With Touch Guitarist Markus Reuter And Drummer Zach Alford

After last year’s successful sessions with Stick Men produced Toomey’s bold prog EP Perseus Calling the songwriter was excited to continue the trend. Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts prevented Bassist Tony Levin and drummer Pat Mastelotto from participating, so drummer extraordinaire Zach Alford (Bowie/NIN, B52’s, Psychedelic Furs & many more) stepped into the breach with Stick Men touch guitarist Markus Reuter and a plan was laid.

Due to the somewhat last-minute nature of the sessions the decision was taken to do virtually no prep work and write in the studio. Toomey says “This is something I’ve always wanted to do, but also WAY outside my comfort zone. Professional music production costs being what they are, coming in cold is an even more risky venture than usual. Thankfully, Markus is a consummate improviser, and his encouragement gave me the confidence to go with it. I’m so very glad I did!”

The resulting EP, Masterpiece, is another tour de force, coming across as both fearless and timeless. The backing tracks were cut on a Saturday in August with uber engineer Scott Petito (Scott Petito Productions), who provided a rough mix for Toomey to come up with lyrics, which they then recorded the next day. Mixed by Bassist/producer Fabio Trentini and Markus, the new EP crackles with life, evoking Pink Floyd and Nine Inch Nails, with a heaping helping of Toomey’s usual inventiveness.

Of the title Toomey says “Being somewhat self-effacing, I wasn’t too comfortable calling my own record a masterpiece. That just happened to be the title of one of the tracks, which unsurprisingly is about a woman, and a rather evil one at that. Once again Markus came to the rescue, saying “This actually tracks as a masterpiece and deserves the name.”

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