For 30-year-old Toby Moulton, one personality trait has been holding him back from sharing his musical talents with a larger audience. “I guess I’m just shy by nature, deep down, and that has been the biggest thing which has stopped me from just having a crack outside the four walls of my own home,” says Toby of singing for the public.

Toby says his family have always been musical and he often sang with his younger sister when they were sharing a house as he studied teaching. The students of the Adelaide school where Toby has been teaching for four years have also heard their teacher sing in class and at assemblies.

Talking to his students every Monday he's away at Australian Idol, Toby laughs that they're more interested in his fellow contestants, "Their questions are funny, like 'Who would be your best friend?'”

As much as Toby loves teaching and his school, taking his love of music seriously had to be done. "I’ve just lived a double life for way too long," he explains. "I've got my professional life, but then I’ve had this fantasy in my head of singing in front of an audience, and creating and collaborating with other musicians."

"I’m 30, I’ve got to stop living in this Toby land!" he continues. "Driving back home in the country flat out, singing at the top of my voice, thinking how good that would be to share it with other people."

His time on Idol has let Toby experience connecting to an audience through his music and he likes how it feels. "I was singing and looking out at the audience and there were audience members just beaming," he says, shaking his head. "Complete strangers with smiles on their faces and I just thought, wow, that’s unbelievable."

"I think I look at it differently to anyone else, in that every day is a bonus," Toby explains of making it through to the Idol Final 12. "And I know that whatever happens, I can just go home and be satisfied."