Music – Jeff Hemmings: Toy: psychedelic rock meets Krautrock, shoegaze and indie-pop

A London-based band with strong Brighton connections, the five piece Toy have just released their third album, and it’s another great slice of psychedelic rock infused with elements of the cinematic, Krautrock, shoegaze and indie-pop.

Fronted by Tom Dougal (whose sister Rose was once in The Pipettes, and now has her own solo career), Toy were born out of the ashes of Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong, a band who were signed to a major label and were just about to release a much hyped debut album before the band imploded due to ultra-high expectations.

“We just stopped the whole thing very quickly,” says Tom. “It was a little bit tough to deal with for a while, but very quickly we pulled ourselves together. We realised it wasn’t the kind of music we wanted to be doing. We didn’t want to play second fiddle to someone else. We wanted to be in the driving seat. We never looked back from then.”

You get a clear shot through the miasmic power

Toy released their self-titled debut in 2012, quickly followed by Join The Dots in 2013. And although they have recently lost keyboardist Alejandra Diez, they’ve been joined by Max Oscarnold as they get ready to tour the new album Clear Shot. That came from something that Dom came up with: “you get a clear shot through the miasmic power.” “It was an interesting phrase he wrote down.

“We just thought it was synonymous with things we were going through, personal problems we were having as everyone does. As a band we were trying to push through and take it as far as we can. It seemed like a call to arms and that ended up being the title for the album. It seemed apt.”

Now based in London, the band all met originally in Brighton. “All of us, except for Max, grew up as teenagers in Brighton. We were at Cardinal Newman and then me and Dom went to Bhasvic. As soon as we finished that we moved up to London. I’ve still got some friends there. It’s always nice to go back there, to play.”

Saturday 19 Nov, The Haunt, 7pm, £11