Guitar player and composer Toby Hay and electric and acoustic bass player Aidan Thorne headed to the studio during a break in the lockdowns of the summer of 2021 to record an album titled ‘After the Pause’. Driven by the things they missed most due to the restrictions of the pandemic, they have described the album as ‘a snapshot of this extraordinary and unprecedented time in our lives, and we both feel incredibly lucky to be able to have spent the time in the studio after such a creative drought. What we captured is something we are both incredibly proud of.’
They have just launched a Kickstarter Campaign to produce physical copies of the album on CD and LP. The album will be released on Toby’s Cambrian Records label. I caught up with them late last week to talk about the album.
You can support their Kickstarter Campaign Here. Rewards include LP and CD bundles, signed Limited Editions, House Shows, and more.
In their campaign, they state that the inspiration for the album came from the things they missed most due to the restrictions of the pandemic. This meant we focussed on improvisation and the timbre of acoustic instruments in real spaces. The yearning for the energy one can get from live performance with a fellow musician drove the project forward.”
Expanding on this, Toby adds: “We headed to the studio with very few pre-planned ideas. We wanted the music to come from the collaboration.”
Aidan and Toby are no strangers, having also worked on each other’s albums.
Aidan: I recorded bass for Toby’s album ‘The Longest Day ‘. And he had helped my band, Duski, produce an album called Pillowtalk Sessions Vol. 1. Before all of this, in 2016, Toby released Duski’s first album on Cambrian Records. I knew that I wanted to write and record music with Toby. We both felt the same way about lacking inspiration during the early stages of the pandemic, so decided we should record together with a date far in the future. We were fortunate to be able to record between lockdowns.
Toby: We have been friends for a long time. Our friendship came from music; we had recorded and performed together and talked about making something as a duo for a long time. Maybe the pandemic pushed us to get on with it!
They spent three days at Giant Wafer Studios in June 2021, a residential recording studio in the Heart of Wales.
Aidan: Giant Wafer is a residential studio in mid-Wales. It has a lot of analogue gear, which is very exciting. As it is residential, you can choose how to record. As the music was being composed/learnt on the spot, we decided to have a relaxed routine of pressing the record button when we were comfortable – we also used Toby’s brother Tim Hay as an engineer who was happy to work outside of a standard recording day.
Toby: It is a beautiful studio, not far from my home here in mid-Wales. I have recorded there a number of times over the last few years, as has Aidan, so it seemed the perfect place for this project. My brother Tim engineered the record, so it was just the three of us. It was a very relaxed atmosphere; we didn’t record many takes of anything, wanting to capture the energy of new music being made.
Landscape is integral to this new work and other projects, so much so that Aidan moved from the city to mid-Wales, where Toby (and Cambrian Records) are based.
Aidan: I had enjoyed visiting Toby over the years, recording a number of albums at Giant Wafer Studios and performing at the Lost Arc (A lovely venue in Rhayader). A different project was happening simultaneously, where I was being recorded outdoors, creating improvisations inspired by the landscape. I just thought, why do I live in the city?
Toby: This landscape is my main inspiration. It drives almost everything I do. When we recorded this, I also completed an MA in Music & The Environment, for which Aidan was being recorded on location and out in the landscape. That must have also played a part in this album’s creation.
I was intrigued by the actual process of creating an improvised piece.
Aidan: Usually, collaboration in the studio is very hard and tense. As we had no motive outside of making music together, we had no expectations of what the sum of our ideas together would be.
Toby: It came very easily, as it often does when we play together. The studio had a very open and comfortable atmosphere where we could share ideas freely. I think we both push each other into new territory, which is inspiring. We worked quickly and instinctively.
In the campaign introduction, they spoke of a creative drought prior to this album. Although I knew Toby released some solo work recently, collaboration also plays an important role.
Aidan: As a bass player, I rarely do any solo work, so lockdown really made me practice the fundamental technique on the instrument, but [I] had no outlet to be creative, so my music-making is constantly fuelled by collaboration.
Toby: I made a lot of music over lockdown, but I craved collaboration with real acoustic instruments in a real acoustic space. It’s the sharing of ideas and the creation of new music in real time that makes working in this way so interesting to me. I enjoy creating solo guitar music, but I like a balance which was disrupted during the pandemic. This record was a celebration of collaboration.
We touch on highlights, and there is no hesitation in them identifying the flow of creativity.
Aidan: Every track we started working on seemed to click instantly. We had tremendous momentum – it was as if the music tap was suddenly turned on, and I was washed away with ideas.
Toby: The music seemed to come from nowhere; it just flowed incredibly easily. It was a real joy to make, and I’m really proud of what we recorded in those few days.
I end by asking what they’re listening to/reading.
Aidan: I’m listening to Sophie Stockham Ria – a friend’s debut album, bold music for string quintet and tenor sax.
I’m reading learner welsh books, mostly.
Toby: I have been listening to the new David Ian Roberts album (yet unreleased); sounding great! I have just started reading ‘Singing from the floor: a brief history of British folk clubs’(by JP Bean) – lent to me by a friend, really enjoying it!
Support Aidan & Toby’s Kickstarter Campaign Here.
