Toby Driver is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, songwriter, producer, label owner, and artist, best known for his work as the leader of the experimental bands Kayo Dot and Maudlin of the Well.
[1] After playing with a handful of bands in high school, including a Nirvana and Jane's Addiction cover band, and a gothic-progressive-metal band called Celestial Providence, Driver formed Maudlin of the Well with his friends Jason Byron and Greg Massi and recorded a demo entitled Through Languid Veins (1996) He attended Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, where he expanded Maudlin of the Well, and where they recorded their second (Begat of the Haunted Oak... An Acorn), third (Odes to Darksome Spring), and fourth (For My Wife) demos which turned into their debut album My Fruit Psychobells... A Seed Combustible.
In 2009, due to fan requests and contributions, Driver, along with Terran Olson who was also still playing with Kayo Dot, reformed Maudlin of the Well to record the digital album Part the Second, reuniting with guitarists Greg Massi, Josh Seipp-Williams, and drummer Sam Gutterman.
The album contained five newly released songs, some of which were composed—partially at least—in the early days of the band (as far back as 1997), with lyrics co-written by Jason Byron and Toby Driver.
It was named a Tartar Lamb project because the compositional method that Driver invented for Sixty Metonymies was used again for the new work, which was called Polyimage of Known Exits.
The band is fronted by writer, philosopher, Blacklist singer and Azar Swan producer, Joshua Strawn, and also includes guitarist Kevin Hufnagel of Dysrhythmia and Gorguts, and drummer Charlie Schmid.
The band also includes former Time of Orchids and Kayo Dot drummer Kim Abrams, and frequent Driver collaborator Tim Byrnes.
Stern has released three albums as a solo act, and three more with the full band including Driver: Entitlement (2012), Bone Turquoise (2015), and Missive: Sister Ships (2018).