Toni Rios was born on October 13th 1971 in Wetzlar. He played his very first gig on his 18th birthday at a small club in Limburg, Germany named 'Easy'. At that time Toni was already the Resident DJ at the 'Soma' and the 'Spin Club' in Giessen. In 1992, Toni took the opportunity to play in Miami at the 'Halloween Rave' and in several clubs. The first booking for the young Spaniard in the Techno stronghold of Frankfurt/Main took place at the Music Hall just a year later. He got to know the distribution manager of Sven Väth's label Eye Q. Soon he switched and started working for the then most important German Techno Label, combining music and his job in an ideal way. Here, in Sven Väth's 'living room', Toni learned to lead a crowd through the night and refined his skills. He remained an essential part of the Omen Nights until the closing in 1998, having been Resident DJ from 1995 he cemented his position as one of the four or five big names in Frankfurt Techno. The Berlin Love Parade saw his appearance for the first time in 1995, as well as cult club Tresor.After the end of the Omen, Toni was offered a new chance: Sven Väth signed him, not only as an artist for his Cocoon booking agency, but also asked him some time later to take the responsibility upon Cocoon Recordings, together with Pauli Steinbach. His name appears on flyers all over Germany and the neighboring countries. He also plays in regions more far away, such as Spain, UK, USA, Dominican Republic, South America and Far East. In 1998, Toni plays in Ibiza for the first time – since then he is 'first choice' in the clubs and at the big festivals such as I Love Techno, Dance Valley, Mayday, Nature One und Rave on Snow. Together with Chris Liebing and Andre Walter founds Toni 'Soap Rec.' in 1995. More recordings for Harthouse and other labels followed.
Since 1998, Toni has been working in the studio mainly with one musician: Jörg W. Henze. The result of this collaboration is Toni's first Artist Album Danzá Electrónicà on Jörg Henze's label Federation of Drums. Pascal FEOS and Chris Liebing have made remixes. The good musical relation between the both is manifesting in the foundation of the common label of the same name: Danzá Electrónicà. After his Album Tour in 2001, Toni wanted to step forward (and back, somehow): together with his long time companion Frank Lorber, they appear behind the decks as Tony Montana & Lobby Lobster, playing House Classics and Tech House. In 2003, Toni Rios releases his second Artist Album Kiss and with this record, he shows the wide range of his sound accompanying a World Tour. 2004 brings a new development for Toni. Some forerunners of his new style can already be found on Kiss beneath the Techno tracks for which he is well-known: filigree sounds, minimal soundscapes, bubbling electro and vigorous TechHouse. After five years of existance, Toni decided to stop releasing on Danzá Electrónicà and its sublabels.Toni's residency in Sven Väth's CocoonClub in Frankfurt also took his development in account. On two Fridays per month, Toni is the host for a firstrate TechHouse night: Secret Ingredients. Together with this comes the first one of a series of Mix-CDs representing the CocoonClub sound, being entitled according to the night: Secret Ingredients. Besides that, Toni has made another Mix-CD together with Amnesia's resident MarT: Amnesia Underground 5; and has produced several 12" vinyls with Martin Eyerer on Kling Klong and Boxersport. Toni also added São Paulo, St. Petersburg and Moscow to the list of cities he played.After Toni and Andre Walter have been working on several successful projects, they enter the studio together again in 2006 and produced two 12“ for Kompakt`s sublabel Speicher. They still working on a new longplayer. The new album will be very far-reaching in its sound, varying from hard to soft, and thus reflects Toni's style as a DJ. So, Soap Records will be reanimated by Andre and Toni now, after ten years of hibernation, but without their former partners who are involved in other projects. The focus of the label lies on the support of young talents, as Toni sees his own career partly as the result of the support of well-known DJs such as Sven Väth. The first releases of Soap Rec. are a re-issue of Marshall Jefferson's "Mushrooms" with remixes by Martin Eyerer, Meat vs. Einzelkind and of course Mr. Rios himself. Right after this, Alex Flatner, Crazy ERG and The Mint Frame Of Mind are to release two more EPs. Likewise, Toni plans with old comrades such as Patrick Lindsey or Dubstar, and wants the direction of the label be timely, above all. "I don't want to reduce to Minimal or Techhouse, it's ok to have some harder tracks on the label, too. There will also be a maximum of two tracks per EP, as I want the artists to have the opportunity to really run riot. In my opinion, a tune must have a minimum length of seven minutes and the sound is simply better when you have only one track per side." The label's distributor is Kompakt from Cologne, for vinyl as well as for the mp3 formate.