There are plenty of bright lights popping up in the music world these days. Everyone from hard rockers to singer-songwriters are shining through the rubble and emerging to breathe some fresh new air into their genres. Toby Lightman is one of those lovely breath mints. With the release of her fourth, and most accomplished, body of work, Every Kind Of People, she has really taken ahold of her voice and her songwriting and matured into a lovely young performer. Prince saw it coming. So did Gavin DeGraw and Marc Cohn and guitar player Marc Copely. And so did all the people who first heard her passionate single “Everyday” about ten years ago.
She is a happy person, this Toby Lightman, as she bubbles over with a bright-eyed enthusiasm yet her songs are sure-footed and deep, questioning life at the same time she is celebrating it. From the longing to understand in “Slowly” to the perseverance of “Bumps In The Road” to the observance of a typical New York City afternoon with the title track, Lightman has brought sass and compassion to her new music. Along with a multitude of her songs appearing on such TV shows as The Fosters, Bones and Vampire Diaries, it’s now time, finally, for the spotlight to fall on her shoulders.
You’re not exactly a new kid on this block, so what does your new album say about you as an artist today?
I think this album represents kind of where I started musically and where I am now. Sometimes I think artists have a time and a place happening in an album and for me this is almost like a joining together of where I started, signed to Atlantic and my first record was very pop/R&B. Then I went into more of an organic soul place, and now this record kind of shows all of that, in my opinion. It’s kind of like a coming-of-age record for me.
You spent a few years working on the songs for this album. Did you go in with the mindset of what you wanted to create or is it just what kind of fell out of you?
Well, I had spent a few years co-writing and writing different songs and just having fun writing so when I finally said, okay, now I need to sit down and write songs for a new record, it took me a minute to get there and it took me a minute to get into that headspace. So I would say writing for it was about a year and then I had all these production ideas in my head and sometimes you create demos to kind of try and figure out what that is and I did that. But I didn’t want to play those for any of the producers that I was meeting with, because I had it in my head but you have to make sure it’s in somebody else’s head the same way too. So I didn’t play any demos for any of them. I went to LA and brought my guitar and I literally set up meetings with five or six producers that I had met over the years, that I’ve known and become friends with and I respect what they do. And I played the songs live for them and that was kind of my, “Okay, I’ll play you the song and I want you to tell me how you hear this going.” Then they started playing me production ideas that they’d done on other songs, like, “Listen to this, listen to the bass here,” and some got it and some didn’t. And when it clicked, and the producer’s name is Curt Schneider, he started playing me ideas and I was like, “Yes, you totally get where I am in my head.” It was a process to get to that place.
How long did it take for the actual laying down of the tracks?
I would say the whole process took about two years.
Is that normal for you?
No, but you know, they joke around and say it takes twenty years to write your first record and six months to do your second one cause you’re under more time constraints but I guess every record is different. Like my second record was one of those quicker processes. I wrote songs and I was writing with all sorts of people and writing by myself and I think that was probably eight months. Then my third record happened in one month and now this one took two years.
I found the songs very poignant, that the words have a lot of feeling to them. So why don’t you tell us about a few of the songs and how they came about. “Your Welcome” has a lot of sass to it.
“Your Welcome” was definitely me to the core. I wrote that by myself and over the years I’ve kind of started channeling this sassy girl. I guess you could call it my Sasha to Beyonce (laughs). I don’t have a name for her but I think we all go through life and we go through experiences and for me, I don’t necessarily write true to an experience. I write about the feeling that I got from that experience. So the story that comes across in the song could be completely different, but I think it was more a story of getting wronged, and everybody has been wronged and it sucks. So this is more like you trust and then something crosses that trust and then it’s like, okay, you’re done, we’re done. You wore your welcome out. And this sounds kind of arrogant (laughs) but the best thing about my song was I spun the word so everybody that sees the title is like, “Wait, is that grammatically correct? Isn’t it supposed to be you are welcome?” “No, it’s your welcome, you wore your welcome out. Listen to the song, you’ll get it.” (laughs)
Then on the flip side you have this really emotional number called “Slowly.”
That one was a little more challenging. I had started writing it with Curt, we wrote a couple of songs together that are on the record, and neither of us really play the piano so we were both kind of sitting there and the story behind that song is, you know as an artist you get fan mail and these amazing letters of inspiration and heartbreak or how they relate to the songs, and at one point over the years I got an email from somebody who said she was at a breaking point and unfortunately wanting to end it and was sitting there about to do it with her iPad on shuffle and my song “Everyday” came on and she stopped. I get choked up even talking about it but it’s like the most humbling thing to hear that that is something that can actually happen to someone I don’t even know, that she could feel so connected. So to me, “Slowly” was my answer. Whatever you’re going through, whatever pain you’re feeling, it’s going to go away but it’s going to go away slowly.
What did you think when you first saw what she wrote to you?
I mean, what do you say? You’re speechless. I think I just cried. It was so emotional to hear that, you know. Yeah, I’ve heard, “It helped me through a tough time” and people get very emotional and it’s so touching to see that but to not see a face and get a letter, an email through my website, I was just like, there’s nothing you can do, you just want to hug whoever it was. She did follow up in another email and spoke about how she wanted to tattoo the lyrics on her arm and I eventually met her at a show and it was definitely a very crazy experience for me. You know, you write these songs, you’re writing feelings, we’re all just writing feelings or writing how we feel, it’s selfish, and to have somebody to feel that strong a connection to what I’m feeling is pretty heavy.
What about “Every Kind Of People,” the title track?
I’ve lived in New York for fourteen years now and it’s an insane place to live (laughs). I think really as a New Yorker I just have these moments, as I’m sure everybody does living in any city, you’re on the subway making eye contact with people and brushing shoulders with people and you’re looking at people walking down the street and everybody is connecting but nobody is connecting. So it was this moment where I was like, we’re all living this same game here, we’re all fighting the same fight, we’re all living the same game, it’s just a different game for everybody and you don’t know what that person is doing that day. Like I walk around at 3:00 in the afternoon and I’m like, “Where are all these people going? Don’t they have a job?” (laughs) “I don’t but don’t they have some place they need to be?” So it’s more just about the hustle of living, really.
What was the so-called surprise song on this album, the one that was maybe the last one to come in or almost didn’t make it on to your CD?
Well, the song “How Do You” is actually an older song that I had written for my second record; so I probably wrote this in 2006. I wrote it with Matthew Wilder, who is the producer who lives in LA and he produced No Doubt. But he is very soulful and I had talked to him about how I have a sister and my dad is a very like worry-free person. He’s the kind of guy that can go through anything and go to sleep and it’s fine the next day, you know. So I wrote this song about like, how do you do that? And I connect so much to that song. All these other songs I had written were new so at the last minute I was like, I really want to put that on here because I’d never put it on a record.
What came first for you: the singing or the writing?
The singing for sure. I grew up playing the violin and I got classically trained and so I was not aware that I was training my ear to hear things. So when I got to the high school, just for fun my friends were like, “Let’s take a vocal class and kill time and get credit.” (laughs) So I did that and I started singing in the class and then the teacher was, and I owe everything to this music teacher. I don’t even know where she lives anymore but she just kept encouraging me to audition for other groups and she was obviously the one I was auditioning for so I kept getting in. So that was definitely a process to get comfortable with knowing I could sing and now my body can make these noises and I don’t have to make an instrument make these noises. Then writing, I guess in college I started tinkering around. I taught myself guitar and I started trying to write songs – they were horrible, awful songs so it took me a while (laughs).
Does it come easy or does it take a while for a song to come out of you?
It depends. I would say right now I am definitely at my most confident as a songwriter. I think I had to live, for one, and two, leaving the major label world and writing for just fun and writing to not write just a hit, I think actually made me a better writer and it allowed me to channel true emotions and not feel any sort of pressure to write one type of song. I’m not one who can just go in and write something extremely vulnerable on the spot but it does happen now, can happen, and I think that’s the fun thing about writing – you never know what is going to happen.
Have you ever written a song that was so personal or emotionally raw that you had to step back and maybe rewrite the lyrics or tuck it away for a later date?
I think in my first years of writing I might have done that. “Everyday” I would say is my hardest song that I ever wrote because it is the first song that I wrote that I truly felt the words. I remember playing it for my family and they looked at me like, “Do you really feel this way?” (laughs) “Yes, I think I do.” Then I wrote a song for my sister when she was pregnant with her first and I was not sure how that was going to going to go over and then it turns out that “Everyday” and “Better” are the two songs that my fans are always asking me to play. So I think confidence and opening up and being true and honest is what kind of helps me not worry about that so much. So on this record, “Bumps In The Road” is probably that song for me because I wrote it about my husband and it’s a very personal love song for me.
Do you prefer writing alone or with someone else?
I think that it is apples and oranges. When I write by myself, it’s something that I can’t control as much, it just kind of happens, so it’s more of a surprise for me. Like, I won’t sit down and say, I’m going to write a song today. It’s like I write the song and I step away and I’m like, how the hell did that just happen? I don’t know how that just happened. Then when I’m writing with someone else, it’s a little more calculated but it’s more challenging cause they are challenging me to be better and come up with better lyrics. It’s a different kind of process.
You spent time in Bangkok singing in a cover band. How in the world did you end up doing something like that?
Well, when I was in college and I was messing around with the guitar and singing, I was really the only one out of my friends that had been doing that. I’d come home from school for Spring Break and Winter Break and hang out with my friends from high school, who all took the vocal classes with me but don’t really do anything, they don’t sing anymore, but they would talk about me with their friends. So one time a friend of mine was out in Philadelphia and she met a couple guys at a bar like you do when you’re in college and it turned out they were actually in a band that was signed to Chrysalis and they were trying to kind of build a residency around Asia, so they could get momentum in Asia before they came to the United States. They had all these musicians from Berklee School Of Music that were in their band. It was all guys, really good looking guys, and they needed a female in the band for Bangkok, for Thailand, because Thailand is so male-centric so they needed to bring in more male fans to come see them. I went and auditioned and they said, “Will you come with us for six months?” So I dropped out of school and went to Bangkok for six months and sang six nights a week at a really fancy hotel bar. I was nineteen.
What were you singing?
I was originally supposed to sing background vocals on their original music but when you do a residency like that, you’re playing two, three hours every night so we’d sing a lot of covers. I sang like Mariah Carey songs and Shania Twang and whatever was popular there, that’s what I sang. I remember not even knowing half the songs cause it was what was popular there.
What do you think was the most important lesson you learned from an experience like that?
It was probably the scariest thing I have ever done in my life. Leaving the country and I didn’t have a cell phone. Being by myself, I didn’t leave the hotel for two weeks because I was absolutely terrified to go outside. Then I started challenging myself and walking around and I ended up meeting a couple girls and they would take me around and I think it was just this really showing me that I should take risks and I should put myself out there and try different things and there is so much world to see and be a part of and who cares (laughs). I think that was really what I got out of it, like, who cares, just go out there and sing Shania Twain (laughs). They’re having a great time so just let loose, and I think it really helped me with being a performer and feeling comfortable onstage cause there was only positivity happening; and taking risks.
Since you played Classical violin for so long, how did you discover rock & roll?
Growing up I was listening to pop music and Madonna and Michael Jackson, so I always loved singing that. Then when I taught myself guitar, the guitar was a completely different world for me because instead of playing really quick Bach concertos with a bazillion notes, it was like, let’s put five notes together and play one chord, and I didn’t even know what the chords were. I didn’t even know what I was playing but I just started learning songs I liked. I think the first song I taught myself was Led Zeppelin’s “Over The Hills And Far Away” because it was almost like a violin riff on the guitar. And as I started practicing, friends would teach me more chords and I started becoming more comfortable experimenting with chords on the guitar. My first single, “Devils & Angels,” was literally me just like sliding all over the guitar. When I was on Conan performing that song, cause it wa
s my first single, he asked me afterwards what chords I was playing and I was like, “I have no idea.” (laughs)
You’ve toured with and opened for a number of talented musicians, ones that are known for their songwriting. Which one do you think you gained the most knowledge from about being a performer?
I mean, being a performer, hands down it was one night that I opened for Prince. That guy is like a wizard because it was like watching magic happen and how he dances and plays guitar and moves around the stage and he’s entertaining every single person in the arena. It’s just mind blowing.
Did you get to talk to him?
We did and it’s actually an interesting story because I got the call when I was opening for Gavin DeGraw and I was on the road already for three months with Gavin and it’s the kind of thing you don’t believe is true until you’re on the plane and you’re going to do this. And we’re setting up on his stage and I knew his guitar tech, cause his guitar tech was setting us up with all this gear that we could borrow cause we were on the road and couldn’t ride our bus across the country for the one show. So he was like, “I’ll tell you when Prince comes so you’re ready,” and all of a sudden everybody in the arena quieted down, you know, the staff that was getting ready for the show, and he was standing right next to me and I didn’t even know he was coming. My hair was in a bun and I was wearing flip flops, no makeup on, and here’s Prince walking over to say hi (laughs). He thanked me for playing the show and I was like, wow, and I was so sarcastic, “Well, don’t thank me yet, you haven’t heard me.” (laughs) And he said, “Actually, I have heard you. I saw you on Conan.” And this is actually a funny tie-in to what I was just telling you, cause he saw me on Conan playing “Devils & Angels” and thought I was really good and said, “I want her to open.” Which is insane!! How does that happen? You just never know who is watching. But we ended up hanging out with him after the show and got to spend time with him until like 4:00 in the morning and him just kind of big brothering us and it was definitely an I-can-quit-tomorrow moment for me.
Who was the first real rock star you ever met?
My first tour was with Edwin McCain. He’s such a cool guy, like a normal guy, but the first real rock star where I was like, yeah, you’re totally a rock star, was Rob Thomas. I toured with him too but he came later and you just get the rock star vibe from him. Edwin, we could sit down and have a burger with but Rob is like a bonafide rock star.
Who is your go-to musician when you need a boost of inspiration?
Oh boy, I really don’t have a go-to, to be perfectly honest. I listen to so many different types of things that there really isn’t one artist. I went through a huge Ryan Adams phase because I feel like he just cranks out songs and they are all really good. I went through a Bonnie Raitt phase where all I wanted to do was listen to Bonnie Raitt’s greatest hits. But now with Spotify, I just put it on and let it roll and see what comes to me.
What was the first concert you went to?
That was Madonna. My uncle bought me tickets to go with my sister and I think I was twelve.
When someone comes to one of your shows, what are they going to get?
They’re going to get me (laughs). Just exactly how I am. They’re going to get horrible jokes in between songs and self-deprecating comments on my end and just genuine fun. You know, I have a really amazing time performing. I enjoy it so much and to me, when I play heavier material that I feel so deeply connected to, I feel lightened when I get silly in between songs, so I think it’s an experience. I feel like we’re all connected and when people come over to me after my show they always say like, “Oh my God, it was like we were sitting in your house listening to you and hanging out and drinking and it was so fun.” (laughs)
Do you have a tour coming up for this album?
We do. This fall is more spot dates and kind of talking with you and other people and then January is when my run is going to start to promote the record.
Are you going to be opening for somebody or doing clubs?
I’m going to be headlining, yeah. My own stuff and I have a few shows with other artists, like we’re talking with Emerson Hart, and I just did a show with Howie Day and just teaming up with other artists that I know.
Is Every Kind Of People available online only?
Yeah, it’s digital and available everywhere, at iTunes and Amazon; anywhere you can buy music online.
