Indie-rock duo Toy City released their self-titled album due to the pandemic, which brought film production in L.A. and the art scene in New York to a screeching halt. Filmmaker Paul Burke and sculptor Steve Shaheen, who met while playing in the Boston alt-rock scene of the ’90s, needed something creative to do. So, they went back to songwriting. While creating the album, the pair worked remotely. Working out of a basement studio in San Francisco, Burke would pen the songs and lay down guitars, vocals, drums, and piano. Those tracks were then shared with Shaheen in Brooklyn, who composed a myriad of bass and midi tracks to mould the lush and strange sonic landscape that defines the Self-Titled record’s sound. The unsung hero of this narrative is John Russell, a talented multi-instrum...