“You Better Be Ready for Some Toads”: In Conversation with Toad Ready

Interview and photos by Abigail Tulenko.

Photographer and fellow Bostonian Abigail Tulenko caught up with Toad Ready to talk about their debut singles, upcoming EP, and all things amphibian.  Photos from series shot behind the scenes of music video for “Varsity Blues.” 

ABIGAIL: Hey guys! First things first, how did Toad Ready come together? 

Toad Ready started to come together when Yousuf moved to Somerville. We all live right down the street from each other, and Yaseen and Ryan had already been jamming with another friend of theirs. They had been playing a lot of covers together, and had just been realizing writing our own songs would be our best bet when our friend moved away. [Sidenote from Ryan: this is also the plot of the movie Sing Street]. At that point, Ryan switched from guitar to bass and Yaseen started to focus more on songwriting. Yousuf brought his keys and music know-how to the picture, we started jamming together, and that’s kind of the first step to where we are now.

ABIGAIL: I have to ask about the name. What’s the inspiration behind that?

The name Toad Ready is inspired by a bar with live music in Cambridge called Toad. The first time that we jammed and we really found our groove, we stopped and kind of looked at each other and Yousuf said “that’s Toad ready,” as in, that’s a song we could play at Toad. 

ABIGAIL: So, I know Yaseen and Yousuf are brothers. What’s it like working with family, and how has that influenced your process?

[Yaseen] Honestly, it is a blast just doing anything as brothers. Even though we have different creative tendencies (Yousuf toward jazz and grooves, and myself toward grunge), when we jam our shared nostalgia for the music we grew up on really comes out. That’s that touch of Simon and Garfunkel, the touch of Qawwali [traditional Sufi mystical music from South Asia], the touch of pop punk, of Green Day, of Weezer. One of the first songs we played together as kids was “In Spite of All the Danger,” which was recorded by The Beatles before they even went by that name. Those kinds of roots are definitely still in our musical DNA, and working together as brothers really brings those shared influences to the foreground. Our little brother Yousha also filmed and edited the music video for “Varsity blues,” which added to the fun. 

[Yousuf] Yeah, it’s been awesome making music as brothers. Having that depth of shared experience is so useful when we often bring different vibes to the table. Sometimes Yaseen will ask for a taste of “Time to say goodbye” or “Pink + White” as shorthand for a certain melodic vocabulary. And sometimes I’ll pick up on what he may be drawing inspiration from, or vice versa, and meet that energy.

ABIGAIL: And Yaseen and Ryan met while students at Harvard Divinity School. How did that experience influence your songwriting?

[RJ] I think, for me, just being really good friends for those 3 years of school has influenced my songwriting more than anything. Before this, I didn’t have any experience writing music, and producing art and sharing it was not something I was comfortable with. I needed to be working with someone I really trusted to be able to play around enough to come up with bass and vocal parts I was excited by, instead of always playing it safe and being scared to experiment.

[Yaseen] Definitely, I think there’s a sense of security to get weird that comes from becoming close friends in such a unique time and place. I’d also say many of the concepts that influence me lyrically come out of things I encountered at the divinity school– “Animals and the Unseen” [Toad Ready’s first single] was the name of one of my favorite classes there, and the lyrics recount experiences that had me thinking about Sufi and other mystical ideas around animals, jinn, and all that.

ABIGAIL: What are your backgrounds in music prior to this? 

[RJ] I did Kindermusik as a young kid until I aged out, I also played some violin and piano but never stuck with it. I’ve always liked singing in Church as well. In 2020, my partner showed me how to play some chords on guitar, and I’ve been learning mostly on Youtube ever since. I switched to playing bass exclusively about a year ago and that’s made so much more innate sense to me. 

[Yaseen] Yea, I did choir in school and had some piano lessons when we were kids but I’ve mostly been learning guitar from the internet since middle school.

[Yousuf] I’ve been playing piano since I was young, and around middle school I started learning Beatles tunes which really gave me the fundamentals. I studied music as an undergrad at UC Berkeley, where I started playing jazz and soul-adjacent pop with MintJulep (second album forthcoming!). You can also hear MJ drummer Matt Fyke on all our stuff—he’s been tracking with us from his place in Santa Monica.

ABIGAIL: Congrats on the single releases! You’ve been recording the EP by yourselves from start to finish in your Somerville apartment. What’s this process been like?

Pretty much all of the album has been recorded using a Yeti Blue microphone, a hand-me-down audio interface with direct input, and a midi keyboard. Yaseen found a busted electric guitar on the street that also really set a tone. Even though we live so close together, we often record separately and send the files back and forth incessantly. When we get a demo to a point we like, we send it off to Matt in California, who replaces our midi drum reference track with some seriously powerful actual drums. Those drums inspire us to kick things into the next level with the song, at which point we pay closer attention to dynamics and fine tune. At least for Ryan and Yaseen, most of what we know about recording and producing has come from doing this record, and it’s so wild to think how much easier things feel even now than they did a few months ago. 

ABIGAIL: Both of the singles you’ve released display this really unique blend of genres and styles. What are the main influences for your sound?

[Yaseen] I think we bring together some pretty disparate influences; all this year, I’ve just wanted to write music like Black Country, New Road does– maximalist and creative but still emotive and relatable. But I think I’ve landed somewhere more in the singer-songwriter genre, then Ryan’s active bass and Yousuf’s keys pull me more toward a New Order, Jesus and Mary Chain type vibe. 

[RJ] Overall, The Drums are probably my biggest influence. I just love the way they bring so many seemingly simple parts together to make an infinitely replayable pop song. If I’m being completely honest, Mark from Talking Bass is probably my biggest concrete influence because his Chord Tone Essentials class is where most of my background knowledge for constructing a bassline comes from. 

[Yousuf] Having played in more a jazz/RNB context, it’s been an interesting challenge to figure out how keys and synth fit into our more rock-adjacent stuff. In fact, we’re putting the finishing touches on some new material where you’ll definitely hear Radiohead, Alex G, The Garden, and even Sugar Ray, but I think we’re also crafting our own unique sound.

ABIGAIL: One of the things that really stuck out to me in your first single was the breakdown at the end. Could you talk more about the breakdown at the end of Animals (and the unseen)? Where are the audio clips you sampled sourced from? 

[Yaseen] Well the original outro just had that riff on a loop with varying intensity, but when I was making a music video with a demo of the track, the sound of Ryan playing with his dog Buddy, saying “I’m a doggggg,” was too good to mute. From there, I realized the recording of an inflatable guy waving in the wind had audio from a khutbah, a sermon for Muslim Friday prayer, in the background. I liked the way he talked so I left that in the video as well. There’s also a brief sample from Nathan For You, the dog heaven bit where the dog says “So sorry I died”-- I just thought there’s something so silly but also really real and relevant to the song there. 

ABIGAIL: I was also really struck by the collaged album art. Could you tell me more about it?

We can see how it has been unsettling to some: it’s a lot of toads. I guess if you’re gonna be listening to Toad Ready, you better be ready for some toads. 

ABIGAIL: Fair enough. So, what’s next for Toad Ready?

Right now we’re putting together our first-ever EP, which will be out this fall! Then we’ll be taking a few months break to let things marinate, but we’ve got loose plans for some shows and to explore new ideas and directions, and maybe revisit some of the demos that didn’t make it onto the EP. 

You can find Toad Ready at their instagram or streaming here. The music video for “Varsity Blues” by Yousha Hashmi is now live on YouTube.

Abigail Tulenko is a Boston-based photographer and writer. More of her work can be found at her website: abigailtulenko.com.