TobyMac thanked the team around him including management, record company personnel, his band and his wife of 14 years, Amanda, saying, “all of this is impossible without you.”
Peter York, President of EMI CMG Label Group, was at the ceremony. He was quoted as saying, “Working with TobyMac is always an incredible pleasure for all of us at Forefront Records/EMI CMG. He consistently delivers culturally relevant songs that challenge us with compelling lyrics and haunt us with contagious musical hooks. Like his previous gold selling records, TobyMac’s new project “Portable Sounds” has all of those same elements only I believe it is destined for even greater success. We look forward to introducing this record to the public and feel honored to work with an artist of Toby’s caliber.”
TobyMac uses his music to do more than entertain ... he uses it to speak to people. And speak he does ... Christianity Today has called him “one of the fifty most influential evangelical leaders in America” for good reason. His music really reaches people, pushing past the usual and customary age, racial and socio-economic boundaries that bind so many artists. The numbers don't lie and with two gold albums, six number one singles, two Grammy® nominations and widespread critical acclaim (just as a solo artist), it's easy to see that Toby's music and his message are getting out there.
Portable Sounds promises to be another important chapter in Toby's life. The lyrics to the new songs come from real life, which means real issues and real struggles. "As I approached this project,” he explained, “the main pressure I put on myself was a commitment to make a record that was true to what God is breathing through my life. What’s going on? Am I struggling with my human relationships? Are my friends struggling with me? What’s going on socially? Where are the conflicts? Where are the struggles? Where are we overcoming? Where are we getting the victories? That’s what I like my writing to be about. I wanted to write a few songs that would be like prayers,” he added. “There have been a few prayers that I have been very consistent with over the years; like ‘Help me to remember what this is all about.’ I really believe that this record can touch peoples lives ... not because of me, but because God is breathing through me on this project – that was my prayer every day in the studio.”
