Few groups who’ve been playing music for a quarter century continue pulling in new fans, making new music, and playing shows with the best bands in their particular genre.  The Toasters do just that, and in the process, maintain their perch atop the world of ska music.

It really was 25 years ago when vocalist/guitarist Rob Hingley started what would become one of the most recognizable bands in ska.  Hingley, who had just moved to the United States two years prior to the band’s 1982 debut, sites influences from his native England helping to jump start what would become a lifelong endeavor.  “When I moved to the States in 1980, that was right at the pinnacle of two-tone in the UK,” Hingley says, recalling the period when bands like The Specials, The English Beat, and Madness were making an indelible imprint on the UK music charts.   “Obviously a lot of the stuff that I was listening to, writing, and reproducing was based on those types of rhythms,” Hingley recalls, not afraid to credit the musical movement that gave him his start.

In addition to fronting one of the genre’s premier bands, Hingley also started its premier record label, Moon Records (or Moon Ska Records as it’s often known), around the same time he formed the Toasters.  The label, founded in 1983, hit its peak in the early nineties with the release of records by bands like Spring Heeled Jack, Mustard Plug, The Pietasters, The Slackers, and, naturally, the Toasters.  These bands were just a few among dozens and dozens of ska bands to release something through Moon.  “It’s an interesting dynamic, because having been in a band and (part of) a label, I totally understand the relationships between bands and labels now,” Hingley says of his dual lives as label head and front man.

Much to the chagrin of many, Moon closed its doors in 2000.  Don’t count Hingley among those mourning its death, though.  “In a sense closing Moon was great because what I went back to doing was being a guitar player and singer in a band,” Hingley says matter-of-factly.  As for splitting his roles between band and label boss, Hingley says that it can be a treacherous path.  “Unfortunately, it’s safe to say that a lot of musicians are not really businessmen, and a lot of labels are not really musicians.  It’s kind of a match made in hell in a sense.”

That being said, Hingley is back in the label business.  Not long after Moon’s demise, he founded Megalith Records, a label with a roster and fan base similar to that of Moon.  While Moon featured artists who proved to become the crème de la crème of their scene, Hingley believes that releases from young, up-and-comers like Westbound Train, The Hub City Stompers, and The Rudie Crew will soon be staples in any rude boy’s record collection.  “Megalith is basically more a model for a band to really put down some sort of roots,” he says.  “You’ll see in like 2 to 3 years that these bands will start to become some household names.”

Despite the potential that Hingley sees in the bands on Megalith, the rigors of running Moon for so many years leave him questioning exactly what his goals for his new label are.  “One of the things with Moon, because we promoted bands so aggressively, they kind of went somewhere where it was impossible to sustain it, in the sense that there’s really kind of a glass ceiling for ska bands at that point,” Hingley says. “So we’re not going to hype Megalith up the same way we did Moon.”  Megalith’s head has obviously learned from his years as a label big shot, and knows that the right marriage of label and band can lead to an organic growth for both parties.
 
Among the most recent additions to Megalith’s catalog is the European release of One More Bullet, the latest full-length from the Toasters.  While this record is just the most recent addition to what seems like an impossibly huge back catalog, Hingley feels that Bullet sums up what the Toasters are all about.  “We tried to touch on a lot of different aspects of the ska album,” he says “It’s basically just an overview of where the band has been on this crazy roller coaster ride the last 25 years.”  In doing so, Hingley and company included a number of different types of ska tunes.  There’s originals like the classically upbeat “Night Train to Moscow,” covers of classic artists like The Dave Clark Five (“Bits and Pieces”) and the Everly Brothers (“When Will I Be Loved”), and even a mash-up of one of the band’s most well known songs, “Run Rudy Run.”

Perhaps the key to One More Bullet was the timeframe, or lack thereof, in which it was recorded.  “I think it’s one of the first records we’ve made where we didn’t really care when it came out,” Hingley proudly admits.  “We basically threw all the deadlines out the window, and we just built it up over a course of time.  I mean, some of the basic tracks were laid out almost two years ago.”  To record the album, Hingley stayed close to his home in Spain.  Not necessarily known as a musical hotbed, Hingley says there couldn’t have been a better place to record.  “I think Spain is really quite dialed in on a musical level, and we were surprised, when we were making the album, of the quality and quantity of the local session musicians,” he says, praising an evidently talented resource of sidemen.  “I mean they have some monster players there.”

Hingley also feels that his move to Spain has benefited his songwriting habits and abilities.  “I think the move to Spain is what really put the charge into getting the record done,” he says.  “All of a sudden I’m a little more creative.  I have more time to think about writing and producing.”  Hingley is also impressed with the depth of Toasters fans in his new stomping grounds, admitting that “the kids in Spain are a lot more into ska and reggae than American kids are.”

As such, the Toasters spend a lot of time touring Europe, but are by no means ignoring a still devoted American fan base.  They’re just finishing up their record release/25th anniversary tour with L.A. punks The Briggs, and are set for a July/August run on the Warped Tour.  In fact, a look at their events calendar over at www.toasters.org reveals a pretty staggering schedule, especially for a band who has already logged as many hours in vans, buses, and airplanes as the Toasters.  Hingley thinks that, in spite of what can already be considered a pretty satisfying career, he and his band, whose current lineup includes former Bosstone trombonist Chris Rhodes and high-energy saxman Jeff Richey, are not about to slow down.  “What has taken over is that it seems like every time we come off tour, there’s another one coming right around the corner,” he says.  “We’re basically booked now through the end of this year, we’re starting to book through January and February of 2008, so as long as they keep coming, we’ll keep playing.”

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