Monday, March 4, 2024

Tocata


ORIGINS: Cranebrook, NSW
GENRE: Metal, Nu-Metal
YEARS ACTIVE: 1994-2007
 
MEMBERS:
  • Andrew Kounelis (Vocals) [1994-2006] (also Guitar) [1994-1997]
  • James Young (Guitar) [1994-2001, 2003-2007]
  • Chris 'Frosti' Tar (Bass) [1999-2007] [ (Drums) [1994-1996]
  • Wesley Baiada (Drums) [1997-2007]
  • Daryl Russell (Guitar) [1997-2007]
  • Nathan Clarke (Bass) [1994-1998]
  • Russel Young (Guitar) [2002]
  • Patrick Orriss (Vocals) [2006]
RELEASES: 
  • Self-titled (2000) [as Porndrug]
    • 1. Denatured
    • 2. Week
    • 3. In(va-lid)
    • 4. My Pain
  • Unearth This (2001) - Obzine Compilation [as Porndrug]
    • Denatured

  • Tulpas (2002) - Download Here
    • 1. Stab
    • 2. Drowning
    • 3. I_O
    • 4. Son of God
    • 5. Bipolar
    • 6. Saiyan
    • 7. Stab (Remix) [Bonus Track - Multimedia Version of CD]
    • 8. Punk Song [Bonus Track - Multimedia Version of CD]
  • Damaged: Music to Skate To (2002) - Obzine Compilation
    • Son of God

  • Self-Titled (2006) - Download Here.
    • 1. Promise
    • 2. Reap and Sow
    • 3. The Sacrifice
SUMMARY: Starting as a high school hard rock/grunge band called Mud Puppy, the band was initially a four piece comprising of Kounelis, J. Young, Clarke, and Tar, jamming on cover songs and playing school concerts. Original drummer Chris Tar changed schools, prompting a line-up shuffle that brought in Baiada and Russell. The band became heavier as they began to write their own songs, changed their name to Porndrug, and recorded their first EP in a studio in St Marys. The band stopped playing for a year when they finished school, then re-starting with Tar returning on bass to replace Nathan Clarke, changing their name to Tocata in 2002.  

By 2001 Tocata were playing a lot of Great Western Bar jam nights and began playing a range of local shows and gigs in the city, as well as embarking on some East Coast tours, with Daryl Russell acting as band manager a lot of the time. James Young's career commitments meant that he had to take a break from the band around 2002 and his brother Russel filled in at this time. Further EPs were recorded with Dax Liniere at Puzzle Factory Sound Studios. 
 
Eventually around 2005, Kounelis was replaced by former Cherub Mafia vocalist Patrick Orris. Tocata played a couple of shows with this lineup before both Orris and Tar decided to exit. The rest of the band decided to call a day a few months later.     

 
SHOWS: 


ORAL HISTORY:
"The band started around 1993/94 in high school. We all loved Pantera, Sepultura, etc., but we weren't good enough to play that, so Nirvana covering was all we had for a short while. I was one year ahead of the other guys but Wesley, I grew up next door to him, so he introduced me to the other guys. We practiced hard with a different group of players. I was always on guitar and vocals at high school. It was a high school concert night that we were closer to the band we became... maybe 1996 or 1997. The school brought new instruments so we used them everyday. Destroyed them. The high school Music teachers were very nice but hated us after 2 or 3 years of that."
Andrew Kounelis (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
As Mud Puppy, left to right: Andrew Kounelis, James Young, Chris Tarr, Nathan Clarke

"When the band KoRn came out, that was when we started writing our own songs, and played them at a high school concert night. We got in some trouble for playing Pantera's 'Suicide Note Part 1' because the school didn't really want us playing a song with that title."
Andrew Kounelis (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
"I started working at Pizza Hut at 16 when Andrew was doing delivery driving. We started talking about music, etc., and we started hanging out after work, talking more music, and doing delinquent things. After a while he just asked me to join the band. Don't think he even asked any of the other members or anything... just that I was suddenly in the band. The band felt like it was kind of over around this point as they didn't jam or anything but I started taking my guitar to school and James and I started jamming together at lunchtime. I played the high verse guitar part and James latched onto it, wrote a chorus, and then 'Denatured' was born."
Daryl Russell, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
"I started to play drums around the same time that Daryl joined the band. We changed to 'Porndrug' at this stage. We were still playing mostly covers of Nirvana, Silverchair, but started to progress to heavier music - playing some Korn and Deftones covers. We started to write our own songs and were playing the odd gig here and there - school concerts and some parties."
Wesley Baiada (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
"I stopped playing guitar to focus on vocals around maybe 1998. The guitar was way too much stuff for me to drag around... And I had sold all my stuff because I found marijuana in Year 12."
Andrew Kounelis (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024 


"It's hard to say exactly when, but we wrote a four track EP and recorded and released it. We didn't print covers properly in order to save on costs... just printed covers at Wesley's place and put them together ourselves."
Daryl Russell, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
"Mostly James would come up with stuff. The heavier stuff was usually James, melodic stuff usually me. Frosti wrote the main riff in 'The Sacrifice'. Each member owned their own instrument. It wasn't until after pre-production recording for our EPs that we started tweaking other stuff. Like, Wes came up with awesome idea for 'Reap & Sow', where the guitar goes high but drops to half time... was so good! I still try to implement it now in music. The high part in a song from one of my more recent bands only exists because of that part from Wesley."
Daryl Russell (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
"My favourite memory of playing was being able to preach the good word with people thinking it was just heavy metal... I was going through hard drug times. And all my writing was about spiritual division - Jesus vs. Satan. And unfortunately my Satan was drugs. It was definitely a cathartic experience performing on stage but after a while I refused to repent and decided to do it for all the wrong reasons. We had some great stuff that wasn't properly recorded - all with very nasty insides."
Andrew Kounelis, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
Shirt design
 
"Porn Drug, a heavy metal/hardcore act from Werrington, really got into it and got a little most going at times. Songs like 'Denatured', 'My Pain', and a song which seemed to be an anti-punk punk song (singer Andrew introduced the song as 'Who wants to be a hardcore punk?'), got the crowd going like no other band of the day. Every song was tight and the crowd really got into it. Porn Drug are definitely a band to look out for."
Review of show at Emu Plains Community Centre, Obzine Issue 5, 1999
 
"The name came from an artwork I saw called something like Toccata 27. It was always supposed to be (tocata), all lower case with brackets, which we went to after the phonetic logo we did [tə ká tə] was a disaster to put in press... It was just too painful to get consistency across different media."
Daryl Russell, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024 
 
"Our Newcastle trip was a great time, and recording with Dax was also great fun. In the early days of Tocata we used to have a great time jamming at my parent's place in the garage and playing Goldeneye on Nintendo 64. Probably spent more playing this game then jamming... best game ever. Just hanging out with each other was great."
Wesley Baiada (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 

 
"A standout memory would be The Shenanigans tour to Newcastle. There's a photo somewhere of Russ with a beer case on his head next to a passed-out guy at the bus stop across from the Cambridge Hotel in Newcastle. The passed-out guy adjusted the beer case on his head first before taking it off."
Daryl Russell (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
"Recording one of the EPs... during the gang vocals of 'The Sacrifice' everyone yells out 'Cattle'. I yelled out 'Kettle' and its all I can hear when I listen to it now."
Daryl Russell (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
"It was clever, powerful and played with so much passion. The live shows were always full-on, with Daryl often egging the others on to put on a good show... The cleverness and diversity developed with time, which made them a band you didn't get tired of hearing and seeing."  
Dax Liniere (Producer), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 
"I was speaking to a guy from the U.S. for about 6 months, maybe in 2005. He was a producer and he had all our stuff up to that point. I got in contact with him through a friend in Baulkham Hills. He wanted more of our stuff and he would get things started. I never told the guys... I was going to leave it as a surprise. But then my mother passed away, the guys fired me from the band. Maybe I just became a lost soul... I didn't even call that producer back, I just dropped all the music stuff."
Andrew Kounelis, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
"Towards the end we were looking to invest more money into the band to try and play more interstate shows but Andrew didn't always have a lot of funds. We all had a big chat meeting about it and it's then that we made the decision to let him go from the band. Probably the worst decision we made."
 Wesley Baiada (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
"The band I was in previously, The Black Arts Movement, and Tocata both rehearsed out of the one place in Seven Hills. Andrew went one way and I left my band and it was a natural progression of things for me to join Tocata as singer. We were all pretty good mates."
Patrick Orris (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
"I think Patrick played a show or two and he and Chris then decided to leave. Daryl, James, and myself continued to practice for a few more months but we agreed to wind it up."
Wesley Baiada (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024 
 
"Tocata were a different beast. Totally raw and no bullshit one second and then quite technical and deep the next. I enjoyed it but at that moment in my ife I kind of fell out of love with singing. That was why I left Black Arts Movement. There were other issues in that band that ultimately led to why I started to feel that way but I won't get into that. I was pretty upfront with the boys with this. I was only ever gonna be interim. My focus was more on writing the music instrumentally."
Patrick Orris (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024


"I would say that life essentially happened, we had been trying to push it as much as we could. Looking back, we probably could have made it work, it wasn't really the same without Andrew."
Daryl Russell (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

"I'm a school teacher now and I'm joining a seminary in 2 weeks to become an orthodox priest. I am the bass voice in my church's choir... all Russian though, no screaming."
Andrew Kounelis (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

RELATED BANDS: Lynchmada, Tolerable Enemies, Cherub Mafia / Hardkore Pawn, Many Ions Apart, In Valley Ruins
 










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