On The Verge

Toll Carom

Washington, D.C.
Dying Is an Art
www.myspace.com/tollcarom

“I was creatively dead but trying to be happy otherwise,” says C.A. Suleiman, the innovative force behind Washington, D.C.-based trio Toll Caron. The stories that inspired the songs on the group’s debut album Night in the Sun are truly heart-wrenching fodder—a dear friend’s suicide, the end of an intense romantic relationship. But rather than wallow in despair, Suleiman used the musical chops that he’d honed since childhood when he studied music theory and performed with baroque quartets at venues including The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Following the confessional musical path of Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain, Suleiman reconciled his feelings through music. “Dying is an Art,” the first track on the album, is not just an indie rock song with lush Middle Eastern influences, but reflects Suleiman’s feelings about his friend’s death. “When he died I took it rough,” says Suleiman. “But it also actually helped me find my own voice. I’m pretty proud to tell everyone that I did take something valuable away from that experience and at the same time was able to let him go.”