Toni Childs (US)
The unstoppable Toni Childs is back in 2008 with a brand new album Keep The Faith (distributed by Metropolitan Groove Merchants in mid-August) and a mind blowing body care line, Feminine Mysteries.
Best known for her heavily R&B-influenced “Don’t Walk Away”, Toni Childs hit the big time in 1988 when her critically acclaimed debut album Union went Double Platinum in Australia selling 200,000 albums. The same year she was nominated for three Grammys including Best New Artist.
Now exactly two decades later, she is releasing the emotionally hard hitting Keep The Faith; a blend of roots, rock and folk gospel songs that simmer with husky vocals and spine tingling lyrics.
The first single from this fourth studio album is “One Life”, a fresh pop ballad set to unite old fans and magnetise new audiences when it’s released in Australia 5 July. Keep The Faith also contains the powerful, life affirming final track “Because You’re Beautiful” which earned the singer a 2004 Emmy Award for Best Music and Lyrics, when it featured on Until The Violence Stops, a documentary by Eve Ensler.
Presenting a national tour between 18 September - 4 October, Toni Childs will travel the country captivating audiences with her powerful vocals, charismatic live performances and commanding message.
Living on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, Childs has spent the last eight years recovering from the Graves Disease she was diagnosed with in the summer of 1997. Overcoming her battle with this rare stress disorder, Childs is back from her musical exile giving fans so much more than they might ever have expected.
2008 will see Childs debut her album in Australia in conjunction with the launch of Feminine Mysteries – a range of affirmation body care products she has designed to raise the consciousness of women and help heal their collective beauty wound. The Feminine Mysteries range uses ingredients that are 100% natural and, whenever possible, employs crops that are wild-crafted or grown by strictly certified organic methods. The ‘I love My…’ range is committed to producing a quality health and skin care line that is affordable.
With a talent for picking the mood of the times, Childs seems determined to go beyond affirming her role as an important voice of inspiration for an entirely new generation to explore the zeitgeist defining theme of global connection. Both her new projects demonstrate the enormous soul and vision she is famous for.
“The best part of re-emerging from the darkness and learning to embrace music once again, is simply the opportunity to evolve and get down to the core of my purpose,” says Childs. “Looking back, it’s a really wonderful journey – I feel like I’m a phoenix rising, burned down to an ash and then coming through that forest fire healthier and stronger than ever before.”
Divining her new path from the depths of her illness, Childs lays bare her methods of self healing on the new album, hoping her own experience will help heal others. “I’m grateful because with the release of Keep The Faith, everything feels like a second chance for me. I see the ability to write, record and perform as a wonderful privilege.”
“This album is a real departure from my other work in that it is a much more basic and rootsy collection of music. Every song is written on guitar, instead of being driven by drum loops and sequencers like it was when I made my first two records,” she says.
Keep The Faith contains that breathy and throaty voice so distinctive on her blockbuster hits, while her story telling is executed with a cosmic balance of delicacy and power.
“My music and my products have both been transformative for me, and I hope it will be true for the men and women who’ll find themselves drawn to my new offerings; Keep The Faith and the first eight Feminine Mysteries products: I Love My Body® – body lotion and body wash; and I Love My Hair® – shampoo and conditioners.”
Keep The Faith, which is being released in Australia in August before it comes out in Europe and the States in January 2009, encourages people to connect, heal and transform the world through love.
Metropolitan Groove Merchants will release a total of three radio singles in Australia, including the first single, the fresh pop ballad “One Life” co-written with Richard Fammeree. “One Life” is among the compositions Childs has composed since living in Kauai, Hawaii.
Other tracks include the graceful acoustic reflection “Dream That We Dream Of” (developed with long time co-producer David Ricketts), about following the path through the threads of our life towards true love in a complicated world; the tender and wistful piano ballad “When All Is Said And Done”, which she wrote the first week she moved to the island; the joyous acoustic Cajun romp “Mama’s In The Kitchen”, and the explosive and encouraging title track, “Keep The Faith”, written for a close friend who was going through a custody battle.
“His trials made me think of how I cope when my world seems to be coming apart. I know I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but sometimes even the people who love you most don’t know what you need to go through to fly again. What started as a song written for someone I care about became a really important song for myself,” says Childs of the inspiration behind the title track.
Childs wrote five of the tracks on Keep The Faith in the fertile creative period before her diagnosis, when she began discovering the joy of writing songs on an acoustic guitar. The simplified organic approach lends a rich emotional subtlety to the standout track “Heart That Matters” and other pieces from this era include the witty “I Saw God In The Super Market”, the bluesy, hard grooving “I’m Standing Here” and the breathy rock ballad “Blind”.
The rocking, 60’s flavored rave-up “Revolution” reminds longtime fans of the long journey Childs has been on. It is a vintage recording with her band from 1997, a time capsule for the year her world suddenly changed.
With her new body care range and album inextricably linked, the singer says her dream is to see people heal the collective beauty wound and be the empowered evolution of the human race, that’s the real revolution.
“I realised that I had a lot of resistance to loving myself, and I wasn’t alone,” she says.
“Everything just opened up from there. I started truly loving my body and over a period of time, the disease started turning itself around. I had been told I would be on meds for the rest of my life, but by talking to my body and actively loving myself daily, using a salt rub concoction I created in conjunction with a special water meditation, I was finally able to wean off them. This process was gradual over two years, but the end result is that I have not had to take meds since 2001.” |
