walking upstream…
Tones and I
sourcesRolling Stone — Tones and I · Billboard — Macklemore Returns With New Tones And I Collab 'Chant' · The Music Network — the story of how Tones and I went from busking to the top of the charts (RC300 loop pedal quote) · Wikipedia — Tones and I (biography, career facts) · Wikipedia — Johnny Run Away (song subject matter)
Toni Watson, who performs as Tones and I, is a singer-songwriter from Mount Martha, Victoria, who spent years busking up Australia's east coast with a synthesizer, a loop pedal bought with a retail redundancy payout, and a setlist mostly built from covers because she didn't yet have enough original songs to fill one. Her 2019 single 'Dance Monkey' — a raspy, hook-driven earworm built from the same layered-looping habit — became a generational global hit, topping charts in more than 30 countries and turning a street performer into one of the best-selling artists of her year. She's kept making genre-roaming pop across the EP 'The Kids Are Coming' and the albums 'Welcome to the Madhouse' and beyond, still centering her raw, elastic voice over spare, repeating hooks.
the sound in question
2019
Dance MonkeyTones and I
walk the tributaries ↓
Macklemore2010s · Pop rap / Alternative hip hop / Hip hop
Watson has said Macklemore's music defined her teenage years and shaped what she thinks a song should do: 'With Macklemore, it was really more about lyrics and feeling, and it always has been with me,' praising him as a 'lyricist, songwriter and artist' for how well his concept-driven songs 'relate emotions.' That direct, plainspoken storytelling model shows up across her own catalog of issue-driven songs about bullying, addiction and rejection — and the admiration went both ways, with the pair recording the 2022 single 'Chant' together.
listen: upstream & heresource: The Line of Best Fit — As Tones and I, Toni Watson is just getting started (Christina Aguilera and Macklemore quotes) ↗
2012
Same LoveMacklemore
2019
Johnny Run AwayTones and I
listen forPlay Macklemore & Ryan Lewis's 'Same Love' — a plainspoken, first-person story built around a single social issue — against Tones and I's 'Johnny Run Away,' her own song about a friend rejected by his father after coming out. Listen for the same choice: a specific, unglamorous story told straight, with the emotional weight carried by direct language rather than metaphor.
Chet Faker2010s · Neo-soul / Electronic / Downtempo
Watson busked with an RC300 loop pedal bought with retail redundancy money, before she had enough original songs to fill a set, leaning on covers — among them a live rendition of Flume & Chet Faker's 'Drop the Game.' That same layered, one-musician, loop-built method — a single vocal hook and a spare keyboard figure, stacked and repeated until it becomes the whole track — is exactly how 'Dance Monkey' is constructed.
listen: upstream & heresource: YouTube — Tones and I performs 'Drop The Game' (Flume & Chet Faker cover), live at SiriusXM ↗
2013
Drop the GameChet Faker
2019
Dance MonkeyTones and I
listen forPlay Flume & Chet Faker's 'Drop the Game' — a hushed, looping electric-piano figure built up in layers under Chet Faker's falsetto — then Tones and I's 'Dance Monkey.' Listen for the shared construction: one small, repeating keyboard hook doing the work a full band normally would, with the vocal hook stacked directly on top.
Christina Aguilera2000s · Pop / R&B / Soul
Watson has said Aguilera was her favorite artist growing up and the singer she 'gravitated towards' specifically for her emotional, dynamic delivery: 'Christina Aguilera, she honestly is such an emotional singer.' That model — a voice that holds back and then detonates — is audible in the way Tones and I pushes her own raspy alto from a near-whisper into a full belt within a single song.
listen: upstream & heresource: The Line of Best Fit — As Tones and I, Toni Watson is just getting started (Christina Aguilera and Macklemore quotes) ↗
2002
BeautifulChristina Aguilera
2019
Never Seen the RainTones and I
listen forCue up Aguilera's 'Beautiful,' the way she holds the verses close before the bridge cracks open into a gospel-scaled belt, then play Tones and I's 'Never Seen the Rain.' Listen for the same architecture: a plain, close-mic'd verse that keeps climbing until the chorus lets the voice go fully loose.