Issue 12
Modified Toy Orchestra
By Simon CreaseyPhotos By Modified Toy Orchestra
Illustration By Zach Gibson
Six men in suits stand on stage and play songs such as “Where is My Sock?” and a cover of Kraftwerk’s “Pocket Calculator,” using instruments like a toy mobile phone, Mattel’s Bee Gees Rhythm Machine and Speak & Spell.
At one point, the band’s leader, Brian Duffy, shoves his hand up Barbie’s skirt to perform the song “I am Hula Barbie, Hear Me Roar!” This is the Modified Toy Orchestra, and they are treating the audience to electronica created entirely by re-wired abandoned toys from the band’s debut album Toygopop.
Duffy, a sound artist who hails from Birmingham, U.K., hacks into toys to make music. Previous feats include the ZX Spectrum Orchestra, for which he created music from defunct computers that, he says, “Sits somewhere between maths and disco,” and a sound installation called the “Optophonic Lunaphone” in which one can hear the stars “sing” through modified telescopes.
Inspired by experimental composer John Cage’s book For the Birds and the work of American visionary Buckminster Fuller, Duffy began working with toys a decade ago. He trawls car boot sales and junk shops searching for potential new instruments.
Duffy says, “The restrictions are that the toy should either have been discarded or be part of the secondhand toy market, and that it should obviously be a toy. I try and be guided by the hidden potential that is lurking inside the toy rather than try and find specific functions or sounds. The music is then a byproduct of the toys and not our own monkey ego’s need to ‘express’ ourselves.”
He also tends to spend no more than the equivalent of $2 on a toy. “The toy orchestra has deeper philosophical concerns at the heart of it and one of these is the surplus value of seemingly redundant technologies—as such I only use things that are very cheap.”
To turn a toy into a musical instrument, Duffy opens the toy and locates the circuit board. While the toy makes a noise, he connects different parts of the circuit using wires. He searches all possible connections—and solders the wires together and connects them to a switch. Duffy says it is an advantage to have no prior knowledge of electronics to do this. The only rule is, “Don’t do it to toys that are plugged into the mains!”
Duffy recently played a live set at London’s Tate Modern and is due to play gigs in Rome and Vienna before returning to the U.K. to play the Faster Than Sound and Supersonic festivals later this year. After that he plans to revisit the Optophonic Lunaphone and make some location recordings. He is working on a huge monument to Albert Einstein called “Theory of Everything.” He is hoping to build it in time for the centenary of general relativity in 2015.
Duffy also plans to hack into some new instruments to create more perfect pop songs for his band’s second album, to be released through the Warm Circuit label.