Heavy Duty Productions

Toni Toolz is a musician, producer, remixer and DJ of more than 15 years. His passion, technical skill and attention to detail set Toni apart from the ever growing competition. Added to this, his ability to interpret ideas from an artist makes him the ideal producer when collaborating.

Toni was literally born into a musical world; as a baby in the cot, music was always in the background with a radio left permanently on to break the silence...was this the origin of his fundamental connection with music? Throughout his infancy he was musically encouraged by his father, a retired Rock 'n' Roll guitarist and by the age of 8 Toni was already playing drums, learning guitar and piano, and experimenting with other instruments. This naturally led to forming and fronting various bands with schoolmates but when he stumbled upon an early rave mixtape, his musical direction took a radical turn.

He was introduced to the scene by his older peers and in his early teens, Toni was raving to what are now classic anthems, with his ears and eyes opened to a new world. By his mid teens he had taken up the turntables and was playing at various parties leading to clubs and warehouse raves. His musical inspiration and the natural progression led to him experimenting with production. At this time, his musical addiction was multiplied 10 fold by the addition of his first synth; a Casio CZ101 plus a tape deck running through a 2 second sampling digital delay pedal. In his mid teens, he was introduced to the power of audio editing on early PCs and the rest as they say, is history.

Over the years Toni Toolz has collaborated with dozens of artists, producers and writers in the studio leading to various projects throughout his 20s under as many different guises being released on labels such as Edel, EMI, Independiente, Mute, Universal, Virgin and many more. Later, in the early "Naughties" Toni met Stu Bartos through a mutual friend leading to forming their own music production company: Heavy Duty Productions, affiliated with several managers and promoters and working on a vast array of original productions and remixes.

In recent years, he has officially remixed N*E*R*D, Kelis and Moby to name a few, enjoying the massive DJ support including BBC Radio 1 airplay by the likes of Pete Tong and Zane Lowe etc. Productions and remixes include: N*E*R*D, Kelis and Van Hunt (as Mac & Toolz), Moby (as Zloot) Killa Kela, Lifford, Keri Hilson (as Toolz & Bartos) amongst many others. His Kelis "Trick Me" remix was supported first by Pete Tong then Zane Lowe and many BBC Radio 1 DJs, while his re-edit of Moby's "Slipping Away" (featuring Mylene Farmer) found its way to the top spot in the French national charts. In the summer of 2009, his own track entitled "Pin Balls" was heavily promoted by Anna Kiss and once signed to Axis Trax was supported by some all-time heavyweights including MJ Cole, Danny Rampling, Brandon Block and Judge Jules to name a few.

Since then, Toni Toolz and Stu Bartos have joined forces under their new guise of the "Heavy Duty Brothers". Their first release entitled "Bounce" has reached the top spot in various digital download stores and they are following up with an arsenal of confirmed releases on various credible imprints. Their trademark and self-branded "Jump-Up House" sound is hugely supported by DJs, record labels, promoters, industry bods and fans across the globe. They are currently preparing live sets to hit the clubs with and already have festival appearances lined up for 2010, so watch this proverbial space.