A diverse assemblage of four creative artists whose ambitious music cross-pollinates bedroom pop, emotional melodies, aggressive rock, and trap, NOT A TOY is both band and collective.
Branson Hoog, Benji Spoliansky, Jeremy Marmor, and TJ Wessel are beatmakers and producers. These four high-school friends cut their teeth skateboarding, breakdancing, and playing punk and emo gigs in Colorado. Art shows, tattoo culture, and streetwear are all part of their creative identity.
What made you want to be a musician?
Branson Hoog:
I actually didn’t want to be a musician, my little brother was taking guitar lessons and was so nervous for his first lesson I went along with him. We did the lesson together, and I became obsessed with it. Classic “played till my fingers bled, got blood splatters on my guitar.”
Benji Spoliansky:
I’ve always been a twitchy, tappy, crazy person. I don’t think it was a surprise to anyone when I said I wanted to play the drums, I’ve always felt a desire to play the drums. Once I was seven years old I took a liking to drums just by listening to classic rock. The only instrument I could ever really hear was the percussion, I just felt it in me.
I don’t think it was until high school when Branson and I were becoming best friends that I made the conscious decision that I was like going to be a fucking rockstar. I’m not going to college. I’m all in. It was about 11th grade, everyone was making decisions about college and Branson said “we were going to be rockstars!”
What accomplishments do you see yourself accomplishing in the next 5 years?
Benji Spoliansky:
International tour for sure! Definitely a headline tour.
Branson Hoog:
Headlining our own tour would be really cool. Not necessarily because we’re headliner, but more because we have enough people fucking with our music that we can then headline. It’s more about us finding our cult fanbase, as well as collaborating. We just this past year started collaborating with some really cool producers and finally met some musicians we look up to.
What is your least favorite part about being an artist/musician?
Benji Spoliansky:
Being fucking broke!
Branson Hoog:
We’re in that transition where we need money to stay alive so we have to still be having our side hustles and day jobs. The band is not going to be successful until we make it a full-time job. We’re in that middle point where we haven’t quite broken over yet. We haven’t made any money for sure, but I feel like we’re doing so many cool things and working with amazing people it’s about to happen!
What strengths do you have that makes you an artist?
Branson Hoog:
Benji is amazing at umbrella producing; he’s the only one who doesn’t make beats on a computer. Benji is the one reeling us in on our wild ideas, he’s got really good taste.
Benji Spoliansky:
I’m just a crazy motherfucker. When it comes to the drums and bringing a certain presence and energy. Sometimes you just need someone to bounce ideas off of!
Branson Hoog:
My value comes more from the creativity side of things. The other two members know theory and they understand music. After I learned those basic chords I never went any further into music theory, but I think I have a good ear for music.
When I make things they don’t end up being the same types of production TJ Wessel or Jeremy Marmor would make. There are rules to the way they make music. I feel like it’s like a super power to not have rules. Sometimes it goes a bit too far, and Benji has to bring us back in. Not having a music background forces you to work with what you have, and you end up finding things that other musicians might not.
And vocals, ever since I started I took hip hop classes when I was a kid, I listened to Missy Elliot. She does so many things with her voice. She’s a wild singer and she has so many weird sounds. Later on in high school I got into The Used and Bert [McCracken] does a lot of bizarre things with his throat as well. Because I couldn’t sing, I tried to get as many different tones as I possibly could.
That’s what’s sweet! Since we all make music it’s literally the combination of all four. I think that’s what, to bring it to a larger scale, is what’s different than most bands. Each song that you hear is written by a different combination of us. It never sounds consistent, in a good way. I love groups like Brockhampton, where there’s twelve members and constantly sounds completely different.
What makes you passionate about music?
Branson Hoog:
I’ve been into art since I was born. Physical art. I was doing drawings and paintings and stuff. I remember when I started playing music it was so much more emotional. It was like a painting can be beautiful, it can make you feel a bunch of different ways. But, a painting has never made me cry. There have been songs that I’ve written that have just hit me in a certain way. It comes to you at the right time in your life.
Music is kinda wild. Pharell said it’s kinda like having a library card; every day you can show up and check out something from the creative universe, and every day it’s going to be something different. It may be a bad thing each day, but whatever you check out — it’s so emotional. Sometimes you grab something and you didn’t know you needed to feel that. I guess what I’m saying is, music is so emotional I wanted to have a piece of that. I cannot imagine my life without music now.
What kind of a sound can we expect to be hearing in upcoming music?
Benji Spoliansky:
Expect the unexpected.
You can stream Not A Toy’s new single “Dementor” below:
