Drummer

My projects

In my own projects, all songs are written, performed and produced by myself.

Achille and Lino

single, 2020-2023

Two songs dedicated to my daughters: Elena and Celeste.

I used to sing to Elena while playing with her toys, and soon the tune stuck with one specific plushie, who even had a name: Achille, the bear. I decided to make a song out of the hummed melody, and it was finished just in time for Elena's first birthday. With Celeste, although all this was already intentional, the melody came quite spontaneously when singing to her and playing with Lino, the dachshund.

When I finished Celeste's song, I had these two songs cut on vinyl for our own, so it has literally become a two-sided single, and I must say, it was worth it: They happily dance to the music when it is put on the record player. For this, I have used the vinyl-cutting services of dr. dub in Fieberbrunn, Austria.

Songs:

Elena and Achille

recorded: 8-11 August 2020 in my studio Room6, Vienna; published: 17 October 2023

Celeste and Lino

recorded: 18 June - 21 September 2023 in my studio Room6, Vienna; published: not yet...

Gabor K Toth - Elena and Achille on Youtube

Zápor

EP, 2004

These songs were born from my first ever attempt to experiment with my ideas and create my own music with instruments, rather than just putting samples together in a music maker application. The keyboards were recorded in my bedroom at home in Érd, and the drums in a studio in Budapest in 2004.

By that time, it was a thing, so I decided to put these songs on mini-CD, which I burnt in 4-5 copies at home. Today I have none of them, I have no idea what happened to these discs. I first made the songs publicly available on Soundcloud much later in 2018.

I didn't bother then making any album cover. Now, twenty years later I've got the honor to use my daughter's painting, with her kind consent.

Bands, recording sessions

Where I played the drums, some percussion parts.

Sallang

LP, 2003-2006, and ever since

I just do not have enough space here to write the story of Sallang. Let's face it, that'd become part of Balázs's biography. Do check out the dedicated Sallang website instead, even if there is almost nothing at this moment. (In that website Balázs should write the content and I should do the HTML, so it's just being written and built forever, accurately representing what Sallang is about.)

Anyhow, Péter Erdész, Madár must be mentioned here. He was not only writer of lyrics, but great inspiration for Balázs's music. Also played some instruments and made recordings in pre-Sallang times. But really, that part is for another website.

Között

EP, 2014

I got to know Gábor (for me, he's 'the other Gábor Tóth', and that's a mutual concept) when we played together in Zefír. After he quit Zefír, he began to explore the guitar seriously, and wrote 5 songs. He recorded the guitars and the bass parts and invited me to do the drums. We rehearsed a lot together to put the drum parts together, then went to Jarvi Music studio to record the drums, for me, the second time (first time was with Zefír).

Unfortunately, I could never meet Ákos. He plays that first part in the third song, because I could not finish to record that: I moved to Vienna.

Zefír

concerts 2008-2013, LP recording 2012

Zefír was the most stable band I ever took part in. Also very organised, the rehearsals were greatly effective. Had a plan how it should be done that every member agreed and committed to. It worked. It was good, and it was fun. We experimented with the fusion of progressive-like rock and traditional folk music with Hungarian and neighbouring roots. We knew from the beginning that this style might have a niche market, and chances were that we wouldn't become superstars, but we were okay with that, as the musical journey was interesting and rewarding on its own. Still, we had good concerts, and, thanks to being well organised, our demo recording also came out quite well: We went to Jarvi Music studio and was very pleased with the outcome, thanks to our great engineer Norbert Jung. He even stepped up as a kind of producer for us, his creative suggestions helped shape our music to the better. He's a hell of a guitarist, too.

Check out Zefír's full album playlist on Soundcloud.

Native Fusion

never played live nor released anything, and that all happened in 2010-2012

Great visions, good compositions, exceptionally bad performance (from my side), totally unproductive rehearsals. This band is an important part of my history, because I learnt a lot here: Mostly about my limitations; secondly about how not to organise a band.

This band was meant to play a fusion of drum-and-bass, pop-rock, rap, hip-hop, funk, and a bit of everything, even Deep Purple, and obviously I was not ready for this complex (and fast) task. We could never finish any of our songs during the rehearsals, we always stopped somewhere. Despite that, we tried to make a recording session, in which I failed completely, could not even move past the intro of the first song, just like at the rehearsals. No product here. Not even a photo.

Then we just gave it all up.

Take Your Time

concert 2011

The band was formed by the singer-guitarist, András, who I got to know via my dear cousin, Titi, in Győr.

The only one of my bands, who deliberately wanted to play only covers. At least, that was how we took off. The focus was on rock-blues. I was well aware of the fact that I could not play blues properly, so I saw this as a great opportunity to learn it. At the end, we could make a concert in just a few months after we started rehearsing with a repertoire of about 15 songs. Regrettably, I was not satisfied with my performance in the blues, I had to discontinue this story.

Profundo

concerts 2006-2008, EP (demo) recording 2007

I joined Profundo to replace their leaving drummer, not long after I began attending drum lessons, so it was basically the time I started to become conscious about what I should be doing on the instrument in the band. The first time I kicked the drum properly and started to understand the importance of dynamics. The first time I had to drive a band and full equipment to concert venues, because I had the driving licence and a car. And for that, the first time I had to remain sober until the end of the after parties. The first time when I realised two things: I should have chosen the harmonica instead of drums, and that it was not glamorous to be a rock star at all.

After Profundo went down (not saying, because I quit, but these two events happened roughly at the same time), Ildi continued as solo artist writing and playing her own songs, András and Borsa formed their new band, the Gyík Zenekar, and they have become quite popular in the Hungarian underground scene. They even got endorsed by a fashion company, they had their music video premier in one of the art-cinemas in Budapest followed by their concert. I met them there for the last time. Borsa has also become a producer on his own.

Hattyúk Tava

concerts 1998-1999, EP (demo) recording 1998, live recording (not a concert) 1999

Hattyúk Tava (which translates into Swan Lake) was formed as a high school band by singer-songwriter Janó (nobody called him János, ever). He involved Zoltán Szentpál, the only member in the band, who actually knew how to play his instrument. The bass was played by Tibor, and after our first ludicrous concert my brother Balázs joined the band (though he saw that concert), so his songs started to appear in our repertoire. In 1998, we recorded a demo, which had too much bass according to Zoltán, and too less according to everyone else. Then, who knows if this dispute was the reason, or rather that anyway the recording clearly showed how shit we were, Zoltán left the band. János had already put the guitar down and sang only, so Balázs remained the only guitar player. With this formation, we made a live recording at our home basement in Érd in one night, where we wrote some new songs on-the-go, after which we completely and gloriously dissolved.

János Horváth was the same guy, who later changed his surname to Kardos-Horváth and much later founded the band Kaukázus. He then became quite well-known and popular in Hungary. I was somewhat disappointed he did not invite me as a drummer there (no, I wasn't, just kidding). Lately, his song even contested to make it to the Eurovision. Tibor switched his instrument and later became a drummer (with double pedal) in another band.

My one and only drum teacher

Zsolt Szentmártoni

attended his lessons between 2006 and 2014

Check out his website: Dobmozaik

Zsolt, by the way, was a high-school classmate of my cousin Tamás, but that wasn't the way how I found him, it turned out only later. I found him in Zsolt Korompay's drum school advertisement, and as soon as I could afford it from my own pockets, I started to attend his drum lessons.

Through Zsolt, I got to know drummers Mihály Holecska and László Csiki, with who I shared the rehearsal room in Csepel, at the beginning with Zefír, later only the three of us.

Zsolt was not only a tutor for me, but a mentor, his way of teaching pointed far beyond the instrument. His lessons were about how to approach life, how to appreciate rewards of hard work, how to turn efforts into results, how to remain focused and concentrated even when it feels difficult.

When I left Budapest and moved to Vienna, I had no choice but to quit the band I was in at that time and stop attending Zsolt's lessons. Could not find any other teacher ever since, but must admit, I haven't even tried. To this day, I continue to train myself based on his guidance, and even if I do not have much practice time, with the methods I had learnt from him I am able to reach the goals set on my own. I think this ability is the most valuable one that you can learn from a teacher on the long run.

My favourites