"I don't really want to cut my hair for a while because I feel like, in a way, it's kind of like my (Rolling) Stones tongue." Alan Doyle.
As Alan Doyle and The Beautiful Gypsies head for a series of concerts and festivals for the Canadian Summer Alan did this interview with the Sault Star newspaper in Sault Ste. Marie.
I really enjoyed this interview full of positives including the importance of his new collaborations and incorporating new ideas into music, the evolution of Newfoundland traditional music, of being able to do his own thing without have to have the agreement of other band members and chemistry with the members of The Beautiful Gypsies in particular Cory Tetford.
I particularly love his comments about his long hair. To grow his hair was perhaps the best advice he ever got as a teenager. Yes, as a fan I can relate to his anxiety of getting his hair cut and was relieved to read he wasn’t going to cut it soon. I am always nervous even when he gets a trim.
I am sure while the hair contributes to projecting a particular type of rock star musician image, I would love to see him do an acting role sometime soon, even if that means cutting his hair. The wonderful thing about hair is that it always grows back.
Just one correction in an otherwise story well done, is that Great Big Sea ‘retired’ at the end of 2013 not 2015.
The article has been circulated on my Google + page and as always no copyright infringement intended.
“Alan Doyle discovers a less “insular” life as solo career blossoms, plays Machine Shop Friday night.”by Jeffrey Ougler in the Sault Star, published 21 June, 2016.
Don't bank on Alan Doyle being joined on stage by some hip DJ dude, vigourously scratching vinyl.
Tunes penned and/or performed these days by the former Great Big Sea vocalist and guitarist continue to contain strong salutes to traditional Newfoundland fare, with tempos invariably turned up a notch or two.
That being said, Doyle neither disses DJ culture nor stomps on synth-pop, a genre not altogether uncommon these days at George Street nightspots.
As far as he's concerned, it all boils down to musical evolution, the same shift that saw Great Big Sea mix the "influences of Def Leppard" with traditional tunes more in line with one would expect to hear at a Twillingate kitchen party.
"You incorporate it with what you love. For me, Great Big Sea was going to be a mix of traditional music and Van Halen," Doyle told The Sault Star in a recent telephone interview from his Newfoundland home.
And if what you "love" just happens to be heavily influenced by hip hop, so be it.
"I'm the first one to clap for that … Go man, go," laughs Doyle.
He points to the highly hailed St. John's synth-pop act, Repartee, whose lead singer, Meg Warren, Doyle especially admires. (The band played Loplops in May.)
"Their new record is so awesome," Doyle says of All Lit Up. "(Warren) is a doll with a capital D. Great songwriter, incredible singer.
"(I tell young bands) it doesn't have to be anything … it just has to be something. It can be anything you want."
Doyle likens the influence synth-pop currently has on some young, up-and-coming Newfoundland musicians to that which drew much of his generation to head-banging, hard rock acts. The influence of MTV and MuchMusic wasn't contained to Upper Canada.
"And when Whitesnake was on, that was all I needed right there," laughs Doyle, 47.
The end product of all these influences, at least for Great Big Sea, included a roster of 1990s radio-friendly, highly spirited singles, such as When I'm Up (I Can't Get Down), Ordinary Day and the Newfoundland band's take on the R.E.M. staple, It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine). Stage shows were loud and lively, and audience participation was a must.
On a personal note, Great Big Sea afforded Doyle the opportunity to live out the dream he decided to firmly follow in 1994, about two years into the band's successful run.
"I don't want to be a musician for a summer, I don't want to be a musician who has the greatest hit in the world one weekend, then go take the money to live in a villa in Spain," he said. "I want to go have concerts for a living, for a lifetime. That's what I want to do."
Such a steady hand on the tiller will serve Doyle well as he wades into the somewhat unfamiliar waters of a solo career.
Numerous successful singles, albums, tours and industry kudos in the form of East Coast Music Awards and Juno nods later, Great Big Sea "retired" in 2015, not long after the departure first of founding member Sean McCann.
Doyle insists solo work hasn't left him lonely and is, "in the oddest way," a more collaborative experience than that of Great Big Sea. The band, he said, often worked in an "insular way," often holing itself up in a St. John's studio for extended periods.
"We wanted to keep the integrity of the Newfoundland sound, and we had our own place and it made all kinds of economic sense to do it the way we did it," he added. "I loved every single record we were lucky enough to get to make."
Band membership has perks, but going it alone allows the luxury of seeking external assistance without first having to poll bandmates to form a general consensus as to who will be recruited to help and what direction the end product will take.
"When you're making your own records, you can call the greatest co-writers and producers you can get a hold of and hope they call you back … and go to them when they do," Doyle said.
"In the strangest way, and in a real way, my solo records have been the most collaborative thing I have ever done."
Surrounding himself with kindred spirits has, perhaps, made leaving the nest less difficult.
The Beautiful Gypsies, an interesting mix of experienced players, has teamed up with Doyle on the road and in the recording studio for two albums, the latest of which is So Let's Go. Guitar and mandolin player Cory Tetford has been joined by bassist Shehab Illyas, former Great Gig Sea touring drummer Kris MacFarlane, keyboardist Todd Lumley and fiddler Kendel Carson.
"If there's a bigger Cory Tetford fan in the world than me, I'd like to know who he is," Doyle said. "I've been trying to get into a band with him my whole life. In putting the band together, I was very careful to select people who have been friends of mine for a long time and know I don't want anything from them but their complete and whole selves."
Good chemistry extends from studio to stage.
"I just feel like a lucky guy to get to stand in the middle of this tsunami of awesomeness. It's really something," Doyle said.
Decades in the industry have allowed Doyle to cross paths with much Canadian music royalty, including The Tragically Hip, currently planning a final tour this summer in the wake of lead singer Gord Downie's terminal brain cancer diagnosis.
"If you were wondering if Gord and The Hip guys were classy gents, well now you know the answer," said Doyle, saluting Downie's courage in facing such a fate.
"If I had a choice, that's how I would do it."
Many of the faces around Doyle have changed since Great Big Sea, but hair length hasn't. At least not his.
Doyle is known for long locks he has no intention of cutting any time soon.
Memories of almost having to chop them for a film role still make him shudder.
"It gave me so much anxiety. I was just worried people wouldn't recognize me or something," laughs Doyle, whose acting credits include Robin Hood, The Shipping News and State of Play, as well as appearances on the CBC Television series Republic of Doyle.
"I don't really want to cut my hair for a while because I feel like, in a way, it's kind of like my (Rolling) Stones tongue."
Fair enough, considering Doyle's shoulder-length hair is no product of mid-life anxiety, but a proud legacy of being a 1980s music-mad teen.
"If you were in a band, you had to have long hair," Doyle said. "Thankfully, I've given up the Spandex pants."
