
Duncan Toombs: Just feeling grateful. So I'd just like to say, yeah, thanks. Thanks for all, everything, everyone.
Rae Leigh: Awesome. And I wanna say thank you to you for following your passion because it's a hard thing to do and not everyone does it because it, it can be scary or overwhelming or whatever it is that, you know, stops us from being creative and sharing our art with other people. And I wanna say thank you for, I guess, C actually being the catalyst to making you, you know, take a moment to go, what do I wanna do and what do I need to do?
And, and you followed that. So thank you. I'm. It sounds weird to say, I wanna say proud. Like it's, it's beautiful to, to see someone that I've met, who I could see that there was that desire when I met you, when we were doing the, the music video for find a better day, when you were talking about it, I was like, this guy really wants to do music. I could see it in you. And to see the journey from that point to going here it is, I've done it. I was like, ah, yes, like that feels awesome. And I'm just really happy for you. And I wish
Duncan Toombs: Yeah, nice. And I really enjoyed that day, making that video for you. That was fun. It was in, got a beautiful family and I'm glad we got managed to get a couple of family shots for you.
Rae Leigh: Oh, and look, we've actually used that family shop for a few things. Yeah, and I actually really app that was one of the best things that came out of it. But, and the fact that it rained and we ended up having to do it at home, just, I mean, it made it, it made it work. That it was, yeah, it was pretty funny.
I've had a few videos? done with that bed now and everyone's like, oh, has your bed got a feature in all your music videos?
Duncan Toombs: Oh, it does. It looks cool. You it's a cool looking bedroom. So why not keep going with it?
Rae Leigh: My bedroom inspires me. That's so random. Anyway. Thank you so much for jumping on. Hopefully I'll see you around and good luck with the rest of your music. I will, I look forward to sharing this podcast with everyone
Duncan Toombs: Oh, no worries, Riley, thank you so much for having me and, everyone out there just knew my, something. My dad always used to say have a happy day.
