Nothing like that energy _{by Madelaine Empson}

On the 24^th of April, Toto will bring their global Dogz of Oz Tour to TSB Arena with special guest Christopher Cross. I spoke to Joseph Williams, lead singer of the famed, multi-GRAMMY®-winning American rock band, ahead of a concert bound for the history books.

Looking back, what have been the biggest ‘pinch me’ moments of your mammoth music career?

Pinch me moments! I’ve had a few of those moments kind of recently. We played the Hollywood Bowl, which was a bucket list thing for me. We were this close to filling all the seats too, so it was quite impressive to look at. I’ve been spending time there for, I don’t know, 40 years, hanging out and watching my father [film composer John Williams]. That was a big one. Recently in the last couple of years we’ve played some venues to some crowds that have been mind-blowing for us. There are a few venues in LA, because I grew up here, that were a bucket list thing. You think maybe as life goes on, ‘I’m never going to get a chance to play there’. But I’ve hit most of them, and at the end of the summer we’re playing LA Forum [Kia Forum], which is an arena that’s been around forever and had some famous sports stuff and big concerts that I went there to see as a young lad. Some of my favourite artists, Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney... I’m pinching myself about that.

Joining the band was a huge pinch me moment if you want to go back 36 years, or however many years ago it was now. There have been many, and I feel that there will be more to come still.

Since the 70s, Toto has endured the changing trends and styles while continuing to remain relevant. How do you think you did it?

I think the music, and what we call the big three – the hits that are known everywhere, Rosanna, Hold the Line, and Africa – all still hold up. Something about the production, musicianship, the sounds and sonics that we used at the time, the way it was recorded. A lot of younger people are going back in time and mining for interesting stuff to listen to, which is pretty much the case with every generation. My thing was going back and listening to 40s and 50s music, so it stands to reason that kids born in the early 2000s maybe are going back in time and hunting for 70s and 80s music. Africa, as an example, still sonically sounds great: it has some unique sounds in there that you don’t hear on anything else, the musicianship is great, the main keyboard riff at the very beginning is an earworm... The answer to that question for me is that the songs still really hold up.

What would you describe as the key differences between recording and playing music live in the 80s versus now?

Certainly recording has changed quite a bit. In the old days, we had these thick two-inch, 24-track recording tapes on these gigantic machines, and if you wanted more than 24 tracks, you had to sync up these giant machines. Everything had to be performed from the beginning of the song to the end, so if you had vocals in a particular area of the song that were going to be kinda the same in later parts, you still had to record every note of them. Because it’s analogue, you’re going to tape as opposed to a computer. On a computer, you can grab a piece and use it here, use it there. Sequencing software didn’t exist. To get music in sync, in time, it had to be done manually. You just had to be a good musician to get that kind of sound. So, that’s a huge difference!

Playing live is pretty much the same animal as it’s always been. An audience comes in, you set up your stage, you get out there. Certainly the sound quality has improved over the years. PA systems, consoles for mixers, and a big one for me is how we monitor ourselves on stage. Nowadays, you basically are using headphones, but they twist inside your ears so they’re not quite so visible. And you have a little pack, and that pack is attached to a whole separate mixer who’s over on the side and can basically dial in what sounds like a record into your head. Our mix, what we’re listening to on stage, is quite good. Whereas in the old days, when that didn’t exist, you had to have speakers up on the stage with you playing what it is that you needed to hear. If I needed to hear the piano so that I was on pitch or the drums so that I was in time or my voice so that I could hear myself not hurt myself, all of that was coming from speakers. It got very loud! A lot of guys are losing or have lost their hearing from playing live, because it was so loud.

It must be great to be able to dial it in and hear the music so clearly, but still be able to hear the roar of the crowd as well.

Yeah, we keep a couple of microphones that are pointed out at the crowd that our mixer can dial in or dial out at our request.

There must be nothing like that energy in the world.

There is nothing like that energy in the world. Thus, when you get home from a tour, there’s a little bit of a recovery period. Not only physically, but, ‘Oh yeah, I’m home. I’m going to the store and nobody cares who I am.’ There’s some beauty in that, but it can be a little bit weird when you do 25 concerts in a month and you hear the screaming crowds, all of the tension and adulation, and then you get home and it’s, ‘Oh yeah, just another schmo!’

Speaking of tours! What kind of night are Wellington audiences in for?

They’re gonna hear the big hits, which sound great. We have an amazing band, some returning members from different periods of time, a couple of brand-new people who I think are going to be very exciting and have also breathed new life into the group. We’ve mined the anthology and found a couple of songs that I think people are going to go, ‘Oh yeah, I didn’t realise that was them’, or, ‘I’ve forgotten that they did that one’, and a couple of interesting B-cuts that are going to be amazing to watch because of the sheer talent of the musicians and the band. I’m talking about everybody else because I’m the one guy who doesn’t stand behind an instrument. You’re gonna hear great singing, unbelievable musicianship. It’s exciting, for a bunch of old guys – we do have fun and run around! We can’t wait.