Who Kaars Wins

As any skilled comedian or drummer will tell you, timing is everything. For Toby Kaar, his burgeoning ascent up the twisty ladder that is the Irish music scene lies in direct conflict with his studies. Currently mired in the academic hell that is the dreaded final project, the 24-year-old Cork native admits he’s finding it tough to juggle everything at once. While he vows to release material this year, he’s resigned to the fact that he must knuckle down at Bath University. Ostensibly known as a producer, Kaar isn’t too fussed about what labels are placed on him.

“If you just kind of look at a musician as someone who plays an already established group of instruments, well then I’m not going to fit into that,” he considers. “But at the same time I think there are a lot of things that I am doing that most musicians do. I’ve got my computer but when I play live I feel like a musician because I am performing and I’m using instruments. I don’t think either of those are exclusive, To be a good producer you have to be a bit of a musician as well and I need to become a better musician in that respect. But you can do both.”
Kaar’s move to the live arena has taken him out of his comfort zone to some degree, but his work deserves a wider audience and the transition to the stage has been a smooth one. Mostly.
“I know I have a stage presence, I don’t know if it’s good or bad,” he laughs. “Sometimes when I get really into it I try to bust out some dance moves. You also have to remember that you’re there to do other things too. During my first gig in the Roisin Dubh I was dancing away but I kicked the power cable out of my laptop and I had to restart a lot of the things. So you’ve got to keep that in check!”
Something else to consider – apart from throwing shapes – is just how fashionable electronic music is right now. Like any bubble, it’s bound to burst sooner or later. How does a man of Kaar’s talents prepare to make his mark in a culture that may have already peaked?
“I think people might get bored of it after a while because it’s easy to get bored of that kind of stuff,” he says. “I had a conversation with someone the other day, talking about how that happened with dubstep and how the bubble is kind of bursting and splintering off. That’s when the most interesting stuff happens. People aren’t that interested in your music but the ones who keep doing it are the ones who make the most interesting stuff. When it’s so big now you have lots of people impersonating it and once that’s not popular then you have the people with ideas who will make it. So it might be a good thing.”

Toby Kaar plays the Eurosonic Festival in the Netherlands on January 12.