[SomniRespiratory Flux]

Alright, I know this is going to come out of extreme left field, given that it’s an obscure-ish artist I’m requesting. By which I mean, I have no reason to believe that more than a handful of people on the forums would recognize who I’m talking about. I’ll give a general rundown, and reference a few songs that, in my opinion at least, would make really great customs.

 

Toehider is the stage name used by Australian singer and instrumentalist Mike Mills (no, not the same guy from R.E.M.) for his solo releases. And by “solo” I mean that nearly literally; with a few exceptions he records and produces all of his material on his own, playing all the different instruments on the songs himself. His music is sometimes loosely categorized as “prog”, but it’s something of a meaningless term in this case. He experiments with styles a lot, which garners a lot of comparisons to Queen from those who know his music. (He fully embraces these comparisons, and considers them one of his biggest influences musically.) His lyrics range from serious to silly or bizarre, and often he tries to tell a story with them. Some of his releases may be too “eclectic” to work as customs, but those that would work cover a wide variety of genres, from an EP recorded with only vocals and an acoustic guitar to heavy metal and anywhere in between.

 

Some of his work you might recognize even without particularly knowing him:

 

-Played the role of The Father on the 2013 Ayreon album The Theory of Everything; also collaborated in the 2015 stage adaptation of The Human Equation, playing the combined roles of Rage/Father (totally different father by the way)

 

-Recorded and uploaded a couple of cover recordings to his YouTube channel that went slightly viral:

 

-Covered Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush in the original key/vocal octave; video made a morning show in Australia I think?

-Covered The Fairy-Feller’s Master Stroke by Queen; video was shared by Brian May himself on social media sites

 

So basically, he’s kind of (in my humble opinion) one of the greatest unknown musicians out there. Here’s a sampling of some songs that you might want to check out from him, in a variety of genres, but mostly ones good for Rock Band customs.

 

-Toe Hider – the first “song” of his, heavily inspired by early Queen (particularly The Fairy-Feller’s Master Stroke, as he’s admitted the inspiration for the song’s style was particularly from that song)

 

 

-Now Fly Away – acoustic guitar and vocals only, super upbeat, has fantastically soaring vocals and a neat section where it sounds like he’s playing a percussive riff by tapping the body of his guitar

 

 

-Lay Down Mara – straightforward rocking, possibly Deep Purple-esque, particularly with the organ and guitar solos; highly suggestive lyrics at times but nothing particularly explicit

 

-I Must Say Yes – another track that just screams Queen influence, including probably the most Brian May guitar solo not actually recorded by Brian May; a single “f-bomb” makes this not kid-friendly

 

-…But Mostly Metal – a heavy metal track, naturally; lyrics are a friendly spoof on various stereotypes of metal music and fans while also celebrating the style; vocalists will “love” the ending

 

-In All Honesty – a pop-rock-ier type song, but still great; not much more to say

 

-… – instrumental electronic rock; basically something completely different

 

-To Hide Her – I don’t really know how to describe this one aside from being, well, Toehider; not that it defies description like some of his stuff does, I just don’t know what to say on this one but “great”

 

-Whatever Makes You Feel Superior – lyrics about opinions and people who can’t recognize them as such; music best described as Queen meets Queensryche (not my description, but I like it)

 

-On and On – one of his newest songs, released just this August; features drums by none other than Vinny Appice, famous for playing with Black Sabbath and Dio (not joking, he really did record this)

 

That’s quite a decently sized list, and I didn’t even name all the songs I wanted to. If you want to check out more (or if some of those links don’t work in your country, I know a fair few are in the “YouTube Music” videos, which I’ve heard have availability issues), check out his Bandcamp page at https://toehider.bandcamp.com/musicfor almost all of his music.

 

I don’t expect much to come from this topic, but I figured I’d ask anyway. Maybe someone who knows how to chart will see this and give some of the songs a listen. I’ve already checked both this forum and the new database for “Toehider” and got nothing, so I feel like I’m fairly safe on not being redundant in asking for this. …Hopefully this isn’t TOO weird a first impression for me here. If so… Tough, that’s just how I am sometimes.

[Farottone]

With all that passion are you entirely sure you don’t want to try yourself to author something? ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif”>

[Ultimate_MANG0]

With all that passion are you entirely sure you don’t want to try yourself to author something? ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” />

 

I highly recomend it. I started off requesting but now I can make any song I want and it’s great! ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_biggrin.gif” />

[SomniRespiratory Flux]

With all that passion are you entirely sure you don’t want to try yourself to author something? ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” />

 

…Maybe… I certainly would if I could. The problem is I have no idea how to even start, and my life is also extremely busy with several other things. I still haven’t even gotten my setup to play customs working, let alone any understanding of how to actually make them myself. (That’s the other reason I finally made an account here, I need to get to the Wii setup topic and ask what’s going on, I’d been getting errors when I tried to do it the last time…) Between my classes and everything else I’ve been wanting to do with my time I don’t know if I’d have a lot of time to put into charting even if I knew how to do it.

 

So, I mean, I’m not trying to be a freeloader or anything like that. I just figured I’d throw the idea out there in case anyone else would find it and agree with me that it was worth the time. Either way, thanks for the response, and maybe if I get any chance at all I’ll try my hand at making the customs. It just isn’t exactly in the cards for me at the moment.

[Sygenysis]

I might finish up a custom I’ve done for Phase Shift/FoF of Crossfire by Lachlan Barclay and Mike Mills, both of Toehider. At any rate, it’s due for a rechart, even though it might end up being too hard for RB3, at least on guitar, anyway.

[Author]

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