| tobias cross -- the man, the myth, the legend in training. |
[27 Dec 2009|04:24pm] |
Birth Name - Tobias Alexander Ross
Professionally Known As - Tobias/Tobi Cross
Nickname(s) - Tobi, Toby, TC
Age - 27
Date Of Birth - 4/12/1983
Livlihood - Vocals & Lyrics for the band Slow Burn.
Place Of Birth - Albuquerque, New Mexico
Last Residence - Fresno, California
Current Residence - Philadelphia/West Chester, Pennsylvania. Splits his time with PA and LA, CA these days.
Family Life - Father, Kenneth. Mother, Jane. Two younger sisters.
Eye Of The Beholder - Covered in tattoos, hair is always changing, generally keeps himself in great shape, very rockstar casual, so to speak.
- Isn't particular about what people call him, you can call him Tobias, Toby, or 'hey asshole' for all he cares, just as long as it's in good spirit.
- Spent his entire life up until his early 20's in Albuquerque.
- Was a huge band dork in school. He played percussion in his school's band, and was also in chorus until his senior year. It explains how he learned to train his pipes.
- While in high school even in his 'nerdy' stage, he was in bands outside of school. That was his only claim away from being a complete and utter 'tool', as he'd put it.
- Ended up moving to Fresno, California when he was 21 with a couple of his friends. They all had a mutual love for music, wanted to get a band together, and just didn't think they could do it out of Albuquerque. More so? It was just because he wanted out of ALB and wanted to try something new, something exciting, and living out there seemed like the golden ticket, so to speak.
- Worked a lot of odd jobs out in California, ranging from tending bar at various joints, a janitor, hell even a garbage man for a brief period just to make money while working on his music.
- His band Slow Burn formed in 2005. They played a lot of random shows in Southern California, which is where they were discovered. They were signed to a temporary deal by Hopeless Records just to see how they'd fare, but the arrangement was a short term thing that expired before they were able to successfully finish their album. However, in 2006 they garnered attention from Interscope Records after their name had been tossed out by Hopeless Records officials. From the start of their career they had a lot of legal woes with dealing with Hopeless and ultimately ended up scrapping almost an entire album of work just because they couldn't come to an agreement with the former label to release the rights to the material.
- In late 2007, their album Kill The Headlights was released on Interscope. This was the "culmination" of all their hard work, their dramas, and the bullshit they had to deal with due to their former label. Tobias put Hopeless on blast during promotion of their "Kill The Headlights" promotional tour saying, "They really live up to their name, but fuck 'em, Slow Burn is here to stay and if you've got a problem with that you can suck where the sun doesn't shine.". That was where people really got a feel that Tobias Cross (as he was going by) was a mouthy, cocky and somewhat brash mother fucker.
- Through 2008, Slow Burn toured with bands like Death By Design, Deth's Requiem and at the time, up-and-coming band Waking Midnight to name a couple of acts. They've had singles from the KTL album that include "Light It Up", "Hell Yeah", "Far From Over", "Broken Bones" and "Favorite Disease". "Light It Up", "Hell Yeah", and "Far From Over" have all gone to #1 on rock charts, and their album has gone multi-platinum since its release.
- Slow Burn took the last couple of months of 2009 off after touring for 17 months straight. This touring has taken them all over the world. In that few months off, Tobias has re-located to the east coast. He splits his time between Pennsylvania and California. He has an apartment in Philadelphia, and he also has a house in West Chester, where he spends most of his time. His apartment in Philadelphia is mostly for when he's working in the studio, having taken the time to start producing music as well as making music. It's for when he doesn't feel like driving the hour back to West Chester, which is his primary residence.
- Professionally, Tobias cites bands like Primal Scream, Nine Inch Nails, Damien Deth, Metallica and Aerosmith as some of his favorite influences. Personally, his biggest inspiration is his father Ken.
- Tobias is very particular about his appearance. He also has more ink than he can account for adorning his body. He also frequently messes with his hair, it's never really the same ever... just because he likes trying new styles. He frequents the gym to keep himself in great shape, which gives him all the energy he needs to really rock out on stage, which is where he's most comfortable.
- Personality wise? Tobias is a huge goof. He loves joking around, wise cracks, just over all enjoying himself. He doesn't like to take life too seriously and just generally enjoys surrounding himself with good people who think outside of the box, aren't afraid to be an original, and just live life to the fullest extent. He doesn't like people who can't just let loose and have a good time, being way too tightly spun won't get you anywhere with him.
- A lover of contact sports. He loves wrestling, boxing and UFC. He goes to wrestling shows on the regular and Slow Burn has also donated music to WWE (world wrestling entertainment) for use ("Hell Yeah" and "Light It Up" have been pay-per-view themes, One Night Stand 2008 and Wrestlemania 24 respectively for the company) because of their love for wrestling. Former WWE Diva Ashley Massaro is also featured in their music video "Hell Yeah".
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