PureVolume

Members: Toni Baldwin

2011 will bring big things for Toni Baldwin. With a voice that's been compared to the likes of Caitlyn Taylor Love, Demi Lovato, Meg & Dia, and Hayley Williams (Paramore), Toni will turns heads with her debut album due out later this year. Growing up in a musical family, it was inevitable that Toni would follow music throughout her life. Toni began writing songs in the 3rd grade. "It's funny, I still have the first song I ever recorded. It's called "April Showers" and I recorded it one day after school. I highly doubt anyone will ever hear it though," Toni says of her first ever song.

Learning to play guitar in just 2 weeks and learning the basics of piano in 3 weeks after writing over 500 songs, singing was unavoidable for Toni who's loved music since she knew what music was. Always loving to write, writing songs for what once was her debut album was easy for Toni. "When I was writing for That's Just Me, it was easy. Just write what was going on in my life. Unfortunately, I was rejected by my classmates. They didn't like the fact that if they did something to me, I was going to write about it. If I liked a person, I wrote about it. They couldn't understand it," says Toni of late 2008 and early 2009 writing sessions. Toni's album was hand-made for anyone who wanted, not selling a single copy or having any promotion. Having barely any support, it didn't keep Toni down. "I thought, you know if this album didn't do well, oh well. I'll make it an acoustic EP instead of my debut album and bring out the big guns!" Which meant studio time, a whole batch of new songs, and nothing but promotion which leads us here. January 2011: recording for her debut album.

The record is currently being recorded by Toni and will be released on her own label, Fine Mess Records in 2011. But this wasn't always the case. "I had no intention of even going back to do an album after everything that people did to me at school, I had hate websites made about me." explains Toni of her journey to come back to music. Instead of quitting she decided she'd give it another go, and started back writing. "I wrote over 200 songs for this album, and I'm still writing to make sure I have music that means something." 11 original songs that display all 15 years of Toni's life. "I felt that it was important that I wrote every single song on the record, it made this record literally my diary. I want to keep my music raw and real but still fun and relatable. I think the artists I look up to and listen to really do that with their music and that's what I want to do too. But in my own way."

With the musical influences of Emily Osment, States, Metric, and Meg & Dia you can only awesome imagine how Toni's debut album will sound. The album will release in 2011 and will finally showcase Toni's talent. "I think I love the artists I do so much is because they write what means to them. They don't just pump out the cookie cutter Top 40 Hits just because that's what their label wants. They always stay true to themselves and that's what I plan on doing," says Toni of her musical influences.

As Toni plans on a debut album for 2011, there are many other things she's hoping to accomplish such as going on a tour to meet her fans, and helping artists out there who want to make it in the music industry. As shown by Taylor Swift, be FEARLESS. Toni is definitely FEARLESS! "I'll know I've made it when I sell out somewhere. Even if it's just like a place that seats 150 people. I'd love to sell out The Wiltern, The Roxy, or any House of Blues. 2011 is definitely the year that I breakout," says Toni. Don't look away, because Toni Baldwin's here to stay.