IndiePulse Reviews: Feels So Good by Xavier Toscano
FEELS SO GOOD – THE BUOYANT, HIGH ENERGY DEBUT BY BAY AREA URBAN DANCE/POP/EDM SENSATION XAVIER TOSCANO
Feels So Good, the newest album by Xavier Toscano is a bright and uplifting release for the upcoming Summer Season, it hit the streets this past April to the Club / Dance music scene and there’s just no stopping it. From the start, Feels So Good gets you moving inside and out, with it’s high energy grooves and pop rhythms, Xavier Toscano has created tracks that are easy to love and impossible to ignore.
But, there is more to this album, and artist, than meets the eyes and ears, in addition to heart pounding dance tracks, there are songs with deep and emotionally driving messages as well, such is the track “Apologies Wasted” and a street-wise romantically alluring song “Nas-T-Nize”, as well as songs for every heart to love.
Leading up to the official release of Feels So Good, many of its tracks have received wide media exposure through a variety of outlets. Five tracks, including “Never Wanna Leave,” “Apologies Wasted,” “The Remedy (Feel Alright)” and “Runaway” were featured on “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” (who, love ‘em or loathe ‘em, do set the standards for what’s cool in pop culture). Xavier’s video for “Runaway” has also been featured at Foot Locker stores nationwide, and his past and present music has been featured on commercials for everything from Red Bull, Pop Chips and Supercuts to Versace. Three tracks from Feels So Good were also featured on the PBS show “Roadtrip Nation.”
Feels So Good by Xavier Toscano is a real break out and break free album for 2018 and beyond he is an artist upward bound to break the mold of Modern Dance and EDM soundscapes.
When Xavier Toscano arrived at indie producer Gawain Matthews’ Bay Area studio to start working on initial tracks for his debut full length album, he was singing the phrases that set the uplifting tone of the project and ultimately became its title: “Never gonna stop ‘cause it feels so good, and it feels so good and I’m never gonna stop…” Set to an infectious pop/EDM groove, that mantra is perfect 48 second intro for Feels So Good, a freewheeling, high energy showcase for the multi-talented dancer, singer, songwriter and performer’s vibe that fuses electronic dance-urban pop with elements of rap, rock, reggae and R&B.
After his debut single “Tonight Tonight” broke through on MTV’s Logo Channel, Xavier has upped his game big time, working with top Bay Area producers like Matthews and Jonathan Crawford and legendary producer/re-mixer Leo Frappier (Rihanna, Mary J. Blige, Nelly Furtado, Sylvester) and developing a powerful sonic vision driven by love for pop music, his enthusiasm as a stage performer and innate optimism as a person.
Xavier Toscano believes that pop music is the soundtrack to our lives. It etches powerful memories in our minds. When you hear a song from your past, it immediately takes you back. Faded, sepia-toned memories rush in with a colorful pop. When you hear a great pop song on that road trip or at that school dance or that time just hanging with friends, you know it’s going to be a memory that lasts forever. That is why Xavier loves pop music so much. That is the power he hopes to infuse into his songs.
Xavier has performed across the United States and Europe, and continues to entertain locally. Wherever Xavier performs, he is always praised for having a “ton of energy.” Combine that with his strong stage presence, and you have well rounded entertainer who puts on electric and engaging show. All of this exposure ties in perfectly with Xavier’s long-held belief that pop music is the soundtrack of our lives that etches powerful memories in our minds. He’s well on his way to taking things further with explosive, dance floor ready tracks like “Never Wanna Leave,” whose “wo wo wo” hook has been a sure-fire audience participation favorite, and “Runaway,” which celebrates youthful joy and freedom.
The singer explores the more heartfelt side of his songwriting on “Apologies Wasted,” a very personal, mid-tempo gem trying to understand why the one he loves is treating him so badly; and the beautiful piano ballad “Castles in the Sky,” a wistful reflection on the innocence of first love. Another highlight is a hypnotic, percussive re-imagining of Sylvester’s “You Make Me Feel Mighty Real,” produced by Frappier, who worked with the late disco legend back in the day.
“These songs are unapologetically pop, and the whole idea from the start was to create a feel good experience for my listeners, which I think, is reflected in the first four tunes,” says Xavier, who has opened for major international recording artists and performed at the Disneyland Hotel, London’s Trafalgar Square and in front of the U.S. Capitol Building. “But as my collaborators and I continued to write and produce more songs, I added other themes like heartbreak and love-loss to balance those out. Since I wrote all the lyrics and melodies, I feel they’re a clear reflection of where I’m coming from personally and as an artist. I couldn’t be more excited about the production. When these guys were building and structuring the tracks, they were cleaning up and equalizing the stems of the songs as we went along. So when the basic tracking was done, the mastering process was a breeze.” Xavier has a strong acting resume as well. In addition to local theater and film projects, he has recorded national commercials for Nextel, NASCAR, Sony PlayStation, and more.
Visit Xavier Toscano’s webpage http://www.xaviertoscano.com and follow him online.
http://www.instagram.com/XToscano
http://www.facebook.com/Official.Xavier.Toscano
http://www.youtube.com/user/XavierToscanoVEVO
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