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David Toop Biography

David Toop (born 5 May 1949) is an English musician, author, and professor and chair of audio culture and improvisation at the London College of Communication. He is a regular contributor to a British music magazineThe Wire and the British magazine The Face. He was a member of the Flying Lizards

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David Toop Quotes

At that time, 73 and 74, I became aware that there were a number of us making instruments. Max Eastley was a good friend and he was making instruments, Paul Burwell and I were making instruments, Evan Parker was making instruments, and we knew Hugh Davies, who was a real pioneer of these amplified instruments.

Good, Good Friend, Max, Numbers, Real

Like a fly bouncing uselessly off a closed window, I'm caught at a moment when the effort of finding new ways to perceive the world feels just out of reach for me.

Effort, Feels, Feels Just, Finding, World

If you run out of new ideas when you are very young, then it's a problem of talent; If you run out of new ideas when you get older, it may be that there's nothing left to say, or it may be that core ideas demand repeated attention.

Attention, Ideas, Nothing, Running, Say

Paul [ Burwell] and I had also got interested in making books. We'd been working with Bob Cobbing, the sound poet, since the beginning of the 70s, and Bob had this press called Writers Forum.

Bob, Book, Burwell, Cobbing, Sound, Writers

I'd just written the book Ocean Of Sound, and this terrible thing happened in my life: my wife committed suicide. I was a single parent because of that; I was completely shattered. I had a book that I'd just finished that had been produced through a really, really terrible period, but I had managed to finish it.

Book, Ocean, Sound, Suicide, Wife

Logically there is nothing new to say about the New. Or maybe it's just a problem of articulating unfamiliar perceptions.

Logically, Perception, Perceptions, Problem, Unfamiliar

I'd been listening to African-American music since the first record I ever bought, which was by Sam Cooke. And it sounds more like my private thoughts that I never thought I would be able to articulate - I never thought I would be able to express publicly.

African American, Cooke, Express, Listening, Publicly, Sound

I don't mean I give the same intensity to everything I do - if I did that, I'd be dead, but I'm very conscious, I make notes, and I have a fairly good idea of what's happening in my life.

Give, Giving, Ideas, Life, Mean

Every time when it comes to writing a book, I think, "I'm the last person in the world that should be doing this, I don't know anything, I can't do this. " And I went through years of that with Into The Maelstrom.

Book, Know, Maelstrom, Person, Thinking, Writing

I was working in, being a single parent with a grieving child of five years old. It was horrendous. I couldn't go out much, because I had my daughter to look after. So people used to come round, and Tony Harrington from The Wire came round.

Child, Children, Daughter, Grieving, Horrendous, Used

I remember I did quite a lot of interviews when the book and the CD came out, and I did a drivetime interview for Radio London or something. You wouldn't immediately associate the music on Ocean Of Sound with drivetime radio, but people found things that they liked, and the DJ was playing some records at 5 o'clock in the afternoon on a weekday. The man who was playing them said to me, "That Peter Brotzmann track, it's like having your head boiled in acid. "

Afternoon, Book, Man, Men, Ocean, Radio

One of the things about grief - I wouldn't generalise, because everybody responds to tragedies in different ways - but I had a huge amount of energy.

Energy, Everybody, Grief, Responds, Tragedy

I think I sent one [book] to Brian Eno. I don't know how I got to know his address, but I sent one to him. He called me up and he said, "I really like the book, and I'm starting a new label, would you liked to do something?" It was a tricky situation for me, because I've always had this thing in my life of a tension between collaboration, which was extremely important to me, and then being alone. Make of that what you will!

Book, Important, Liked, Sent, Think, Thinking

If I'd thought, "I can't really play this instrument," I wouldn't have done it! But I didn't care, you know. I didn't care!

Care, Done, Play

I had the idea to do an anthology about instrument-making.

Anthology, Idea, Ideas, Instruments

The longer we live, the more we are obliged to confront the deeper meaning of what it is we do.

Confront, Deeper, Deeper Meaning, Meaning, Obliged

I was associated with the Artist Placement Group in the early 1970s and David Hall, the video artist, was an Artist Placement Group artist. I was completely broke at that time, and he said to me, "Come and do some teaching" - he was head of department at Maidstone College of Art. And I went and did a couple of teaching days and practically the only person who showed up was David Cunningham [Flying Lizard's main man], with all of this finished work

Art, Couple, Flying, Man, Practically, Teaching

I do still have dips of confidence or [can think] everything I do is rubbish.

Confidence, Dip, Rubbish, Think, Thinking

I think I was like [a game of] skittles, knocked apart by this wooden ball, and there's a strength to that: you're not too self-conscious about what you're doing, so you're not too worried about it.

Ball, Games, Self, Strength, Thinking, Wooden

I had ideas about music and sound and listening and time and so on that I wanted to pursue as an individual, and by doing that book, Brian [Eno] opened the door, and he decided to do a record based loosely on the book.

Based, Book, Door, Doors, Ideas, Pursue

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