Today we’d like to introduce you to Reggie Baril.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Reggie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Since I was little I had always wanted to be in the entertainment industry in some capacity. I was always listening to stand-up comedians and watching people like Will Smith and later on Donald Glover doing what they did and thought “Hey that’s gonna be me one day.” In high school, I joined the drama club and studied improv comedy. While I was there, I had heard of this rapper from another school who was putting out songs, and I wrote a diss track towards him as a joke. The attention kind of picked up around school so I kept writing more songs and eventually adopted the ToBy alias. When I graduated, I went to FIU to pursue acting, writing, and directing.
Doing music with my friends outside of school, I met my first pivotal collaborator in Andrew Garcia. A Miami born and bred filmmaker who invited me up to New York to shoot one of my most visually innovative videos to date, “Gold”. After releasing it I got in contact with ZYON Management (home to Aleksander Vinter aka Savant) and was flown out to LA to work on music with Aleks. I spent the rest of my time in college writing and recording music with my band, directing my own music videos, and working on my playwriting and acting. Once I graduated, I packed up all of my belongings and moved to LA indefinitely and signed on to be a part of the ZYON roster. I released my debut project “ToBySeason Vol. I” in February and got the chance to perform at A3C Music Festival in Atlanta. To this day I’m still writing and recording, directing, and acting in Los Angeles.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It was far from a smooth road. I’ve had doors closed in my face more times than I can count and opportunities definitely slipped through my fingers. There was a time my band and I were promised an opening slot at a ScHoolboy Q concert and I broke my back trying to get all of my friends to buy tickets to secure the show. It turns out that when we got there for sound check, they made us open the show at 5PM (one of our band members wasn’t there yet) and the headliner didn’t go on till midnight. Most of the people who bought tickets didn’t get to see us play. Things like that and dealing with shady promoters, PR, and sometimes other artists have been a constant ongoing struggle. It’s important to maintain composure and stay resilient through these types of things though, otherwise it becomes very easy to just give it all up.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the -ToBy- story. Tell us more about the business.
I am the Artistic Coordinator, Executive Producer, and Founder of the -ToBy-, Kuda Live Band, and BARIKUDAxDEATHWISH brands. I write and record music as well as oversee art and overall brand direction. I think what sets me apart is that I’m very much so the multifunctional component to these projects. I don’t like to think of myself as the typical artist who allows their dealings to revolve around them but rather as someone who’s actively engaged in as many areas and aspects of my affairs as possible. I would have to say I’m the most proud of releasing a successful album in “ToBySeason Vol. I” and getting the chance to perform at the A3C Festival.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Good luck has brought me face to face with key moments in my career. By chance, an advertisement I put on Facebook reached a future collaborator and we would go on to shoot my most talked about music video to date. I think being in the right place at the right time is an important thing. Sometimes opportunities don’t knock unless you’re standing behind the right door. Inversely, bad luck is also a key element believe it or not. I believe bad luck has the potential to breed resiliency within specific types of people. I’ve had weeks where almost nothing went right; a dropped studio session, unexpected out of pocket costs incurred, etc. Generally nothing was going my way, but I still saw it through and muscled through it because if I hadn’t, who knows if I’d even be where I was today. I certainly wouldn’t be doing this interview if you think about it.
Contact Info:
- Website: tobyseason.com
- Email: its@tobyseason.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/official_toby
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialToByMusic/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Official_ToBy
- Others: Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/artist/5CRRv70cGS6KpA3LkKEbQH?si=295j3XCqSLmD3WfX4FN6yg
Soundcloud – http://soundcloud.com/officialtobymusic
Image Credit:
Briana Kelly Melendez
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