Having just released and toured a fascinating new album from the commission of a beautiful new instrument, it was time to meet with Rhyader’s finest to discuss his Fylde and New Music for the 12 String Guitar.
Toby is on his way from Totnes, where he has gigged and spent a couple of days, up to Bishop’s Castle, where he will play that evening, when we meet at a pub in a village near Bristol. The following day, the guitarist will travel north to shoot a video in Roger Bucknall’s Fylde Guitars workshop for the State 51 Conspiracy website, and the two organisations are the reason for the gorgeous guitar sat beside us and his New Music for the 12 String Guitar album, which he is currently touring. It’s an exciting time for Toby, and it’s clear that he is grateful for this current project; let’s hear about how it all started. “Well the State 51 Conspiracy label came up with this idea where they wanted Roger to build a musician a guitar and they wanted a record to be made on that guitar,” he begins. “So Roger put out the feelers via email explaining it all. Because I’m not a guitar geek or anything I wasn’t even on the mailing list, but my friend Nick Jonah Davis was and he let me know and said I should get in touch. So I did that and Roger said that they would be back in touch soon, but I actually forgot about it, because a good six or seven months had gone by before I heard back. I wasn’t expecting to either, but in the end they chose me.”
The resulting Fylde twelve string guitar is a stunning instrument made with Macassar Ebony and Englemann Spruce, resulting in a very responsive piece with a big voice and broad range. It was a collaborative effort of course, and Toby being such a unique player meant that it was an interesting project for all involved. “I wanted a guitar that was built in a way that suited my playing style, which is alternatively tuned twelve stringed guitar,” he explains. “I spoke about the way I use the alternative tunings to make new music and obviously they found that interesting. I suppose it was interesting for Roger to an extent as well, because he builds guitars for a living and he doesn’t built that many twelve strings, so one that’s designed to be played in a different way was more interesting for him again, so I think that process led to me being chosen. One of the first things we did was go to Roger’s place and hang out and chat about guitars, and after that I took my Taylor up, which was my main instrument at the time and we spoke about what I liked and what I would change about it. Then he showed me all of the beautiful woods around the place and then I pretty much just left him to it.” He stops and laughs a moment. “I wasn’t going to tell him how to build guitars!”
We will move onto recorded sound in a moment, but from the instrument Toby was clear that he wanted a big sound, hence one detail being a twelve fret neck join, a design that pushes the bridge further down into the lower bout and opening up the soundboard. “Roger is a big fan of the twelve fret join,” Toby says. “We spoke about that and about a cutaway, but the sound was most important to me and I didn’t want to take anything away from what this guitar could do. Anyway, when I go past the twelfth fret, I’m only playing single lines, so I had enough access without a cutaway, because I’m not doing anything too complicated down there, so we didn’t go for it.”
With the Fylde built and having had it with him for enough time to make it feel like his own, it was time to complete the second half of the project, which was to record a solo album with the guitar, a task Toby decided to perform in the simplest fashion. “State 51 said that what they wanted from the record was for the guitar to be made and then the player to go to the Wood Room at Real World Studios, so then they had the guitar, the person and the space,” Toby explains. “The only other person involved with this record was my brother Tim, who engineered it. We set up the mics and basically didn’t play with it at all once we got the sound we wanted. I also said to him that the only way I felt we should make it was purely live with no overdubs, because all we needed for the album to be successful was to highlight the sound of the guitar and the sound of the space. All I had to worry about was writing the material so that I had enough stuff. If the concept is a guitar in a room, you can’t go wrong, but also there’s nowhere to hide. I had to be honest with myself and just say ‘this is what I sound like’ and just deal with that.”
12 String is a very different album to Toby’s other LPs so far, especially in its simplicity, but, like with much of his music, particularly when played live, improvised techniques are prominent on the record. “I do improvise a lot,” he nods. “Even when I have compositions that are planned and laid out, when I play them live, I tend to take them to other places. On this record I used improvisation as a way to kind of keep up the energy, because if you’re playing composition after composition in an environment where there’s nowhere to hide and nobody to bounce off, I found it quite a relief, so every few tracks I would improvise a little bit. Some of those pieces actually made it onto the record and have become tunes, which is pretty exciting. Take ‘The Bird and the Waterfall’; that was the first thing we recorded and it was supposed to be a test, so it was a complete improvisation in one take and boom, it’s on the record. I like those little moments when that happens, and I’ve never played that tune before or since that session. That’s the only time it’s ever been played.”
The energy of 12 String is part of its beauty and appeal; although meticulously played and recorded, there is a sense of immediate sound about it and you feel that all parties will be pleased with the result. “I feel like we achieved what we set out to do,” Toby agrees. “It is about an instrument in a room and I think we honestly captured that, so I’m proud of it and pretty chuffed with the result.” And he gets to keep the Fylde, which can’t be bad.
Read our review of the album here
This is the sign of a master musician at work, and Hay certainly fits that description. It is only two years since his debut and he is already one of the finest guitarists of his generation. Thomas Blake (Folk Radio UK)
Order New Music for The 12 String Guitar (CD & Vinyl): https://tobyhay.greedbag.com/buy/new-music-for-the-12-string-guit/