Elijah Dhavvan, a clinical radiologist by day, writes and records as Tobias the Owl and also serves as guiding force to the collective performing under that name. He wrote the new album as he was recovering from cancer. “When someone tells you you’re going to die, as happened to me, it doesn’t take long to come to terms with that,” Dhavvan says. “In some ways it’s easier to accept death than to pursue an actualized life. Now I struggle with the question, ‘Am I accomplishing everything I am supposed to?’” “We wrote, I think, 170 songs for this album. Yes, 170,” Dhavvan laughs. “Of those, about 60 were fully fleshed out. I sent those 60 to Sheldon and from there, it was narrowed down to 15 or 20, and then we recorded 11 songs. I decided the 11th song should be held back, so we have the final 10 on this album.” The follow-up to 2016’s Every Eye Is a Universe, the new album was recorded throughout 2017 at multiple studios including Los Angeles’ Carriage House. In addition to the special guests, the album features Dhavvan on lead vocals, acoustic guitar, and keyboards, violin/violist Andrew Joslyn (Macklemore, David Bazan), percussionist Scott Seiver (Aimee Mann, Tenacious D), Jonah Tolchin on vocals and guitar, and fast-rising Seattle performer Gabriel Wolfchild on vocals. TTO songs have been featured in television and film and at Starbucks stores worldwide, and in 2014, Dhavvan won a Toronto Independent Music Award for best singer/songwriter in his hometown.