Toby Costello

The best word to describe myself and my music is genuine. I've got a horrible poker face. The songs I write come straight from personal experiece, and I put those experiences in the song form box as a way to record an impacting human emotional event, observation, issue, person or process. I started playing guitar in high school so I could learn the songs friends and I were singing at a high school youth group. I fiddled around for a few years on a ratty old little guitar, writing maybe three songs by the end of college. About six years ago (2001) I started jamming with a guy and I played him one of my songs. He said, "You're a singer/songwriter". I didn't know that term at the time but it helped me believe in my ability to put emotion and experience into song form. I quickly bought a $300 alvarez guitar and since then have written over 25 songs, played my songs for friends at parties, performed at several various open mics in the Cincinnati, Ohio area, and played at the Music in the Market program at Findlay Market. In January of 2007 I finished copyrighting all of my songs at the time. I have since been doing home recording and working with other musicians (throughout the country), who have their own home studios. My earliest musical influences were Bob Dylan and Cat Stevens.