During his appearance on The Wikimetal Happy Hour , Val Santos talked about the production process of Toyshop , Party Up (1999), which was named after the former alternative rock band, and how No Doubt influenced the project.
According to Val, the first version of the album was produced by Iggor Cavalera , who at the time played in Sepultura , but Toyshop began to face problems with their record label, Banguela Records , which allegedly "shelved the band." Cavalera then supposedly left a copy of the album at Roadrunner , the label responsible for Sepultura, from whom Toyshop received an offer on January 1, 1996.
The band then traveled to the United States to record a new version of the album with a new producer, and it was suggested that some changes be made to the group's image and work. “We went to do a new recording with another producer, but they didn't want me to sing anymore because they thought [the sound] would be too heavy,” says Val. “[They suggested] just leaving Natacha ( Cersosimo ) to make it a bit more pop, and No Doubt was the big band at the time, so they wanted a sound more or less along those lines.”
The group was then approached by producer Sylvia Massy , who had previously worked with Johnny Cash and System of a Down on their debut album, and the recordings took place at Sound City , which had previously been used by Dio on the recording of Holy Diver (1983), and also by Nirvana . "I even used the things that Kurt Cobain used to record the album," says Val.
Unfortunately, Toyshop's career didn't reach the level the band members expected, which Val Santos attributes to the record label's lack of patience in allowing the band to build a complete career. "They wanted Toyshop to break through quickly, but we needed to take it step by step to become better at speaking English, to play shows… Sepultura adapted, that's why they had such a great career. We didn't," he says. "Years later I accidentally discovered online that they were using new songs in Hollywood movies and the money was going to them, but not to us." Check out the excerpt from the conversation:
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