We had the good fortune of connecting with Randall Michael Tobin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Randall, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
I’m a music producer, songwriter, composer, engineer and have run my own recording studio since 1977. In November 2016 I had a random thought: “I wonder if I could make sourdough bread?” I’d never made bread before but that didn’t stop me from diving right in. It took several weeks until I had made loaves I deemed worthy of giving as gifts. My wife wrapped up 4 individual loaves to give to friends and family on Christmas Day and we were there for the unwrapping, slicing and first bites. The response was, “This is the best bread I’ve ever had!” I was blown away by the reception and kept making bread each week, usually giving away 3 out of 4 loaves, randomly. After a while, the idea of random acts of breadness came to mind which became the name of my bakery concept.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
At a very early age I remember reaching for a piano and wanting to play it. I had a natural affinity for it. In elementary school I enjoyed the music teacher’s class and was in the school band as a percussionist. I remember playing the chimes (tubular bells) with a rawhide mallet. But it was in junior high school (grades 7 -9) where my interests really blossomed. The school had an awesome Industrial Arts program and every semester I took a different shop class: Wood Shop, Metal Shop, Drafting, Print Shop, Plastics, Leather and Wood. Each class not only taught me the skills to create in each of these mediums, we also got to make useful things using what we learned. I have used these skills throughout my life to create personal and professional work. I was also in Orchestra during this time and we provided the music for our school’s Broadway productions, using the same scores used by professional orchestras in New York. I was a percussionist in the orchestra as well, playing drums, timpani, marimba, xylophone and orchestral bells. High school was a letdown; the only class that really stoked my interest was photography. Meanwhile, on my own (and with some help from my older brother), I honed my piano skills.

All of the above were educational, challenging and fun, but I wasn’t to the point of thinking about a career yet. One thing I knew, I didn’t want to go to college! I also didn’t want to hang out with my friends for another summer doing drugs and not really moving forward in life.

Of all things, my mom suggested I see the Air Force recruiter and take the entry tests. My older sister had gone into the Air Force a year before and she seemed to be enjoying it. I scored very high on the tests in mechanical and electronics; the recruiter told me I could pretty much pick my job in those fields with scores like that. So I enlisted.

The day I arrived for basic training in the middle of summer in San Antonio, Texas, I was greeted with the blast of hot, humid air and drill sergeants yelling at us new recruits to get our asses moving! It was a reality shock like none I’d experienced before. It was at that moment that I made the decision: “I know what I’m NOT doing the rest of my life, so I have 4 years to figure it out!”

That was the kick in the butt I needed to find my calling among all of my hobbies and interests. That calling was (and still is) music.

I made the most of my time in the Air Force, spending much of my off time practicing piano, taking up bass guitar, listening to lots of albums, playing coffee house music with other airmen, playing in bands, putting together a recording studio in my barracks room, and recording an album! While at my final duty station in Germany, I entered the Air Force Talent Show and ended up going all the way to the Worldwide Finals (which ended up being in San Antonio, Texas!).

When I got out of the service, I had a small recording studio worth of gear and lots of experience creating with it. I had my own recording studio setup in every place I lived from that point forward. In 1977 I actually got paid for a recording session and Theta Sound Studio was officially open for business.

At this point, I loved what I was doing but I still hadn’t looked at what my purpose was. It would be years later that I distilled the essence of what I was doing to “to make a better world through aesthetics.” More recently, the essence became even broader: “to lift the spirits of others.” That covers not only music, but also other forms of creation, like my artisan sourdough bakery, Random Acts of Breadness.

I’ve found that by doing what I love, and getting really good at it, people would find me and offer to pay me to help them achieve something for which I had the skills to accomplish. These skills include: music production, engineering (studio and live sound), composing, lyric writing, video production and editing, typesetting, graphic design, website design, ad copywriting, branding, private chef services, and artisan sourdough breads!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I grew up in LA and know my way around southern California pretty well. But, unfortunately, many of my favorite places to visit or eat don’t exist anymore. That said, there are a few that have survived the test of time: The Smoke House and Bob’s Big Boy are iconic Burbank/Toluca Lake restaurants with rich histories and classic menus. For concerts, it’s more about the artist(s) than the venues, but the Greek Theatre, Hollywood Bowl and Starlight Bowl are historic and great places to see your favorite artists. And if Leonid & Friends were playing at the Saban Theatre in Bevery Hills, we’d catch them for sure! I would definitely take my friend to Nelson’s (restaurant) at Terranea in Palos Verdes, former site of Marineland. The restaurant is named for Mike Nelson, lead character in the popular 60’s TV series, Sea Hunt, starring Lloyd Bridges. Parts of the series were filmed at Marineland. The grounds of Terranea are like being at a world-class resort on Maui without leaving LA county. For great views, there’s Griffith Observatory in Los Feliz and Castaway Restaurant in Burbank. Venturing out of LA, we’d head to one of my favorite spots in California: Ojai.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Dave Tourjé played a key role in this journey. Dave and his wife Linda were recipients of multiple random acts of breadness. Dave is a visual artist, musician and CEO of a construction firm specializing in foundation repair and retrofitting. About 10 months after I started making sourdough bread, Dave had a heart attack. It was devastating but he survived. While recuperating, Dave found “The Plant Paradox,” a book by Dr. Steven Gundry. He was digging the book and told me about it. I got the book and was bummed as Dr. Gundry stated that most breads were not allowed on his program. But as I read further, on pages 50 and 51 he states that it’s okay to eat sourdough bread if it’s made like they make it in Europe: using organic unbleached white flour, natural starter and the dough is allowed to proof over 3 days, rendering the gluten neutral. Turns out, Dr. Gundry described exactly how we were making our bread and so I didn’t have to give up making and giving bread away, which was bringing people so much joy. When Dave was well enough to have company over, I brought sourdough pizza-making ingredients to his house (takes 4 days to make the sourdough crust) and made a 4-course pizza dinner for four. Dave took one bite of the first pizza and said, “Dude, you gotta open a restaurant!” And that was the seed that was planted for what would eventually become our brick & mortar micro-bakery: Random Acts of Breadness!

Website: https://breadness.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/random_acts_of_breadness/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RandallMichaelTobin

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/random-acts-of-breadness-burbank

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@randomactsofbreadness6029

Other: https://www.ediblesfvalley.com/eat/random-acts-of-breadness/ https://issuu.com/edibleojaivc/docs/2023_edible_sfv_shop_local_guide_/8 https://tolucalake.com/2022/11/a-toast-to-giving/ https://tolucalake.com/2022/11/recipe-breadness-artisan-sourdough-cheese-melt/

Image Credits
Photo archives of Randall Michael Tobin

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