■ATION
THE BATTALION
7B
Thursday, April 15,2004
Breaking into the ‘biz’
ebut CD is gaining singer Toby Lightman notice
By Tom Moon
KRT CAMPUS
I NEW YORK — In between
rounds of stripes and solids at a
toiy Chelsea billiard hall, the
di ninutiye singer and songwriter
Toby Lightman is almost giddy
as she runs through the shocks
she’s experienced recently.
'I Just that morning, Lightman
heard herself on the radio for the
first time. Her manager called in
Ifenzy to tell her that contem-
Jrary-hits Z100 was spinning
evils and Angels,” the first
gle from her just-released
but CD, “Little Things.”
“I’m like all excited, and I hear
■and it was soil of weird,” says
ghtman, 25, now on the first
ind of performances to help
amote “Little Things” (Lava, 3
s out of four). ”1 don’t know
|mt 1 thought I’d feel at that
ament, but it wasn’t what I felt,
jaybe I was in shock.”
Then there was the time, a
few weeks ago, when she was
oi the phone with a friend while
I TV's “Cribs” played in the
lickground.
I “It’s not my favorite show, it
las just on,” she seems com
pelled to say as she connects on
Itricky bank shot. Lightman is
•mething of a pool fiend: She
jlliis her own cue, emblazoned
lith the logo of her alma mater,
|tho University of Wisconsin.
“All of the sudden I hear the
arin the beginning of ‘Devils
id Angels’ and I’m like, whoa,
reaming into the phone. It was
ly 10 seconds, but that made it
[most more trippy, because it
[as so random.”
In the last few months, the per-
irmer’s defining musical idea —
immed acoustic guitars and
sygoing pop hooks supported
crisply programmed, urban-
ing beats — has begun to
ichant music-industry tastemak-
The strident, slyly philosoph-
;al relationship song “Devils and
gels’’ is gaining steam on radio
dhas been featured on MTV’s
r ou Hear It First” and the all-
deo M2 channel. In an indica-
inthat early interest is spreading
the general public, a few weeks
o the song was one of the top
e downloads on Apple’s iTunes
Ite. Last week, Billboard maga-
I ne declared her a “rising star.”
I Lightman, who grew up in
lie New Jersey suburbs of
Piiladelphia, is trying to keep a
Stewart’s lawyers
kccuse juror of lying
[NEW YORK (AP) - Pressing
gain for a new trial, Martha
Itewart's lawyers said Wednesday
pey have uncovered more lies and
nissions by one of the jurors who
onvicted her last month.
[According to the papers filed in
pderal court, the former president
a Little League organization
llaimed juror Chappell Hartridge
iiadtold him he embezzled money
rom the group to support a
locaine habit.
jThe documents said Hartridge
lid not disclose the allegations on
uifc
S3U^
sed
wntSul
te
noth:
lid
new
level head. “From living in New
York for the last four years, I’ve
learned that everything can
change very quickly.”
Lightman credits Peter Zizzo,
the songwriter and producer who
has collaborated with Avril
Lavigne and Vanessa Carlton,
with helping her nail down what
started as an elusive sound.
“I like soulful rock, like the
Black Crowes, but I also like clas
sic pop songs,” Lightman
explains, adding that with the
exception of Suzuki violin lessons
when she was 6, her parents never
pushed her in any particular musi
cal direction. “I had these songs
that weren’t really pop or urban,
and some people I met with had
very strong ideas about which
way I should go. Peter just got it:
He let the elements coexist.”
Zizzo says that was easy.
“Her guitar is very aggressive
and rhythmic, and at the same
time she’s coming from a very
urban place as a vocalist.
There’s some Lauryn Hill in
what she does. It was my job to
bring those things out in their
purest form.”
Music wasn’t a huge part of
Lightman’s childhood. She did
n’t have stage parents: Her
father runs an environmental
company, and her mother is a
regional greeting-card represen
tative. And though everyone rec
ognized that she could sing, it
was mostly an after-school-
activities thing.
“People keep wanting me to
say I knew I was going to be
famous when I grew up ... but
that’s not true. I wasn’t that kind
of kid,” she says.
Lightman wasn’t a sullen jour
nal-scribbling kid, either. Though
she had a band with several
friends from high school, she did
n't start writing songs in earnest
until college, where she studied
communications. Looking back,
she says she didn't have a sense
of herself as a perfonner until
after junior year, when she took a
job singing in an in-demand band
in Bangkok, Thailand.
“My parents weren’t exactly
thrilled, but that experience gave
me confidence. And it was after
that when I started to really
write songs.”
During a summer internship
with Electric Factory Concerts
in Philadelphia, Lightman began
to develop a network of con
tacts. She met Wyclef Jean’s
brother, who encouraged her to
Jonathan Wilson • KRT CAMPUS
Singer and songwriter Toby Lightman hangs out at a pool hall in New
York City on March 17, 2004.
get a demo tape together. She
crossed paths with other produc
ers who helped her record her
song “Voices.”
Eventually, she moved to
New York to begin the long
process of breaking in.
Lightman did everything from
bartending to open-mike song
writer things at the Bitter End,
and despite initial nervousness,
she sent her tape, photo and
resume to industry executives.
That led to a manager, and then
to Zizzo.
Once they had brought a few
songs, including “Devils and
Angels,” “Leave It Inside,” and
“The River,” to a fairly polished
state, Zizzo persuaded Karp and
Lava president Jason Flom to
check Lightman out.
It wasn’t exactly a traditional
showcase, Zizzo recalls: “It’s
the middle of the afternoon, and
they show up in softball uni
forms on the way to a game. She
NEWS IN BRIEF
his jury questionnaire.
Late last month, Stewart’s
lawyers said that Hartridge had
lied in failing to disclose a 1997
arrest on charges of assaulting a
woman he had been living with.
The defense has argued that it
would have moved to have
Hartridge stricken from the jury
had they known about any of these
facts from his past.
The papers filed Wednesday
asked U.S. District Judge Miriam
Goldman Cedarbaum, who over
saw the homemaking authority's
trial earlier this year, to grant a
second trial or at least a hearing
on the Hartridge matter.
Student charged with
faking her abduction
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A college
student accused of faking her own
kidnapping last month was
charged Wednesday with lying to
police in what they suggested was
a desperate attempt to get her
boyfriend’s attention.
Audrey Seiler, a 20-year-old sopho
more at the University of Wisconsin,
was charged with two misdemeanor
counts of obstructing officers. Each
charge carries up to nine months in
jail and a $10,000 fine.
Seiler disappeared from her off-
campus apartment March 27 with-
sings, and they’re blown away,
talking a deal right away. I real
ly had to convince her that Lava
was legit.”
“I’d been told to expect bid
ding wars and stuff, and here
were these average guys,”
Lightman says. “But as we
talked I could tell they were
totally into what I was trying to
do, and that they weren’t going
to try and make me into another
Mary J. Blige or something.”
And that, she says, matters
more to her than massive sales.
“I’m one of those people who
don’t think ‘pop’ is a bad word.
But I’m talking about pop on my
terms, what’s in my head as a
singer and a songwriter, not the
cardboard-cutout kind of pop
that’s going on now. 1 have to do
this and really follow it through,
because I’ll always wonder what
could have happened if. I want
to know (that) at least I followed
my instincts.”
out her coat or purse. She was
discovered curled in a fetal posi
tion in a marsh four days later, and
told police that a man had abduct
ed her at knifepoint.
But police concluded Seiler made
up the story after obtaining a store
videotape that showed her buying
the knife, duct tape, rope and cold
medicine she claimed her abductor
used to restrain her. Seiler con
fessed after she was confronted with
the tape, according to authorities.
“I set up everything. I’m just so
messed up. I'm sorry,” they quot
ed her as saying. But she later
recanted the statement, insisting
she had been abducted.
Saturday, April 17
10 - 4
ITEI3
Realty & Investment Company
260-1200
Stop by 71 7 B University Drive (by Taco Bell)
Visit with our FREE LOCATORS, view our
properties with your PARENTS, and secure
your "New Pad" for May or August!
■L Register to win a JM)
MP3 Player
(Need not be present to win)
Be
For annual checkups, birth control,
emergency contraception, pregnancy
testing. Rapid HIV tests and testing &
treatment for sexually transmitted infections.
4112 E. 29th, Bryan, TX 77802
1.800.230.PLAN www.pphouston.org
Planned Parenthood'
of Houston and Southeast Texas, inc.
I®
College Main Apartments
4302 College Main
www.collegemainapartments.com
Spacious 1 & 2 Bedroom Apartments
Call us about our
GREAT MoveTn Specials!*
5 Blocks from TAMU
3 Laundry Facilities
Swimming Pool
Spacious Rooms & Large Closets
Basketball Court
24 Hr. Emergency Maintenance
Walk or Bike to the TAMU Campus!
(979) 846-2089
* Specials offered for a limited time.
Aggieland’s Contact Lens Headquarters
Drs. Matt and Mindi Greene ( 94
Therapeutic Optometrists
Spring Student: Special I
$ 1 O ofT 1st 2 boxes of contacts*
OR
$SO oFF 1st 2 boxes of specialty lenses*
* With contact lens exam
Now with TWO convenient locations:
Bryan College Station
1121 Briarcrest 404 University Dr
(979) 731-1691 (979) 693-3177
*Ask about our FREE LASIK Consultations!*
*ALL TAMU PLANS ACCEPTED*
“Do you have GREENE EYES?”
)5.C0' 1
n
Look what's hatching...
parents
10% - 6§% of f
stzotr C: wz i d e:
Saturday: 10am - 5pm 8C Sunday: 11am - 4pm
THE GREEK BOUTIQUE
On Harvey RcL In the Post Oak Village Shopping Center
STERLING
UNIVERSITY
VILLAGE APARTMENTS
FREE Tanning
FREE Ethernet
FREE Washer/Dryer
FREE Fitness Center
696-5711
117 Holleman Drive West
www.sterlinghousing.com
An SUH Community
SUM is a Trademark of SUH Inc.
Is)
EOUAl HOUSING
OPPORTUNITY