When you listen to the music of Grandfabric you can’t help but succumb to a feeling of recreational escape. Gram Parsons-inspired alt-country meets radio-ready pop rock to create a distinctively enticing sound. The musical influences are many including, but not limited to, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Big Star, Neil Young, The Velvet Underground, Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, Son Volt, Neko Case, Sonic Youth, Pavement, Radiohead, Beck, and Jim O’Rourke. The name Grandfabric comes from the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, a German idealist, and means unity amid seemingly disparate human experiences. Interestingly, the meaning of the name coincides with the musical approach of singer/songwriter Andrew Toy: to blend various influences and musical genres into one unique and unified sound.

Grandfabric began as a college project out of St. Joseph’s University of Philadelphia in 1997 when Toy recruited a four-piece band to bring his musical vision to life. Since that time, the band has undergone various personnel changes. In fact, Toy is currently a solo artist using the name as a singer/songwriter. Grandfabric, however, has consistently produced creatively accessible music in all of its forms. The debut album, OrphanAge, met with acclaim among Philadelphia's critics, compelling Patrick Berkery of Philadelphia Weekly to insist, “Put Grandfabric in the ‘Bands on the Come’ file.” The sophomore effort and new release, a four-song EP entitled Salvation, recalls the creative songwriting of Orphan Age. Yet Salvation is a departure inasmuch as it boasts less feedback and distorted guitar and is stripped down to essentials both lyrically and musically. As Toy states, “With Salvation I wanted to keep the lyrics and music simple and subtle. Whereas Orphan Age exhausted a lot of experimental possibilities, this album was recorded in a more straightforward fashion without dwelling too much on obscure sounds and details.”

A high-school English Teacher with a Masters degree in English Literature, Toy finds a connection between his teaching and the music he writes. “It seems that whatever I happen to be teaching at the time colors my lyrics and music. I remember teaching The Great Gatsby, for instance, and writing two songs, ‘Salvation’ and ‘Tomorrow,’ that explore the same major theme the novel explores: the failure of the American Dream amid a shallowly materialistic culture. I like the fact that literature often serves as my inspiration for writing new material.”

Toy lives in Haddonfield, South Jersey and continues to play venues in New Jersey, Philadelphia, and New York. Over the course of the past four years, Grandfabric has shared the stage with such notables as The Twilight Singers (featuring Greg Dulli), The Judybats, Bobby Bare Jr., Wheat, and Jesse Sykes.

Grandfabric is
Andrew Toy (singer/songwriter, guitar, piano)