The British-born Christopher Taylor, a.k.a. Trouble Over Tokyo, brought attention to himself in spring 2007, as a support artist for the local indie-pop band Garish. The question is, why would he choose the Alpine republic as a playground for his indie-soul-electro-pop music? By chance, a visitor from the Styrian city Graz met the English musician in a London pub a few years ago and invited him to play a few concerts in Styria. The rest is history and Trouble Over Tokyo is here to stay.
Apart from playing in lesser-known indie band formations, Christopher Taylor is a rather blank canvas in his hometown of London. According to the Guardian, the One Man Band unites the existentialist moments of Thom Yorke with the sexual moments of Justin Timberlake. Toph, the stage name of this Englishman, never really stated what he thinks about these comparisons. In any event, the band history began in 2004 in London. It started as a rock band, with the musicians Paul-Dominic Degrande, Dominic Clarkson-Decker , Paul O’Donnell and mastermind Christopher Taylor, but they got into quarrels shortly before the recording of the debut album and broke up. Christopher Taylor kept the band name and the homepage, and continued to make music on his own.
In 2005 he released his debut album “1000” with his own label tokyotron records. His genius already flashes on his debut. Despite the simple production, the ten songs fascinate listeners and leave them spellbound. Some tracks invite you to dance, other convince with simple melodic and melancholic character. Even the artwork of the albums is designed by Toph himself. If he is in a good mood, he will also paint on the hands of one or the other fan after a concert. Both the covers of “1000” as well as of “pyramides”, show a man drawn in black and white, who is apparently looking for something. In terms of musical search, Trouble Over Tokyo always pushes the envelope.
With the Austrian Label “Schoenwetter Records”, Christopher Taylor found an adequate label to release his album “pyramides”. In 2007, his single “Save Us” became the number one song on the Styrian Radio “Soundportal”. “pyramides” was appreciated by both critics and fans, was promoted as album of the week by the popular Austrian Radio Station FM4, was head of the Austrian Indie Charts, and was published on the cover of the favored Austrian music magazine “The Gap”. In 2008, “pyramides” was distributed worldwide by klein records.
Last year in November, Christopher Taylor started working on his third album “The Hurricane”. The self produced album will be released on the 15th of October 2010. Members of the renowned Austrian bands Velojet, Garish, Rhys Marsh and The Autumn Ghost, as well as the legendary U.S. drummer Darren King will be represented on the album. Toph has recorded 12 songs, which were produced with the help of sound engineer Alex Thomann in the Dolphin Suite in Vienna. “The Hurricane” will be presented in an exclusive live performance at the Viennese Radiokulturhaus on the 19th of September.
Trouble Over Tokyo is a vocal genius with exuberant creativity, who playfully and fluidly mixes the borders of singer-songwriter indie and electronic music. The songs are about anxiety, self-doubt and weltschmerz. Currently, he is still to be found in the smaller segments of the local indie-pop music scene, but the mainstream is already squinting on Trouble Over Tokyo’s music. Thus, instrumentals of the new album have been adapted for i-phone apps. It shows that Trouble Over Tokyo’s “Indie-Electro-Angst-Pop”, as Christopher Taylor describes his own music, is music you just can’t get enough of.
Markus Egger
translated from the German by Doris Miyung Brady