insideKENT Magazine Issue 28 - July 2014 | Page 21

ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
insideKENT exclusive interview with

I N T E R V I E W

B Y

S A R A H

© Luke Yates

JOSH DOYLE
R E D M A N

“Everyone’s Alone”, one of the most popular tracks on Doyle’s debut self-titled album, isn’t quite
an appropriate song name when it comes to his fans. They don’t seem to think he should be
alone and supported him by flocking to his intimate UK acoustic tour this spring.

Ashford-raised Doyle is no stranger to musical
success – best known for making up one third
of the popular 90’s band the Dum Dums, who
split back in August of 2001. Since then he’s
been paving his own road, and is enjoying being
back on the road and meeting his fans on a
UK tour.
Doyle’s career started to rocket again when
he won the Guitar Centre Competition in LA.
“That was crazy, that was the most nervous I’ve
ever been. I’ve gotten to do things that would
make someone nervous, like play in front of
100,000 people or getting to go on TV in front
of millions of people – this was just in front of
150 people. I was working as a waiter, so to me
it was a way out, everything rested on that
performance. You had the four minutes to prove
that you’re better than everybody else.”
After he won the competition Doyle spent
some time in the recording studio. “The prize
was to win an EP, but then we just went crazy
and the producer was like ‘let’s do a whole album
man’. I, luckily, had the best musicians in the
whole world to play with. They were just like bam,
bam, knocked it out.”
For Doyle, the best part is when his fans
sing along with him, like at his recent Birmingham
show: “I had really quiet people that I could tell
were listening intently to my songs, and then I
had mental people – they were drunk or just
massive fans who were singing along really loudly.
I had to tell the drunk ones to shut up a little
sometimes, but it was cool because everyone

was just so happy and excited and having such
a good time. Anytime someone sings along to
your songs it’s amazing – so if anyone has an
emotional response like that, that’s pretty cool.”
Following his successful Glastonbury and
Hard Rock Calling debuts last year, Doyle’s DIY
UK tour was a one-man show. He was the front
man, promoter, producer, the band, the baggage
carrier and social media manager – the list goes
on. With his suitcase and guitar he made his way
around the UK playing everywhere from Norfolk
to his hometown of Ashford, Kent.
You cannot deny that his tour sounds
exhausting, even if he was playing it up to his
wife back home in Nashville. “She’s like, ‘I know
you’re in heaven now but you just need to know
this and this, and that and that’, and I’m like, ‘I’m
not in heaven, this is really hard, it’s exhausting!’
But it’s really rewarding as well and a lot of fun.”
After all his success and move to Nashville
in the States, Doyle reveals that he still misses
Kent’s best qualities, such as our trains and our
healthcare. Yes really, our trains. “I miss all the
stuff that people complain about.” He also misses
his friend