Fresh from support to Reef’s 20th Anniversary Tour as well as a host of headline dates (including a sold out Islington Academy in Dec 2013) and 2014 dates with Status Quo, Toseland have announced the release of their debut album “Renegade”.“Renegade” is an album packed with powerful rock songs – from the balls out album opener “Life Is Beautiful” to the melodic piano lead of “Kingdoms”, from the driving layered riffs of “Emergency” to forthcoming single “Singer In A Band”. Previous singles “Life Is Beautiful” and “Renegade” were both A listed at Planet Rock and Team Rock radios, showing this is a band who know how to rock a melody. Pulsating rhythms are overlaid with the guitar work of Zurab Melua and the trademark distinctive vocals of James Toseland.
If the name might seem familiar it is because Toseland are a band fronted by double world superbike champion James Toseland. Throughout his career as a motorbike racer, music has been central to James life – so much so that he performed live at BBC’s Sports Personality Of the Year. When James was forced to retire through injury a journey into music started…
James met up with Toby Jepson (Little Angels) in March 2012 after a friend had recommended they might work well together. Jepson had no idea of James’ past but they clicked – personally and musically. James had the bones of several songs and an idea of the sound he wanted – one of the first tracks to emerge being album track Kingdoms (which James had been playing with for a while). The writing process was quick and the pair soon laid down instrumentation at Vale Studios with Jepson producing (credits include The Answer, Saxon and The Virgin Marys) and Steve Harris (Foo Fighters, U2) as engineer. James plays all the piano on the album. Vocals were recorded in five days at Jepson’s studio in Scarborough.
Toseland have already forged themselves a name as a powerful live act. 2013 saw them cross the country with a series of headline shows, supports (to Reef) and festival dates (Download, Planet Rockstock and the 2013 Moto GP at Silverstone).
