Behind The Music: With Tolushorts

Beyond The Veil (intro)

“"Beyond the Veil" was one of the easiest songs we've ever done. It took us just a couple of hours. Sarah's vocals were pitched down to give it a dark, haunting effect, and we brought in our talented friend Nadia to play some amazing strings to kick off the EP.”

Intuition

“This track was one of the oldest from the EP that we did. I made this beat in like early 2019. I think I was listening to a lot of Michael Jackson at the time especially “earth song’ - I’m not sure if it inspired the track but I wanted the beat to have simple element to it but to also feel powerful. I remember playing it to S Boogie - she immediately took the beat and created something magical with it'.

Only You

“Only You was another beat that stood the test of time. I remember making it one night at Nomads house. We were making a bunch of beats that day but this one really stood out to me. I remember finding the sample and I thought it was hard. I chopped it up into a sequence and made some drums to it then got Nomad to play some keys on top. I had to give to Sarah because I knew she would do it justice. It probably took us around a year to finish haha but we go there in the end.”

Sweet Isolation

“Sweet Isolation is one of my favourites from the project, we made this in just a few session’s. We wanted to make something sweet and sensual. This was a very simple beat - leaving a lot of room for Sarah to do her thing. She’s also an instrument! Tahn came by to my studio in Bow and literally smacked the vocals in a couple takes.”

Purple Skies

“Early 2019, me and Nomad were making a bunch of music together. We were in the zone. A friend of mine and someone who was deep in the industry reached out to me and requested I send some ideas to a big UK artist. We sent a folder with some ideas but unfortunately it was too late as he was already getting ready to release his album. In the folder was the beat for ‘Purple Skies’. I remember playing it to Sarah and she was blown away, I remember her saying ‘don’t worry tee im gonna make this into something amazing’. I immediately trusted her as she never seemed to fail the mission. It turned out to be something incredible. We probably sat on the song for like 2 years or something.”

Higher than Home

“This track probably had like 30 versions haha. Me and Sarah wanted to get it right. At one point, I even lost the instrumental for it. I only had the two tracks but we had to make it work because it was one of those songs that needed to be completed. I remember making this beat at a job I hated. I hid in the staff room and put all my energy into it. My managers couldn’t find me haha.”

The Keeper

“I can’t lie, I didn’t even do that much on this beat. I added the special effects and the bass. Those lovely guitars you hear was actually Sarah’s dad & that crazy drum at the end was my man Seb with a little bit of my sauce - he went crazy with it. The track is perfect.”