Toby Rand became a household name in the summer of 2006 when he appeared on the CBS reality show Rockstar Supernova, but his singing career began long before that in his home town of Melbourne, Australia.

His mother hails from North Wales and is a musician. Toby's dad was born in England and grew up in Portsmouth. He is a passionate soccer fan and well reknowned scientist. His dad's greatest claim to fame, amongst other things, was booking Cream (Eric Clapton) to play at his University dance (rock on).

Toby was born December 21, 1977 in Melbourne, Australia - is the youngest of three brothers. His two older brothers, Simon and Tim, played in a well known local band and gave Toby the inspiration to become a musician. Simon and Tim both still play music. A well-filtered blend of rock n roll entered the house. Toby grew up listening to U2, Hendrix, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Gun N Roses, Stone Temple Pilots, & Faith No More, to name a few.

Australian bands were forced fed to him (we reckon you should check them out!) like Paul Kelly, Died Pretty, Rose Tattoo, Divinyls, INXS, Midnight Oil, Radio Birdman, and AC/DC and The Angels. It was quite ironic to hear Toby sing "Burning Down the House" on CBS's Rockstar Supernova because there was definitely a Talking Heads period in the Rand household.

Toby went to school in Mentone and fully completed his studies. Its funny to read that he dropped out. His dad would have killed him if he did! When Toby finished school, his brothers were playing in various bands and Toby decided to form his first band with his mate, Nathan. The name of that first band escapes me now, but it eventually morphed into Tarko with Todd Burman and Dale Winters. Tarko was a great band to watch. They had various sound guys, guitar techs, drummers, bass players, etc. However, Toby, Todd, and Dale have always remained together. Tarko played large venues around Melbourne. They even posed for a nude photo shoot for a calendar with other big Melbourne cover bands.

Throughout this time, Tarko was their job. They had their own production people and they made decent money out of playing the bigger coverband venues. But they decided they wanted to write and record their own music. They recorded their "Fallin" EP in 2003, which got radio play and record company interest. The band decided to change their name and play harder rock. Enter stage right: Juke Kartel. Almost overnight, things picked up for the band. They landed the gig opening for Nickelback and played big shows, such as the Taste of Chaos tour. You can hear current Juke Kartel tracks on their myspace page.

In early 2006, word spread around the Melbourne scene of a "mystery" tv show auditioning singers and Toby decided to give it a go. The day of the auditions, toby got too pissed and forgot about them. He later ended up flying to Sydney to try out. The rest is history for those who watched the CBS Rockstar Supernova reality show. It was a blast for his family and friends to watch him get up and deliver week after week. He was seriously the person to beat. He was a fan favorite throughout the series, but eventually came in third place behind Dilana and his good mate Lukas Rossi(PIG!), who won the gig to front Rockstar Supernova with Tommy Lee and Gilby Clarke. No worries for Toby, he called up his band that he had NEVER LEFT and the JK boys joined Toby in LA to record their debut album at Pulse Studios.

Following the album recording, Juke Kartel hit the road in the States with support acts Whitestarr and Driveblind to embark on the Chemical Dreaming tour. After a short break back home for the holidays, they returned to North America in early 2007 to join the Rockstar Supernova tour across the US and Canada. The RSSN tour gave them huge exposure to a larger audience and allowed them the opportunity to play large stadiums. The Juke boys quickly became a crowd favorite in every city. The tour continued on to finish in Australia and New Zealand, where they received a huge homecoming welcome. Shortly thereafter, they boys were asked to perfom at both the 2007 Astra Awards and the Australian 2007 MTV Video Awards.

So what's next for Juke Kartel? 2007 will bring the release of the album and more touring! So stay tuned!