Public Domain released the new “#Toyland” single/video today, featuring Ray Angry, Black Thought, Questlove, Marcus King, Pino Palladino, Liv Warfield and the Dap-Kings on horns. 

Public Domain is an ongoing music/art crossover collaboration by Grammy-nominated pianist and producer Ray Angry and multidisciplinary artist and writer Katherine McMahon. Recent single “#AlcoholicBlues” was met with acclaim spanning NPR “New Music Friday”, ARTNET and Under The Radar. The original “Toyland” is a wistful song about childhood and loss of innocence, from the 1903 Christmas-themed operetta. Public Domain’s updated version brings some soul to your holiday playlist while exploring the psychedelic & spiritual realm.

Each Public Domain release navigates themes of intellectual property as a commodity, appropriation, identity, and the illusion of newness. Throughout the project Angry & McMahon expand upon expired copywritten material to sculpt a contemporary narrative about the cyclical nature of history while exploring generational shifts and the notion of ownership. Firmly rooted in the present, Public Domain synthesizes the existential dilemmas from the past, while critiquing the channels that are used to sell narratives & goods today. 

“The song ‘Toyland’ from 1903 was written by Victor Herbert, he composed a bunch of operettas from the late 1800s to World War I. The song Toyland was part of the operetta called Babes in Toyland that he wrote with librettist Glen MacDonough. This original version of Toyland was a saccharine song about a wistfulness for childhood and how once it ends you can never return, so it feels very much like a nostalgic and thematic exploration of loss of innocence. 

The idea for the rewrite was inspired by an acid trip. I was reflecting on psychedelic and spiritual experiences in general as they run parallel to everyday loss of innocence that occurs in adulthood. I saw “Toyland” as this metaphorical space of self exploration and freedom but also a space of deviance and distortion. The idea was to pervert the original meaning to explore our cycles of transgression and redemption that’s both a bleak reminder of our limitations as humans but also a promising sign of life. In some ways this song is a reflection about the incompleteness of adulthood compared to our childhood projections of what it might be, and the temporary catharsis we try to find along the way in a time that often feels cold, technological, and nihilistic. 

I played a recording of the song from 1903 for Ray and then we were listening to a bunch of psychedelic rock from the 60s and 70s- from The Zombies to Moby Grape to Melanie, and he composed the foundation of our version of #Toyland. Coincidentally, Liv Warfield was in town the next week to record another song we were working on titled #NewBornAgain. I told her about the idea for the song and sent her my chorus rewrite. She dug it and recorded vocals on the spot. From there, Ray passed the concept along to Black Thought. He recorded 24 bars in one take speaking directly to but also building upon the existential dilemma at the core of the conceptual rewrite in such a nuanced and poetic way.” Explains Katherine McMahon

“I knew this record had great potential even as a demo so it has been really cool to watch it evolve in real time. The stakes were raised with every layer, sound, musician that Ray decided to add and the result is something brilliantly unique and original” Continues Black Thought:

“Ray Angry – says Questlove –  is one of the most creative fearless composers in the galaxy. Brace yourselves good people this is just getting started.”

“The process it took to create  #Toyland is a dream realized” Ray concludes

“It’s so rewarding to create a piece of art that connects to the past,  while at the same time navigating a better future for creatives.”