Welcome to Planet Moss! Today, I will be touring you through the musical life of 21 year old Mechanical Engineering major Toby Moss Darci-Maher who spends their time banging on drums with their band “Cardio Star” and creating/producing their own personal music under the moniker “Diarchipretti”.
Toby’s musical journey began where many of us once found ourselves: being unwillingly forced by parents to play piano in elementary school. Toby’s trajectory changed when they took a stand and convinced their parents to let them take drum lessons instead; this is the true beginning of Toby’s career.
After surviving their middle school Dubstep phase, Toby sprung into creating music in early high school. Santa got their older brother Logic Pro for Christmas one year and, thanks to Apple’s family share feature, Toby had access to a bit of fun. Toby joined their first band “Blue Friday” towards the end of their general education years which shifted and evolved their music style. The band brought recording equipment and more experience with music production.
“I got into a band and that kind of shifted a lot of my personal music from being entirely beats and hip-hop influenced to being post-punk and rock-influenced, which created the sort of two sides you can see a lot in my music.” Toby, Creator of ANT!
Starting from dabbling in “shitty trap beats” with the homies, Toby was able to groove into mixing and creating music with software. Their beta stage of attempting to “get some trap sounding drums and make it sound banging” seeps into the work they produce today which you can get a taste of in their latest album ANT! which can be streamed on all streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Bandcamp. No, like, seriously. Open up your Spotify app and bop to some chaotic tunes while you continue reading!
Be prepared to hop onto a spacecraft as you travel through wormholes and dimensions where you might run into cats amongst other things. Influenced by groups like ANTOHA MC, CAN, Ween, Pavement, and ESG, ANT is a collaborative album that includes various artists. Most of the songs include creative input from Toby’s friends, many of which they’ve made music with such as some of the members of their current band Cardio Star.
Toby dives into what the process looks like working with others while creating an album. ANT is a melting pot of collaboration; each song production process was different than its neighbor and synthesizes a diverse range of creative expressions from the artists Toby works with.
“As you would imagine, it’s different with every person I work with. Each song you can see everybody’s energy with it; you can very much tell it’s their song and fits with their own music they make.” Toby, Creator of ANT!
ANT incorporates a few avant-garde experiments not originally intended to be included. As you listen, you might pick up on some unique sounds that may indicate you have just teleported into a new dimension. When I first heard the song “Squeaky Wheel”, I felt that I was underwater. Toby confirmed my suspicions.
“I previously had made an animation about deforestation for a typography project. I wanted to include a gurgrhgdo sound so I picked up a rock, started recording on voice memos, dropped it in a cup of water, and thought ‘that’s a really nice sound’.”
My favorite part, the end of “Right Here” transitioning into “You’re The Worst”, includes the beautiful voice of one of Toby’s collaborators: Toad the neighborhood kitty! Toby makes music out of their box in our backyard (don’t worry: it’s insulated and all that jazz). “You’re the Worst” started when Toby exited their lair and began recording random sounds. There were wind chimes, some ambient sounds, and finally the grand introduction of Toad’s harmonious meows.
I don’t claim to be a music expert or anything, but I personally noticed that the album gets creepier and stranger with each song. It’s like visiting planets that feel further and further away from the typical vibe of Earth. The ending of the last song, nonetheless, felt like the end of a long story; its a nice relaxing and rewarding end of the journey. “Mr. and Mrs. Twanaworth” features both Toby and their friend Abby, whom apparently had a bit too much tequila in their systems while recording!
“I was playing on mandolin and started singing. In one take, we were coming up with the song on the spot. Abby kept coming up with new lines right then! I didn’t know how in the world they were doing that so quickly. I didn’t originally write this song for the album, though. It felt very cute and sweet, kind of goofy, so it felt like a good way to wrap things up and give people a kind of chill ending. I wanted to slow the entire song down towards the end to s oun d l i kke ss t h ii ss.”
Where does Toby’s journey look like now post album drop? Much to my personal excitement (and not because I might be included), there may be plans to make a music video. Besides ANT, Toby is working on another EP with Cardio Star and a project with a few other people so stay tuned for some other wild adventures! Again you can listen to Diachipretti and Cardio star here on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, and more!
Desert Rose writes for .WAV’s Content Team. They wrote the article. Toby Moss Darci-Maher made the album cover featured as the graphic.
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