What do you get when you spend ten days at Vancouver’ Warehouse Studio with talent like Alan Doyle? Well, when you ask him, he will tell you all about his appropriately named album A Week at the Warehouse. With an old school way of making this record, he had his whole band, (affectionately named “the Beautiful, Beautiful Band”), set up within the studio to do full recordings together. This created a fun environment for the musicians to record in, and an interesting space for the album to grow from.
Raised in Petty Harbour, Alan was exposed to music his whole life. The small community located 20km outside of St John’s NFLD has deep roots into music, which was helpful for a young musician learning the ropes from an early age. “Well, I describe it sometimes like this. You often hear people say they learned their earliest lessons the hard way. I always say well I learned mine the easy way. I learned most of my earliest musical lessons without knowing I was learning them.” Influenced by both family and friends, Doyle was able to find inspiration everywhere, “I never had to look very hard to find opportunities to do it…I grew up in a really musical family, surrounded by people who sang and played various instruments all the time.” The transition for him into music from such a young age built a solid foundation which allowed him to take the risks he needed to. Going from the tight knit community of Petty Harbour into town, Doyle often found himself sticking around the city longer, stating that he even found his alternative methods of transport before moving from couch surfing into his out apartment in his late teens. “I regularly hitchhiked the 20km from Petty Harbour to St. John’s.” Eventually all of this led to the fork in the road which meant abandoning his current plan for music. “And I just said, well I’m going to quit my job, and I’m gunna, even though I have two degrees and was supposed to go teaching, I’m going to give this a run cause I’ve always wanted to do it.” And just like that his journey as a professional musician began.
This album is “thinly veiled as a sailor that’s just coming back from being on the ocean for a while.” As an east coaster also away from home, I often wonder if those who spend a lot of time on the road have any tips and tricks for keeping in touch with home. Alan’s take? “Its’ ok to bring everything with you. As a matter of fact its kind of encouraged…” Often times people feel the need to alter the narrative, changing their interests to suit the area they move to, whether that be taking interest in “mainland hockey” or trying to not sound like you’re from away. But Alan thinks we need to take our history with us. “Bring all that with ya. People love it. And it’s you, and it’s what makes you unique and different. We’re lucky to have those small town experiences and stories”
The tour, Come Out with Me, is a simple promise from Doyle and his beautiful, beautiful band, “that literally and the most honest claim I make every night on stage. Every day I wake up in a new town on the and that’s I want people to give me their night. Come out with me and I’ll go out with you, and we’ll make something out of it.” When asked what people can expect from Sunday night’s show at the National Arts Centre, “super fun night out with the beautiful, beautiful band, it’s a dream team of musicians compiled to play a bunch of my stuff, and a bunch of the Great Big Sea songs, Newfoundland traditional music, to make for the greatest kitchen party in the history of the planet earth every night.”
Finally, I reached out to fans to create a list of Rapid Fire questions;
What’s your favourite venue to play in Canada?
Jackson Triggs winery in Niagara on the Lake
What kind of shampoo do you use?
“What ever is in the hotel.”
What’s your best night out story?
“Are you cracked?!”
What’s your favourite restaurant back home?
If you were the captain of a ship, and could chose an all-star Canadian line up for your crew, who would you pick?
“The Canadian Navy. I often say, know who should fly air planes? Pilots. You know who should sail ships? Navy guys. You know sailors.”
What’s a song you wish you wrote, but didn’t?
“For a fellow who writes songs for a living, there are times where you hear like an Ed Sheeran song, whatever, they go like “I’m in love with the shape of you” for example. Like I love that song. But I couldn’t write that song. Like I don’t have any history in me to write that song. But when I heard Ho Hey by The Lumineers I went FUCK. Fuck, I should have wrote that song. Shit. Damn it. That’s so perfect. That one bothered me. Should have wrote that song.”
Alan Doyle will be playing the National Arts Centre (Ottawa) on Sunday Feb 25th in Southam Hall.
