Toto XIV was a surprise - Paich

Toto’s David Paich has revealed the band didn’t expect to record their latest album – until they discovered they owed their label one.

They release Toto XIV on March 23 (Monday) via Frontiers Records, ahead of their return to the UK in May.

Paich tells Songfacts: “In 2006, when Falling In Between was released, we thought that might actually be our last album.

“To our pleasant surprise we still owed our record company one more. You don’t know until you actually check.”

The next problem was to decide its content. “You go, ’Do we just put together a lot of odds and ends that we haven’t already recorded?’” says the keyboardist and vocalist.

“We started pulling out our little pieces and everything – and realised that we wanted to get in and write an organic, homegrown Toto record from scratch and really make it count. That’s exactly what we did.”

Paich believes XIV has similarities to their first, fourth and seventh albums because it features the “old gang from the neighbourhood” – Steve Lukather, Steve Porcaro, David Hungate and Joseph Williams.

He adds: “It was really a tribute to our band, that’s been together that long, to come together and put out such a cool album.”

Bassist Mike Porcaro, who was forced to retire in 2007 as a result of illness, died earlier this week at the age of 59.

Toto tour dates

May 21: Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

May 23: Dublin Vicar Street

May 25: Manchester O2 Apollo

May 26: London Eventim Apollo

Not only is one-time online news editor Martin an established rock journalist and drummer, but he’s also penned several books on music history, including SAHB Story: The Tale of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, a band he once managed, and the best-selling Apollo Memories about the history of the legendary and infamous Glasgow Apollo. Martin has written for Classic Rock and Prog and at one time had written more articles for Louder than anyone else (we think he's second now). He’s appeared on TV and when not delving intro all things music, can be found travelling along the UK’s vast canal network.