Alan Doyle Talks June 2024 London Show, New Album And More

You will be returning to the UK for the first time in seven years to perform a free show at the Canada Day celebrations in London’s Trafalgar Square on Sunday 30th June 2024. How are you feeling about the show?

I am stoked to return to the UK and bring some Canada fun!

When did you begin songwriting and recording music? 

I was born into a family band and starting playing as a wee kid. I started experimenting with recording and writing in high school but really got into it when Great Big Sea started in the early 1990s.

Who is in your band and what do they play? 

The band is a dream team of Canada’s finest players, who all happen to be dear friends of mine. Ladies first, Kendel Carson plays fiddle and she is amazing. She and mighty guitarist Cory Tetford stand downstage with me and sing the most beautiful backing vocals. Todd Lumley plays accordion and keys while Kris Macfarlane and Shehab Illyas round out the rhythm section. I play guitars and banjo and bouzouki. It all makes for an outfit that can play anything from folk to rock and anything in between.

Your new album ‘Welcome Home’ is your fourth full-length solo studio album and twentieth overall including the catalogue you created with his acclaimed group Great Big Sea. How did you want to approach the making of the record?

This record is really a response to the pandemic where we made virtual music for two years. We were all separated so we emailed  bits around everywhere and assembled stuff remotely. Welcome Home is very much a band in a room, all the musicians together. The very thing we missed during the lockdown.

Where did you record the album and who produced it?

We did it in Montreal, home of the famed Canadian producer, Marcus Paquin.

One of your tracks on the album is ‘Best I Never Had’. What was the story/inspiration behind that song?  

Wrote that song with a pal, Oscar Isaac, who has gone on to become quite a famous actor. We met on the Robin Hood Film set in 2009 and shortly thereafter he was in a film called Ten Years, in which he plays a singing star returning to his high school for a ten year reunion. Oscar needed a song for that film and he and I wrote Best I Never Had for his character.

Do you have any co-writes on this album? 

Yes! So lucky to have written with Oscar Isaac, Donovan Woods, Jimmy Rankin, Chris Trapper and a few others. All great writers that I’m lucky to get to sit with.

Who created/designed the album artwork? 

Jud Haynes has done the art for almost all my projects over the years. In this case he advised we use the original art of a wonderful painter named Mike Gough from Newfoundland. Check him out. He is awesome.

Do you have any favoured stage instruments, effects, pedals, microphones etc?

I am only sentimental about one instrument. My Old Takamine guitar that I’ve played in thousands of concerts since I bought it at Steve’s Music in Toronto, Ontario in 1994.

Where is your hometown and could you please describe it in five words?

Petty Harbour, Newfoundland. Small. Fun. Safe. Beautiful. Home.

What does being Canadian mean to you? 

It means always trying to be better.

You are given the opportunity to write the score for a film adaptation of a novel that you enjoy. Which novel is it and why?

It has been done, somewhat.  John Irving’s “A Prayer for Owen Meany” was, in part, made into a wonderful film called Simon Birch.  But this film only dealt with part of the book.  I’d love to see a full film adaptation of the whole story.  Would be epic and the songs and score would be as well.