Speaker 1What is going on, good people? How the hell are you doing on this fine, sunny day? How's your week been? What's been happening? Hope you've all been awesome. It's been a busy one this end since I announced last week the pre-order of my new book, Loud Medicine, is now available. It's coming out on June the 5th. I can't wait for you to get your hands on this bad boy. The last book was a hard one to follow, so hopefully I've done it justice and I've done you guys proud. June the 5th, Loud Medicine is coming out in hardback. I won't go into it any more than that right now, but you can rest assured that I will be doing some hard promo shortly. And we've been putting in some serious hours over at Underdog HQ for the upcoming Underdog shows as well, man. Over the next few months, we are getting around, baby. We've got shows in Exeter, Biddyford, Wolverhampton, Plymouth, Cardiff, Swansea, Reading, Cambridge, Leicester, and other places too. As always, if you want to stay up to date with what's happening over at Underdog, then follow me on Instagram at JamesKennedyUK, and hopefully we'll see all you gorgeous and awesome people at a show real soon. But we've got a podcast first today. Now, anyone that's been listening to this thing for a while will know that we have a pretty diverse range of guests on this thing, from rock stars to members of parliament to academics and scientists and activists and all sorts of interesting dudes. But today, we've got, for the first time on the show, an actor. A successful actor. A successful actor. A successful actor who also happens to be a badass musician with an incredible new album coming out really soon. An album you definitely will want to wrap your ears and your hearts around as the weather gets better. And I'm super interested to talk to someone who's got experience of an industry that I know a lot about and an industry I know absolutely nothing about. So this is going to be an interesting chat. Before we jump in with both feet, have you subscribed to the podcast? Most of you haven't. Come on, don't be that dude. Yes, I throw these things on YouTube now as well. But it's also available on Apple and Spotify and everywhere else that you get your podcasts. So just give me a click. Give me a follow. Give me a star. Give me a thumb. Give me whatever you got to do. It takes two seconds. It doesn't cost you anything. And it really helps keep this thing afloat. So with that said, let's get down to the order of business. You may know him from Game of Thrones, The Music of Silence, Trade in Paint or Perfect Match. But we're here today to talk about his stunning new album, Eyes Light Up, which I'm absolutely loving, by the way. I'm talking about the annoyingly talented musician and actor, Mr. Toby Sebastian. Toby, thanks so much for joining us, brother. How are you doing, man?
Speaker 2I'm good. I'm good, man. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1The pleasure's all mine, man. I am loving the new record. You must be so proud of it, man.
Speaker 2I'm so happy to hear that. There aren't many people that have heard it. And yeah, it's been a real kind of labor of love. It's been like, I'd like to say two years in total of making it. But really, I think it's a lot longer than that, because I released an album. When I was like 19, and this kind of has been an album that I've been dreaming of making kind of since I started writing songs, really. I mean, this is I'd say that this album really represents my style of music more than any other kind of songs or material that I've released. And it's taken a long time to do and I work with some amazing people. But as I said, no one's really heard it. I think there are literally probably five people that have heard this. But this album, so yeah, very happy.
Speaker 1Oh, man, well, I feel privileged to be one of the five. I mean, we should say straight out the gate to this bad boy is coming out on April the 4th. So it's right around the corner available to preorder right now. But we'll get into all that stuff in a bit. But yeah, no, I love the record, man. I've thoroughly enjoyed it. And I don't think it could drop at a more perfect time. I mean, you know, the sun is just starting to come out after what's been a long winter for a lot of people, you know, both literally and figuratively. And this album. Is chilled, it's soothing, it's mellow, it's positive, it's sunny, and it's got some deep existential stuff in there as well. But the vibe, it's just got a great vibe, man. And I really genuinely enjoyed listening to it. And I know a lot of other people are going to love this record as well.
Speaker 2Well, I hope so. I really am chuffed to hear to hear you talk about it like that. Yeah, I'm so proud of it. I kind of there are moments where you've, as I'm sure, you know, being a musician yourself, you sometimes feel like you're. Not over a kind of a collection of songs, but you can spend so much time overthinking things, you can go over things, you can read things, you can rewrite things. And every time I've kind of put something out, it's been a very different experience in terms of my ability to let go of things or sometimes holding on too tight. And in the end with this one, it was just like, let's just get the thing out. I don't want to overthink things if I wait another six months. I'm going to. I'm going to rerecord something that at the moment sounds really cool and I wouldn't change a thing, but I guarantee if I wait another year, I will change a thing. And so it feels very freeing knowing not only that it's coming up, but also they're not being kind of like one melody or one second of the record that I regret where I regret a decision. Wow. Or lyrically. And I haven't experienced that before on that level. So, yeah, I'm pumped for people to hear it.
Speaker 1Yeah. Well, that's interesting that you say that because I got regrets on every record. I'm on my eighth record now and I still listen to things now like a cringe. I'm like, why didn't I just fucking change the bass line? I knew it at the time. Why didn't I do it? You know? So that's like amazing to hear that you're at peace with the whole record, man. Well, maybe talk to me in a year again.
Speaker 2We'll see how I'm feeling about it then. No, I'm, yeah, it's a funny one. I think a lot of the songs, as I'm sure you've noticed, they're kind of, there are lots of different styles that are on this record. But I think maybe that's why I feel particularly fulfilled by it. It's because it kind of takes off all the boxes of the types of music that I don't like listening to.
Speaker 1Yeah, it is a very eclectic record and there's a lot of different sounds and styles welded together in there that I can hear, but it works perfectly. I can hear a little bit. Like T-Rex, if I'm not wrong, you know, some of the rhythmic stuff and the backing vocals. But then there's also like slide guitar and some kind of Americana vibes. There's some folk influences there, a bit of soul. I mean, is that reflective of your influences whilst you're making the record or your influences as a musician generally? Or, obviously, you know, we need to mention you do have an adjacent career as an actor as well. Is some of that musical eclecticism a product of the fact that you do so much traveling with your job and you spend a lot of time in America? Do you think that that influences the sort of styles that you delve into as a writer or have these influences been in your blood, you know, since day dot?
Speaker 2I guess I'd start with absolutely the music I was kind of brought up on, what kind of filled, you know, the rooms of our family home. You know, I grew up listening to Crowded House and Tracy Chapman and John Martin. You know, there's elements. Of this, of my playing, whether it be finger picking or sometimes the way I use, I like to try and use my voices, I can, I can hear a very distinct kind of connection between something like a John Martin and, you know, my dad loved rock. He was, he was Bowie, he was the Stones and my mum particularly loved soul. So you kind of merge those two together. And then outside of that, I've always loved, kind of, I'd say. Like warm, you know, like sonically warm sounding music. So stuff, I go back to John Martin or Nick Drake. And I suppose that's, that would be the first thing that springs to mind as to how all those sounds have ended up on that record. But you're, you're, you're also right in the sense that in acting and actually before acting when I left school, I think a year or two earlier than that. I was meant to, I, so I left at like 17 or so, and I spent three years in Nashville, Tennessee recording with a really, really wonderful producer and writer who was mainly a country writer. And he worked with kind of Faith Hill and Tim McGraw and all these, you know, brilliant country artists. But, but, but we weren't making country music. And I think that's the beautiful thing about music. And what I realised then it was that like this person from this musical background. And meeting me at 17, having just grown up on what my parents played or what I then kind of found myself, there could, there could be like a connection and it could work and it wouldn't, it didn't mean that I had to be writing country music for that album to work. But all those experiences, they've all obviously led to this. So one of the songs, Heaven is the Backseat of a Rental Car, I wrote that like, you know, several years ago. And I actually, I wrote it in England with a couple British writers. But now in hindsight, you know, I hadn't actually thought about it until you just asked me that question. That for sure, I can hear it now, now thinking about it and knowing that where I had been before I wrote that song, I'd just been in LA on and off for a year. But like, that's so LA, that's so Americana. And I hadn't even put two and two until you just asked me now. So I'm sure I'm going to be finding out a lot more about these songs the more I talk about it.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, I find that stuff fascinating because I have a similar thing, you know, with my music. Like people say, oh, you're clearly influenced by this band or that band. I think I've never heard that band before. So other people. you hear things in your music that perhaps you don't know that that's the beautiful thing about it it's like once you've and i suppose you're at that stage now where the album is actually leaving your nest as such and going out into the world it becomes other people's songs then and other people read things into it or hear things into it that you may not have even known about and i think that's the beautiful thing about this art form isn't it you know it's so personal to
Speaker 2everyone of course yeah yeah it's completely personal and also like people hear different things about songs from songs um a couple songs on the album that i've played live and uh someone said oh oh god you know that must be really tough for you or that person you know i didn't realize or did that person i don't know did that i mean not just on this album but things like that person die or did someone die or like you know was there a big traumatic uh and more often than not actually um it it's not that people are wrong it's just they've they've they've taken it kind of um uh over uh completely you know as i've sung it whereas i've i've so i've just as much as i like to write things about you know real experiences i also love to write songs imagining a scenario or imagining someone going through some something yeah um you know there's an album on the song called daddy daddy and i was actually watching i can't remember what it was i was watching i was watching an episode of a tv show with my girlfriend when we were living in israel in in london like a couple years ago and i just something had started playing this episode of this show i can't remember what it was but it started playing and there was like a note i don't even think it was the key it was just like a i don't know how you describe it's like the smallest sound and i basically it was like stop stop the tvs and i kind of ran to the piano run to the guitar and i just out of nowhere started going you know singing that line that you've heard daddy daddy i think and i in my in my mind it was like i think i missed the train again but it was but straight away my mind was like it wasn't talking about my dad um or talking about a father being a bad person my train of thought to write that song was i want to write a song about someone longing to be home right i want to write a song about someone who maybe has screwed something up or done something wrong or maybe just like has is filled with regret or feels like crap and they miss home comforts and they miss their mom and their dad and their families and their close friends and it was just that i like the daddy daddy thing because i thought that saying daddy daddy sounded more like a cry for help right and i also like that people could read into multiple things of course i you know i spent five minutes on it then i recorded it and then i said to my girlfriend i was like right turn the tv on again and then the next morning i wrote the song in an hour and we recorded it in two and i sent it to my parents and uh i said to my dad i was like look just just fyi like this is not about you and it's not a bad thing also i haven't actually said anything in the song that makes it sound like i'm talking about a bad father whether it be mine or someone else's this is it's not meant to be about it's about someone being far away from home like a call for help so of course i sent the song and then like i spoke to them half an hour later my mom was like that song's brilliant and my dad was like yeah you know i really really love it um but you know i'd like to think that you know um people won't think that about me and i'm like no it's not about you and you know i've played it at show played it um at gigs and you know there'll always be someone it's a sad song and then you know i've had a couple people who are like slightly teary-eyed um either because of a relationship they've had with their dad or maybe they're just imagining it um but that's kind of what i love about writing music you know it's also escapism 100% deeply personal
Speaker 1to the artist well how does that compare then with acting i don't want to focus on that side of your career too much because we're here to talk about the record and the music but do the two things that you do fulfill different creative holes or creative needs that you have because they're very different crafts aren't they yeah i mean i'm um i'm about to contradict
Speaker 2something i've you know the way i've normally spoken about it um but i would i would say yeah they they they offer for me anyway they offer completely different things um i love them both equally i love with acting like playing dress up for the day or for a few weeks and it's like escaping myself and being someone completely different to me and finding kind of realness in that person or a truth but then and then at the same time with with music you know wherever i've gone around the world even i've gone and done an acting job having my guitar playing and i've done an acting job with my guitar with me um and whether i was sitting in a hotel room or going to like the local park or whatever and having it having a song having a sing and writing something that's deeply personal even if it's even if i'm writing something that's not personal to me that experience is deeply personal because i'm in control of everything and it's a wonderful way of like just letting stuff out um so yeah they they both offer uh completely different things what i have found is that i've had a lot of people who have been i've been writing a tv show for the last couple years and i found that in writing that tv show has offered a very similar um kind of creative uh i don't know what you'd call it flow as writing music because i'm in control of it it's my world yes and um but obviously with with an acting piece when you come on to someone else's project it's their baby essentially and you can have certain you can be slightly set in your way and you can be slightly set in your way and you can be slightly as to how you think a character should be but ultimately it's it's it's not yours yes that
Speaker 1makes a lot of sense and you were a musician active as a musician before you became an actor uh i'm interested was was becoming a hollywood actor kind of like your version of the struggling musician getting a coffee shop job is that what happened
Speaker 2um no it was so what happened i um so i left school for a music opportunity for a record deal and uh originally i wanted to go to drama school i didn't want to study music theory or go to college and study music i wanted to keep on writing songs i wanted to hone that craft but i didn't want to go and study it in a kind of a school or a college or whatever university i want to go to drama school because that's what a lot of my like you know peers or people that i respected did and i wanted to keep my songwriting going and be in a band release music or whatever and i got i basically got the music opportunity first um it was uh i just got very lucky that i was in a playing school performance and one of the pupils uh he was a couple years younger than me one of the pupils fathers was a big anr guy um and so basically you know forward track fast forward like you know kind of three years or so i've i've been on this kind of whirlwind of making this album and um i kind of made it very clear to the people that were helping like my my you know manager at the time and that i'm working on this album and i'm working on this album and i'm i wanted to do i wanted to get into do my acting as well or at least meet a couple people and um you know he he had helped me meet a couple people i'd also gone to a couple like kind of open castings and kind of one thing kind of led to another and you know like 100 auditions later i got my first you know five line role in something um and um that kind of then just kind of rolled on for the next 10 years or so and then it was only until about um uh 2019 that i started releasing music independently right independently as right so you so you started with a deal and then i started with a deal did the whole major label deal thing the album actually never came out um you know it was like many major major label kind of stories um a lot of love from from kind of every single person went into it but it just felt you know for multiple reasons which we don't need to go into it didn't in the end and uh so i was kind of left with this this uh this album and you know i think i think i got really lucky i i felt incredibly sad when i got when i kind of got dropped i mean i didn't in a sense get dropped that there was like a whole rejigging of the label and um and i was kind of basically told like you know that this isn't gonna go on you know you can't we can't have basically have you anymore and so i was like 20 and uh luckily i'd kind of started the kind of a bit of some acting connections over the kind of couple years prior to that and um or a year prior to that and uh i remember calling up my this fantastic woman um who was my acting agent for a few years and uh i said like you know this has happened and you know um i i don't want to like stand still i need to like keep moving for my mental health um you know can i come to la uh and she was like of course you can come to la so she was like come to la and come for pilot so i kind of did and so like i went and like basically spent all my money over a month that i had um and stayed in a you know a road like roadway in on like beverly boulevard uh which kind of ironically was it was like the really really crappy kind of roadway in and it was opposite air one which air one is like uh it's like whole foods on steroids like you go and buy something and it's like five ten times the price of what it should really be right so i basically spent all my money on like i in my mind i was like this is just where people gonna go in la to go and eat food um but basically i i was just very lucky that i had i always i've always had you know um really lovely supportive brilliant champions around me and um who when something hasn't got a plan or you feel a bit wobbly um and you're like oh my god well you know what am i going to do um i've had the energy from someone and so i went to la and that kind of started this this period of a few years and so by the time i you know in 2019 i had just done a couple films and it was like let's just release some music how have i not released music in years you know how is that even a thing um i think it was just like a survival thing it was like focus on something next because that last thing didn't go to plan and it was actually really sad and so move on and you can be brilliant in something else but you know it was always in the back of my mind
Speaker 1it was like okay and the music that's fascinating i didn't realize that so the record um that's coming out that on april in april then is that independent or is that with somebody that's independent as well wow bro that's fucking amazing man because well i mean i run my own independent label and and now a music publishing house as well um so i know how much work goes into that man so uh you know
Speaker 2it's one of those things that's like it's um it's incredibly exciting but i i kind of got to a point where we've been talking to some labels over the last two or three years and you know some of them didn't some of the deals were just weren't right and they were kind of like um not not right not wrong sorry in the sense that like amounts or whatever it was it was more like just they didn't feel like it didn't a lot of the places didn't feel like the right place for me if that makes sense totally um so in the end i was like let's just get the album out you know we've been working on this for two and a half years um it's finished it's finished it's finished it's finished it's finished so let's print some vinyls and let's get cracking and uh you know let's make some noise and so i think as soon as we made that decision it was my my girlfriend um but also my my producer uh matty benbrick brilliant writer producer who yep uh you know worked with paolo nutini a lot and dido and he's drumming faithless um for several years and you know and he and i think you know both those two people just like let's just get cracking let's go and i think the moment i made that decision was like okay we're on you know what are
Speaker 1what are we waiting for i that definitely resonates with me um i mean i've had a lot of major label artists like you know chance hopping artists on the podcast and we have that exact conversation about the pros and cons between because a lot of them started out doing their first record independently they did it kind of the other way around um and now they're doing the major thing and they all say you know man it was so much better when we were independent we could make the record yeah and put it out whilst we're still enjoying it and we can't wait to play it live whereas when you do it through a major you know they put you in the in the pecking order of all the other releases you could be waiting a year and a half before it comes out and then by the time you're touring it you're fucking bored of it
Speaker 2yeah i mean to be honest with you but you know my despite having been signed um by a major label my experience with it is pretty limited i mean i i hear stories i i you know you hear success stories you hear the opposite um i think they can be absolutely brilliant when they work you know if you're an artist and it works and things go to plan and and also it's like anything in life it's it's so so dependent on who you've got at the label looking after you you know i've heard not just stories through people but also like from friends who got the dream album deal and you know it's like a five album deal if it went the length and you know come record two when there's good hype has come the first record has been you know it's like had some a good you know um response from kind of journalists or whatever and the fans come record like oh we're gonna half the funding for your second record or something because this because your first anr guy got fired and now there's a new one or something like that you know that happens so often yeah people in the music business are always forever moving and connecting for another company and so i don't know i i always say like you know when people say to me like so does that mean you're gonna be independent forever and i'm like no not at all not at all but i have done i've done the major thing before i would openly i'd happily do it again but uh it's also just about finding like the right
Speaker 1people right hundred percent well it sounds like you've got a pretty solid team of people around you that have got a good value set and have your best interests at heart as well seems to be working
Speaker 2well so far for sure yeah yeah i mean i've got you know um a handful of people that are wonderful and uh i can trust on every level um you know including creatively so um you know i i always said love i've also really enjoyed the the last since 2019 putting singles out putting an ep out and and seeing seeing the audience grow and seeing more and more people coming to shows and you know um it's really exciting because it really it feels like you're putting what you me and that you know the the handful of people that have put in tons of energy it feels really kind of like rootsy you know you've started from the bottom and you're putting just time and love and belief and when things start to happen it's like holy shit this is this is really cool and it's so
Speaker 1rewarding as well yeah and it's amazing that we can do that these days as well i mean we you know we are living in a kind of a new golden age really for uh artists you know despite all of the very real problems you know with streaming and artists aren't getting paid any money anymore and venues are closing down i mean it's just back in the bad old days when it was just major labels making all the money and had all of the industry in their pocket you know distribution recording the whole the whole nine yards we couldn't make our own music without a record deal at least these days as challenging as it is you know we're able to still make our music with or without a label put it out ourselves and and do our thing you know so as much as i complain about it you know it is an amazing time you know to be an artist right now do you
Speaker 2feel more excited than uh fearful or is there like a kind of an equal balance and like what what the
Speaker 1time has come that's a great question i think it's a mix i do think that the the only constant really if you look at anything is change like we're constantly changing and i think that adaptation is important i think those who are able to adapt can see the the opportunities and the possibilities in change um but there's always going to be you know the the horseshoe makers that that fall by the wayside when somebody invents the car you know um so yeah i think as long as you're able to adapt and uh and somebody like yourself who's obviously multi-talented as well you know i think that you
Speaker 2probably got that in your tool bag already yeah it's a funny one it's like someone you know the amount of times people say to me you know spotify is you know it's so awful how little they pay their answers or whatever you know it's it's also i suppose what i'm saying is like always highlighting the just the downsides to it right um which there are which there are like i mean that you know the same time i always say to people i'm like yeah but yeah but you know without the likes of a spotify or an apple music or all the others like deezer entitle and you know all of the the you know streaming platforms getting heard in a hundred countries would be virtually impossible yeah unless you had very very thick pockets of cash you know like that's where you would have to have a major label um there would be no room really like i mean you could you could tour and you could gig locally and make you know of course you could do it within england for example um or you could do it in you know for me i could do it in england and i could just but i but it would kind of stop there you know unless i was able to afford to go and travel to other places and then even then unless someone bought the album and spent you know because gig tickets are for a lot of people a lot of people can't afford to buy a gig ticket and come and buy your merch or a cd or a vinyl or anything and so then you'd have to be able to be reliant on the fact that not only were people going to buy your ticket for your show they'd also have to buy a cd as well because if they didn't they'd forget your music and how would you ever kind of like make a profit on anything so i think i think that you know these streaming services are brilliant in that sense in terms of growth yeah a hundred percent i mean i slagged them off
Speaker 1a hell of a lot but i mean you know that i think in the interest of balance i think you know it is like you say you know it's important to highlight you know the the massive impact that they've had on uh in empowering artists such as ourselves to keep doing our thing independently and you know i'm glad you mentioned that dude because i did not know this
Speaker 2was an independent release so hats off to you man yeah it is it is it is an independent release um you know uh i think that it comes with a lot of fear in releasing as you know releasing stuff independently because you think to yourself oh wow like this like i'm you first of all you're it's not like most musicians in the world are funding their music on some level it's more when i say that i more mean like if you don't get the reaction that the fear of if you don't have like you don't release it and something doesn't pop or something doesn't like the dial doesn't go up at all that kind of fear like and that's it right you know and then that's a very that's a lot of independent artists about you know the weeks or the months or the years of making something and then you're doing it it and you're not a label you're putting it out and i have that fear myself i mean i i firmly believe in my bones that this album will resonate with a lot of people um i think i have to feel that as well yeah but of course there's always that little you know voice in the back of your
Speaker 1head like yeah but what if now i think it's gonna do really well mate honestly like straight out the gates i loved it it really set a vibe and i think like i said it's the perfect time for this album to land as well as sun's coming it's a great summery feel good chilled record it's soothing it's warm it's soulful it's deep words i mean maybe you should um you should do the voice over we have a tv ad oh god what am i in my townie newportian south whalian accents what are you um as we come towards the end now because i've got to keep an eye on the clock here i don't want to keep you too much longer um we're going to loop it back to talking about the record i'm glad that we managed to digress into those other areas because i think it's interesting to get your perspective on that because people see you as a successful actor as well and think that everything must be easy for you you know and have everything handed to you on a plate but no to know that you you've got the same fears and obstacles that all the rest of us independent artists have is a fascinating riddled with them such as the blessing and the curse of the artistic spark i suppose isn't it sure so what you mentioned um touring uh they're gonna be tour dates i did look i haven't seen
Speaker 2any announcement yet are there some coming so there's two shows coming up so i've got a the first show i've got is i've got a record store signing which is going to be a trek truck records in oxford i'm from oxford so it's my hometown uh truck records is um it's it's an amazing it's a very small little record store and it's got a great history of fantastic acts doing their first signings in there um and so we've got on the fourth that is the actual date of its release so that'd be fun the 26th i'm headline i'm at the oh nice and um so i'll be headlining that which is always a super fun show and then the 30th i'm playing the hundred club in london uh another venue with you know mega history and then there will be a tour in autumn as well after the summer festivals nice are we talking uk are you going
Speaker 1further afield as well it'll be uk and um a few more shows in in europe as well fantastic right well i'm going to plug all the links in the show notes and at the end as well when we round up what about uh what what lies ahead for yourself more broadly you know what's happening with the acting is there anything in the pipeline there you can talk about so i've got a film that i
Speaker 2that i'm going to be shooting in a few weeks time which unfortunately i can't talk about but what i can say is that it's um it's a relatively new thing for me it's kind of come quite recently and there's a lot of wonderful people that are involved um you know as ever with with the acting stuff for me is it's like there's a lot of kind of a lot of stuff that's going on and i'm going to either there's a lot of time in in between or that before before you either find the next job or like lots of auditions and all that jazz um but i am writing the script which is kind of my main focus outside of music at the moment that's awesome and we'll be looking for kind of putting a little development team around that is there anything you could tell us about it i would just say it's it's it's very much um about me and my and the acting part of my life uh it's an
Speaker 1comedy how do you find the time man i mean you're juggling a lot of pretty big projects there at the
Speaker 2same time you know normally uh the truth is is that i juggle it very badly and i realize that i haven't gone back to someone um i will kind of ask like i'd inquire let's say like maybe i'm talking to like my mandrails i'll inquire about something and uh he will answer straight away and then like two weeks later i'll be like oh crap i not only did i reach out to him myself i got an answer in the minute and i didn't do the thing that the person advised me to do right right right so i basically juggle as best as i can right uh i'm awful at keeping a calendar um it's amazing that no i'm not that bad um but
Speaker 1i juggle as best as i can well i want to ask you then one final question before before i let you run off um it's common with people who who do what you do and who juggle so many different disciplines in in this kind of very uncertain industry as well obviously people have burnouts they don't they don't look after themselves they don't make time for self-care i've been guilty of that myself many a time do you make time for for self-care and well-being do you is that something you factor into your life or is or does it get neglected amongst the carnage of juggling
Speaker 2no no no so i think um i think one big thing apart from the experience that i that i the wonderful experiences that i had when i was assigned you know quite young and went to america and uh was very much kind of like on my own little mission one of the things that i'm really grateful um that i kind of got from that and even before i left school was routine was has always been so important for my mental health right physically obviously i like to be fit uh look i love a party um just as much as anyone else i love to party but being physically fit on some level and also just exercising for my brain is so important otherwise i would just sink um and i would just extreme i would experience extreme burnout but kind of the year before i left school and then the four years that i was or three years that i was with the label in going to london or going to nashville or going to la um i always had routine so even when i didn't need to wake up at like seven o'clock in the morning i naturally had done that right um and yeah i'm not always like that now but i've always had some level of routine and even if that's meant like i don't know waking up early having coffee and going for a 20 minute run i'd say more often probably more i do it more for my my mental state as opposed to my body if that makes sense so um yeah that's kind of like a non-negotiable priority in my life not just exercising but like mindfulness and i don't know just trying to look after myself that's brilliant to hear man yeah
Speaker 1it's brilliant to hear it's not not enough people do that i don't think speaking from my own experience as well it's easy to get caught up in in in the in the race isn't it you know so um
Speaker 2yeah especially in our industry as well yes so i think to to
Speaker 1for people to look at somebody like yourself you know upcoming actor as all musicians to know that that's something that you uh you you say is a non-negotiable i think will be a good example for them to follow and so i'm glad to hear that well on that note i'm going to let you go because i know you've probably got either more of these to do or you're going to lap up some of the gibraltar sun um so before i let you go we got plug the record eyes light up is available to pre-order right now at tobysebastian.co.uk on gorgeous orange and black vinyl it is coming out on april the 4th so i'm going to let you go and i'm going to let you go and i'm going to let you go get it go get two get three give them to your friends lay back and lap up the soothing sounds of this delicious album as the sun starts to fall upon us once more you can also follow all of the updates and tour announcements and news and everything else to do with toby's amazing career um our careers i should say on instagram at toby sebastian one and keep an eye out for those live shows because you will not want to miss those bad boys toby thank you so much for giving us your time today it's been a fascinating chat and i wish you all the best with the record and everything that lies ahead for you man thank you oh thank you so much for having me it's um it's been lovely lovely chatting music anytime my best wishes and go enjoy that sunshine i'll catch you on the flip side cheers toby cheers mate take care bro wait toby sebastian let's hear it for a man not only an annoyingly multi-talented bastard with an amazing album coming out really soon but it seems a super chill nice guy as well so what a dude now i know it's my job as a host of a podcast to big everybody up and to say their new album or their new book or their new whatever is amazing but genuinely genuinely mean it eyes light up it's a banger trust me you need this record it will be available on april 4th but it's available to pre-order now i'll repeat it again toby sebastian dot co dot uk i keep an eye out for those live shows as well because they're going to be badass man thank you for listening i hope you enjoyed the conversation and i know i don't need to nag you to subscribe because i know you wonderful gorgeous awesome people have been clicking away like the absolute legends you are throughout that conversation and doing a brother a solid i'll be back shortly with another conversation with another incredible human in the meantime come and give me a high five at james kennedy uk on instagram because we're going to be getting busy over there soon with book promo and tour news and new albums and all that good shit so come and join the fun man and i will see you next time love your loads take care of yourself take care of each other au revoir
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