Band - Tonstartssbandht

Andy and Edwin Mathis White are the duo known as Tonstartssbandht. Behind their made-up name (pronounced as tahn-starts-bandit) is almost a decade of sibling synergistic creative energy. The band began in August of 2007 in their hometown of Orlando, Florida. After spending their teenage years exploring the free landscape of improvised ensemble noise rock, they decided to focus their efforts on recording a few cover versions of songs from the Beach Boys’ Smiley Smile / Wild Honey. Trained as choristers in their youth, the two felt no apprehension at the vocal task at hand. Having never worked together as a duo, expectations were neutral, yet with only a few songs completed their natural cohesion lead the covers project to begin shifting toward creating originals. By the end of the month Andy and Edwin moved away to their new respective homes in Montreal and New York City.


In these two cities the band continued under the restraint of solo writing, recording, and emailed collaboration. The confined living environments necessitated a reliance on the power of choral vocal loops, sampled rhythms, and digital music media. This method of songwriting and performance was carried through on three of their self-released 2009 albums An When, Dick Nights, and Maihama. Among these albums were also glimpses of their rock inspired past, with songs like “Midnite Cobras”, “Haughty Deb” and “Welsh Souper” revealing a perhaps unexpected side of doom and blues riff affinity. In the fall of that same year, the brothers began performing frequently, mostly around the lofts and venues of Montreal. At their shows they strived to display both sides of the band’s developing sound. Sometimes sets would begin with a few chaotic vocal looping tracks before jumping in to a raucous guitar and drum segment. Playing so often, they would also perform “electronic sets” and “rock sets” within the same week. Local label Psychic Handshake shared their rock side with the Midnite Cobras 7 inch in March 2010. One year later, Arbutus Records, which formed in late 2009 alongside the band’s live development, released their first full length 12 inch Now I Am Become, with music returning to a mix of dooming rock and choral harmony.


In the years that followed, work and touring began to supersede that time once used for prolific recording. After a few years bringing the split psyche sets on the road, even while doing marathon train tours through Europe, the focus eventually shifted toward a simpler set up and doing more with the only their voices and live instruments. Their entire 2013 Spring tour was meticulously recorded each night by Andy. By then he had joined his brother at Le Wallet in Brooklyn and by the end of the winter they had mixed and spliced together an 80 minute selection from more than 25 hours of the European recordings. Entitled Overseas, and jointly released in June 2014 by Company Etc & Arbutus Records, the double live album was the perfect document of where their creative development had turned in the previous few years. It gave a broader audience the chance to at least hear how their performance were enrapturing listeners around the world. As they’ve continued to tour, the recording hasn’t stopped. Full set live cassettes followed with Nantes, Hanoi, and Christchurch. After moving back to Orlando in early 2016, the duo began working on new material in their home studio.