Tobias

Tobias is a Berlin techno and tech house artist. The name is also used for several different acts, including a singer-songwriter and producer from New York, a drum and bass producer from the United Kingdom, a screamo band from South Dakota, and an alias of Tobias Freud.

Music and releases

As a singer-songwriter and producer, Tobias begins as an electronic musician before moving into songwriting in 2018. The first album, Two Birds, appears in November 2022.

As a drum and bass producer, TOBIAS starts production in 1992 under the name TOBIAS aka DJ Formula and begins DJing in 1993 with a residency at World Dance Radio. He spends much of the mid-1990s working with Duncan Mackay of Primal Scream. Building on work in the rave scene and breakbeat culture, he releases his first vinyl recording in 1993 with the trio Retornym. Later releases and signings include Digi lab, Extent Recordings, EASY Records UK, Industry Standard UK and Physmatics USA. A 2011 EP, She’s Moved On, shows continued development in drum and bass, and he works on further solo and collaborative releases including with Gappa G, John Physmatics and Genotype 2.

As an alias of Tobias Freud, Tobias has links to projects including Nsi and Odd Machine, with an album scheduled for release on Ostgut Ton in summer 2011.

Other uses of the name

Another Tobias begins in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and emerges from mid-1990s screamo and emo scenes. That project draws on the intensity of local screamo shows and is shaped by a reaction against later emo and screamo acts. The name also refers to a band formed in 1999 by musicians who previously played in All Day Long and Heads Roll. That band starts with a line-up built around Daniel on drums, Peter on vocals and guitar, Steve on guitar and vocals, and later changes members and instruments several times before eventually breaking up.

Education and work

The drum and bass producer TOBIAS also works at a university teaching music IT, using Logic, Ableton, Cubase and FL Studio, and gains a PGCE.