New Song Of The Day: TOI – I Want You

Here’s a little something for a rainy Tuesday morning, it’s TOI with their new song, I Want You.

The Kiwi band has a new EP in the works and this will be on it. Here’s the record company blurb with details:

One of Aotearoa’s most captivating live bands, TOI, returns to the fold with a silky, soulful, funk-laced new tune ‘I Want You.’ It’s the second single from their highly anticipated upcoming self-titled EP, which is executive produced by renowned Kiwi producer Devin Abrams (Drax Project, Pacific Heights, ex-Shapeshifter).

‘I Want You’ is accompanied by a dreamy psychedelic visualiser, which takes the listener further into the world of TOI through a colourful landscape of sound.

‘I Want You’ cleverly blends TOI’s old school dance floor vibe with modern pop production. “It’s a good representation of the hybrid of styles covered on the EP,” says the band.

The song was written, mixed and mastered by a sharp-shooting team of New Zealand’s finest. “It really was an epic team of writers, producers and engineers,” says TOI frontman Conway Jeune.

“It was executive produced by Devin Abrams, co-produced by Neil MacLeod and mixed by Simon Gooding.”

Also adding his talents to the writing was Kiwi singer, songwriter and musician Louis Baker. “It was a real pleasure working with Louis. He’s a good friend and super talented. Neil had already created the bones of this beat, so we wrote off that foundation with Jules and Conway [from TOI] plus Devin, Louis and Neil.”

‘I Want You’ follows on from the upcoming EP’s first single ‘Thinking Too Much’, released in 2020, which signalled a change in sonic direction for the band and saw them shorten their name from Tunes of I to TOI.

As well as being an acronym, TOI also nods to some of the band members’ Māori ancestry, “The word Toi in te Reo translates to a number of things, one being the peak or summit of excellence; something that we all drive for. In a more general sense, it is used as a term for the arts, in whatever medium, but can also be translated as genesis or the birth. All of this is intrinsic and appropriate to our name change and change of musical direction.”

TOI has performed twice at Spark Arena, first in support of Red Hot Chili Peppers and then Tash Sultana. No strangers to the festival stage, they have performed throughout Aotearoa, including a four-show run with Fat Freddy’s Drop. They have also toured Australia and NZ multiple times in support of their good friends Ocean Alley, and have shared the stage with Sticky Fingers, UB40, The Original Wailers, Troy Kingi, Katchafire, The Black Seeds, LAB and more.