At a current look of the Hamptons Dance Venture on the Hearth Lodge in Springs, dancers carried out to the soulful music of Toby Lightman, proper, a singer and songwriter.
Toby Lightman was late for our interview, although when she did arrive she was stuffed with apologies (she does have two children underneath the age of 5) and even bore a present.
“You in all probability haven’t got a CD participant,” she laughed, handing over a CD of her newest album, “After All.”
She was proper. Not that it issues, as a result of her music is throughout Spotify, Apple, YouTube. However that 5-inch-by-5-inch field, that includes a watercolor-style rendering of Ms. Lightman, a singer-songwriter with appreciable accomplishments underneath her signature wool fedora, was emblematic of one thing else: She belongs to a time when pop music was merely sweeter.
We’re speaking in regards to the early aughts — post-angry Alanis Morissette and pre-Miley Cyrus writhing round on a wrecking ball. Beyonce had simply gone solo and Hilary Duff took her honest-to-goodness Disney persona and bought it to the tween set. Kelly Clarkson had simply gained “American Idol.”
Into this seemingly much less cynical decade got here Ms. Lightman. It was 2004 and he or she had been signed by Jason Flom for his Lava Information label, a subsidiary of Atlantic Information. She launched her first album, “Little Issues,” which invited comparisons to Nelly Furtado, Mary J. Blige, and Sheryl Crow, with reviewers touting her “robust vocals” and “big voice.” In the meantime, her single “Devils and Angels” reached quantity 17 on the Billboard grownup high 40 chart.
Conan O’Brien additionally took notice and invited her to carry out on his late-night present, which she did — twice — and that led to one thing much more wondrous.
“Prince referred to as to ask if I might open for him,” she stated, beaming, as she recalled what was, understandably, one of many nice highlights of her profession. “I used to be on tour with Gavin DeGraw on the time, and my complete band and I left to fly to Prince’s ‘Musicology’ tour in Portland, Oregon.”
The music legend hardly ever employed opening acts. “I used to be considered one of perhaps 5 artists he supplied a present,” she stated. Prince had heard her sing and play guitar on Conan O’Brien’s present and cherished her robust chords and highly effective voice.
Through the pre-concert soundcheck, she remembered being on Prince’s purple stage when hastily the sector went quiet. She circled and located herself face-to-face with the seven-time Grammy winner, who really stated, ” ‘Thanks for leaving your tour and being right here.’ I nearly fainted.”
Following the efficiency, Ms. Lightman and her band have been invited to the after-party, held in a bar that had been closed for the event. Prince arrived, she stated, sat down at a desk subsequent to her, and so they talked for 3 hours, instilling in her a notion that she did not must be a major-label puppet. “He informed me, ‘You are able to do this by yourself. You do not want a significant label. You’ll be able to produce by yourself.’ ”
“Stuff like that does not occur to a bit Jewish lady from New Jersey!” she exclaimed final week in Springs, the place she and her husband have a second dwelling.
Certainly, Ms. Lightman, from Cherry Hill, N.J., stands at about five-foot-nothing, making her highly effective, throaty vocals all of the extra startling. It was throughout her highschool commencement ceremony that she realized her voice would possibly supply one thing particular. She had grown up finding out the violin through the Suzuki methodology, which emphasizes the significance of listening and repetition, so she at all times knew that she may hear the precise notes and sing on pitch. However when she sang a rendition of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” at her commencement, her first time performing for a big viewers, she stated, “I moved individuals to tears. It was mind-blowing, however I had no thought what all of it meant.”
She went on to review on the College of Wisconsin, the place she performed membership lacrosse, taught herself guitar, met different musical children, and loved the liberty to put in writing and sing. Through the summer season after her junior 12 months, she interned as a runner at Smokin’ Grooves, a legendary hip-hop pageant that was making a cease in Philadelphia, the place met the rappers Wyclef Jean and Public Enemy, in addition to Wyclef’s brother Sam Jean, who she hoped would possibly join her additional to his well-known brother.
Concurrently, she additionally met an aspiring boy band. They’d been signed by an Asian label and have been on the lookout for a backup singer. So, she dropped out of faculty and spent six months in Thailand singing cowl songs for the boy band. “However Wyclef’s brother saved calling me,” she stated. “And this was earlier than cellphones, so he’d name on a landline, promising that if I returned to New York, he’d assist me.”
She returned, however first went again to school, doubled up on courses, acquired her diploma, after which moved again to New Jersey round 2000. Sam Jean delivered on his promise, usually sending her to Wyclef’s studio classes, the place she realized to program beats. She produced two songs that she despatched round to labels and finally landed a supervisor. Inside a 12 months, at age 24, she had her file take care of Lava Information.
“My musical enter was fairly totally different. I play robust chords so I used to be taking part in the guitar and singing a soulful model of pop music. I performed extra aggressively than, say, Jewel on the time.”
Below the Lava label, she did the late-night circuit, the radio circuit, and toured with Jewel, Rob Thomas, Gavin DeGraw, O.A.R., Marc Cohn, and others. By 2006, nonetheless, Atlantic Information parted methods with Lava Information however retained Ms. Lightman, releasing her second album, “Chook on a Wire.”
One of many songs, “My Candy Music,” was featured in “P.S. I Love You,” a 2007 Hilary Swank film. It is a dusky, folksy ballad that performed throughout a two-minute-plus climactic scene by which Ms. Swank bawls the complete time. “My music does are inclined to stay in scenes when individuals are crying. One thing actually disastrous simply occurred, and so they must really feel one thing,” Ms. Lightman stated, smiling.
Her industrial success however, she felt misplaced within the greater, extra company world of the Atlantic mum or dad firm and struggled to discover a place for her music. In 2009, she went impartial, releasing her third album, “Let Go,” underneath her personal label, T Killa Information. Social media was as but not a possible self-promotion instrument, so Ms. Lightman acquired artistic: She turned the primary impartial artist to carry out on the Residence Purchasing Community.
“I simply went all the way down to Tampa, carried out, after which watched the ticker as gross sales began to return in. It made me notice there are such a lot of other ways — and also you gotta attempt other ways — to reveal your music. What it taught me was that I may personal extra of my earnings being impartial.”
Having solidified her working relationships with among the finest producers and blend engineers within the trade, she was capable of launch studio-quality work, leading to numerous TV and movie placements of her songs, which supplied Ms. Lightman a profitable supply of revenue.
“Alternatively, radio dried up the minute I left the label,” she admitted, talking in regards to the obstacles that indie artists face.
WEHM, the Manorville-based radio station heard right here, performed her usually whereas she was at Atlantic, she stated, however hasn’t since she left. In 2022, following the discharge of “After All,” her first fully solo-produced album, she contacted the station. “I informed them that I recorded a part of this album in Springs, so, did not they need to play it?” They did not.
Now married for over 10 years and with younger youngsters, Ms. Lightman appears to exude a renewed sense of what is necessary, and what actually isn’t. Having youngsters has modified her music, additional blurring her style boundaries. After watching “Sesame Road” relentlessly along with her older son, she’s now writing music for the present.
She’s additionally in collaboration with a Philadelphia rapper named Frzy, creating a storyline in regards to the unlikely friendship between a 6-foot-7 Black man and a bit, white, Jewish lady. Moreover, Ms. Lightman continues to put in writing for Disney and PBS, commercials and movies, and he or she’ll return to restricted touring within the fall.
However her albums are the place her feelings clearly stay, with songs steeped in messages of motherhood, infertility, and assist for the L.G.B.T.Q.+ neighborhood. “I am making music I like and with the arrogance now to provide it to be as top quality as once I was signed. It is refreshing and daunting,” she stated.
Nonetheless, would not she like to be again within the heady days of performing in packed arenas and expense-account touring?
“Would it not be nice to win the lottery once more? Positive. However I already gained it. I did get to carry out on ‘Letterman.’ I met Prince. It was like a dream. So, I really feel actually fortunate all that occurred. And perhaps it’s going to occur once more.”