Local folk duo York Street Thought Process releases new album

For Jaron Camp and Rachael Frankruyter, making a second album pushed them further than they have ever gone as musicians.

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Colder, the latest offering from the folk duo known as York Street Thought Process, was released earlier this month and features 15 tracks, a large jump from their 2022 album Roots, which had seven studio songs and three live recordings. While this was a bigger undertaking, the pair, which has been playing together for nearly six years, has also grown as musicians in the last two years, Camp said.

“Especially from the recording perspective, we really had a basic understanding on our first album,” said Camp, from St. Marys. “Before we just recorded a whole bunch of stuff, and we were like, ‘oh, this is cool, let’s do this.’ This time we were definitely thinking about (specific details) … and it was less haphazard.”

The album was recorded over the course of five weeks, with both Camp and Frankruyter writing four songs individually and co-writing the rest. It was recorded last fall in a Newfoundland, where they were very isolated, Frankruyter said.

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“There were no restaurants, no coffee shops, none of those extra little things that we enjoy in our everyday life,” the Stratford woman said. “It was a very isolated experience, but in a very special way because it allowed us to really just focus on writing and recording music.”

The recording stays true to its unpolished folk roots, with flesh creeks and a mandolin bumping a microphone adding to its rustic sound.

“It’s not like we don’t want it to sound polished like pop music … (but) the little mistakes in that throughout the album are kind of little inconsistencies that we would want,” Camp said.

It was the whole experience of recording it that made it stand out, Frankruyter added.

“We think that’s pretty special.”

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Along with the second album, the pair has also been doing bigger shows recently, including playing at Burdock Music, which was their “first big Toronto show,” Frankruyter said. The goal is to start playing on the east coast.

“That would sort of be our next place that maybe we’d want to experience,” Frankruyter said. “At some point we’d love to do a show in Montreal.”

The duo’s next big local performance will be at the third annual Rock the Muse at the Stratford Perth Museum on Oct. 5. That lineup includes Cat Clyde, who was a big influence on the latest album, Camp said.

Colder can be found on Spotify, while tickets for Rock the Muse can be purchased at stratfordperthmuseum.yapsody.

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