Pablo Clements and James Griffith, meet as members of UNLKE. After working together for many years they decided to forged a new musical partnership, TOYDRUM and are based in their own studio in Brighton, the TOY ROOMS. They produce and compose for an eclectic mix of projects.
Pablo Clements began his musical career with the PSYCHONAUTS while growing up in Yeovil Somerset, amidst a burgeoning breakbeat revival in nearby Bristol. Pablo and his musical partner Paul Mogg spun, scratched and mixed their way on to the decks of the local pirate radio station and were soon running their own club nights, recording music and compiling mix tapes.
Legend has it that one of these tapes was the only earthly possession that their Yeovil pal Tim Goldsworthy (original UNKLE member/co-founder of the MO’WAX record label) had left after he and his luggage had been separated in transit from London to Los Angeles. Attending a party thrown by the Beastie Boys, Goldsworthy played the PSYCHONAUTS tape. Almost instantly, their world went crazy. They were offered four major record deals before they had properly recorded a single piece of music. Deciding to sign with MO’WAX, they took their time settling into their craft and playing spectacular DJ shows with four record decks and a sampler. LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, has cited debut PSYCHONAUTS album “Songs for Creatures” as a major influence on their own work.
Moving to London in 1996, Pablo Clements began to work regularly for MO’WAX as a mixer and multi-instrumentalist. He officially became a member of UNKLE in 2007, co-producing their "War Stories“ (July 2007) album. Alongside bassist and guitarist James Griffith (BIG IN JAPAN & LAKE TROUT) they toured the world, and over the next few years saw a number of UNKLE releases that they were creatively responsible for: ‘More Stories (January 2008), ‘End Titles Stories For Film’ (July 2008), ‘End Titles Redux’ (December 2008) ‘Where Did The Night Fall’ (May 2010) and ‘Where Did The Night Fall Another Night Out (April 2011) featuring collaborations with Ian Astbury, Queen Of The Stone Age, Nick Cave, The Black Angels, Mark Lanagan, Sleepy Sun and many more.
Both Clements and Griffith have extensive musical histories spanning many collaborations and projects, and they continue as a prolific and productive force at the TOYROOMS studio today. As well as writing and releasing their own music they have worked on a variety of projects, Lawless with Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Red Shoes – A short film For Vivienne Westwood, Pieces a film directed by Jack Weatherly, who they have worked with before on a film called The Score for Euro 2012, remixes for the likes of Trentemoller and Noel Gallagher. They remixed Noel’s In The Heat Of The Moment from his album Chasing Yesterday, the remixed was used on Assassin’s Creed Syndicate E3 trailer.
Toydrum released Distant Focus (2014) on their own label Underscore Collective a 6 track mini album it is a progression of the work Pablo and James Griffith created under the UNKLE name. In 2015 they released Evangelist, with the late Gavin Clark. A project very dear to their hearts completing the recored after Gavin's death.
Toydrum scored the film London Fields (Billy Bob Thornton Johnny Depp, Amber Heard and Jim Strugess) and more recently scored the film Detour (Bel Powley, Tye Sheridan, Stephen Moyer).