Back in January during UK Americana Music Week, Hackney’s MOTH Club was once again transformed into Canada House as part of the two day showcase festival organised by the Americana Music Association UK where the talk of the town was a guy named Kyle McKearney. Originally hailing from northeastern British Columbia but now calling Airdrie just north of Calgary in Alberta home, McKearney had his breakout success with his sophomore album “A Traveler’s Lament” for which he received multiple awards including the 2023 CCMA for Alternative Country Album of the Year.
Now, McKearney is building up towards his third studio album which will be co-produced with Russel Broom and mixed by Grammy Award winner Vance Powell, the multi-award winning artist will release his latest offering “Tomorrow” on November 29th. The track which McKearney co-wrote with Noeline Hofmann and James Jannetty will also appear in Canada on an episode of CBC’s Heartland two days later on December 1st and was amongst the topics of conversation when he joined us for a really fun chat over Zoom.
Thank you for taking the time to speak with us, I managed to catch you when came over in January where I really enjoyed your set at Americana Music Week in Hackney, which I’ve heard was the first time that you had managed to get over here. “Yeah it was fun, it was a great experience and I had never been over there at all so I got to tour around a bit playing in some different cities which was beautiful, it was mind-blowing actually playing shows and seeing some amazing sights.” Well, hopefully you enjoyed it as much we did and you want to come back again. “Oh, for sure, I can’t wait actually.”
I think your sound is really cool and a really great fit for what we are seeing over here. Whilst “country” has been seeing huge growth in the UK over the last couple of years, the real boom recently has been in Americana, alt-country and the more rootsy sounds like yours. Guys like Noah Kahan, Zach Bryan, Tyler Childers and even people like William Prince are closing to lines in a lot of the markets eyes here so I’m just curious whether you are seeing similar things in Canada? “Yeah, it’s interesting. It’s like that here, I think that for the live experience it definitely is. I think that Canada has some catching up to do when it comes to the industry side of it because Zach Bryan can come here and play stadiums then Tyler Childers was headlining Cavendish Beach Festival which is one of the biggest festivals in this country and he packed the place. I think that the crowds know and they love this music a lot which is a great thing but I’m not quite sure some people in the industry know what to do with it yet. I love that the people love it, that’s the main thing, I get in front of these crowds and I can feel that they are enjoying the experience, that they like this kind of music. When you talk to people, that is what they talk about a lot of the time, it’s these artists of the alt-country and Americana realm so I’m so curious to see what happens with it and where it goes.”
We’ve got a new track coming out next Friday, so just tell us a little bit about “Tomorrow” and where the song came from. “It was written around a time when I was doing well in music but still struggling with kind of what we were talking about before with the hope for opportunities and watching some friends get these amazing opportunities that I’ve dreamed of. It’s because first of all they are great and because they are doing music that is more commercial and looked at in a different way but those moments can be difficult and something to get through, even though I am always grateful and happy for my friends. Sometimes I am sad for me ha-ha, and that’s ok, it’s just part of the journey and I enjoy the sadness too. This song was a result of that, I wrote it with my friend Noeline Hofmann and my other friend James Jannetty which is funny because it was that feeling and then all of a sudden, Noeline just exploded and it’s ironic ha-ha, but I’m only happy for her though.”
This ties in nicely as we mentioned Zach Bryan earlier and that ties in nicely as he has been a part of how more people became aware of Noeline and now she is becoming the hottest thing in Americana right now where she is doing incredible things. I know you are based in Alberta and that is also where she is from but how did you first get to know and start writing with Noeline? “Noeline approached me a couple of times just to meet me at award shows and different functions that we were both at and she didn’t have much online or on socials at the time but what I saw was that this person was great and so talented. Then I said we should try writing something so, we got together, wrote some stuff and we just kept doing that. We wrote quite a few times and became kindred spirits, we’re from the same area then her and my wife Sarah just connected really well right away.” This will be the seventh track that you will have put out this year so, there has been a steady flow of new music and I’m guessing that we are leading into an album being on the way. I know you haven’t announced too much yet but what sort of stage are you at right now? Are you still working on it? Is it in a mixing and mastering stage or are you just waiting for the time to push the button and let it go? “It’s finished. It’s been finished for a little bit and we are just putting it out song by song until it is time to release the rest of it.”
I suppose releasing things that way does allow more songs to have their own moment to shine and allow them to speak for themselves but the flipside is some people may not see it as being a full picture if a lot of the tracks from an extended project have already been released prior to the album. “For sure, I think the best thing that you can do in that circumstance is make sure that there is a lot of stuff to dig into on the back half. When you release the record, don’t put eight songs out and only have two more then call that a record, you want to put eight songs out first and maybe have eight more.”
“Tomorrow” has more of an acoustic and stripped back feel than a lot of the other songs which you have been putting out this year so releasing music now has a real project management aspect to it. It’s not just putting out what you feel is the best song that you have to put out, there is the thought of hitting the DSP playlists and what you do on your socials around the release so there is a lot more that has to be thought about with releasing music in the modern era. “Yeah, you always have to figure out the why, you know, why am I putting this out? Why is it relevant in culture and time right now, why does it matter? I try and do that with all of the songs and there are some very specific reasons why this song is coming out next, can’t talk about them yet but it’s for a good reason and I love this song. We just shot our music video and that will be coming out when the song drops as well so, I’m excited to show people that.” You said you wrote the song with Noeline and James, who also wrote “Fight This Fire” with you, then from the other tracks that you have been releasing, I see that Lydia Sutherland and Aaron Pollock were your co-writers on a couple of the others. When you were having these writes, were you writing specifically for an album with different groups of people or just writing with people you clicked with and happened to have a couple of strong tracks to come out of these sessions? “I knew I was writing towards a record and I think that whenever I get a start on something I can try and sense who to take it to and who to write it with based on what it is. I’ve got a couple of groups that I really connect with or jive with and I think that the more up-tempo or more mainstream stuff, even though none of my stuff is really that mainstream but that I would take to certain people and the more Americana stuff, I would take to other people because it has just worked for me that way.”
You have been co-producing the tracks with Russel Broom, who also produced your first two records. What is it about working with him in an artist/writer and producer relationship that makes him such a good guy to work with? “There are many reason really. First off, he’s an A+ guitar player, like a world class guitar player and he is so talented that it is scary sometimes. I just like that because it makes me feel like he gets it, even though he doesn’t sing, I know that he hears vocals that way because he can play that way and it just gained my trust. He’s a great guy, we’re good friends and his approach is a lot different to other producers that I have worked with. His approach is very in the moment, all mistakes are opportunities, you can spread your wings and say what you think. I just like that transparency and that way of working.”
Well, fingers crossed you will be able to come back and see us over here because your life show is really impressive and it’s clearly something that you guys work really hard at. “Yes, most definitely. It’s what it all comes back to, obviously creating and writing is a beautiful thing and a great way to express or therapize but it all comes back to the stage. It all comes back to wanting to get out there and connect with people, feel loved, validated and then give it right back to people. It’s important to me because that’s where you show who you are, it’s really hard to understand who someone is until you get in a room with them.”
Just finally as a Brit whose father was a massive Queen fan, I have to ask about your time touring with ‘We Will Rock You’ which is obviously a very different world where theatre crowds, or at least over here, aren’t able to fully engage back to the performers on stage where even though they can’t express it as much, you know they are into it. Was that just in Canada where you toured with the show? “No, we did one hundred and sixty shows over six months around the US and Canada.”
Woah! That’s a big tour. I love it as a musical, it’s not on in the West End right now but it’s still regularly touring regionally over here. From playing all of those Mercury, May and Taylor classics across so many shows, what would be some personal favourites both to play and as a song? “I like “We Are The Champions” but I think to play it would be “Only The Good Die Young” this song was so beautiful and that was my favourite one to play in the show then I loved playing “I Want It All” as well, that was a fun rock song to play.”
I guess if you are going around to play other people’s songs every night, there is so much variety through the Queen back catalogue where you have got the ballads as well as “Bohemian Rhapsody” which is obviously this iconic full-blown rock opera masterpiece along with all of the anthemic stadium hits. “Oh yeah, it’s great music and I have a great story about this actually which is like this full-circle kind of anecdote. I have a director friend called Stuart Brennan who happened to be friends with Roger Taylor because Roger’s partner was working on one of Stuart’s movies. I got to meet Roger and I got to do this Christmas song for the movie with him so to write a song with Roger Taylor was a cool moment but I was doing different music at the time, sort of pop stuff and Roger listened to my record. Forgive my English accent here but he was like “It’s just not very interesting, is it?” ha-ha and then getting to go and play his catalogue, I was like ok, I know exactly what he was talking about. That stuff IS interesting and it never gets boring playing it, even after that many shows, so there are my pearls from Roger Taylor.”
That’s a cool one to end on. Appreciate your time this morning and really hope you can get back over and see us again soon. “I would love to come back and I can’t wait, I know that we will, it’s just a matter of when we can make it work.” Kyle McKearney will release his new single “Tomorrow” on November 29th and with his eagerly anticipated new album in the pipeline, you can keep up to date with Kyle on INSTAGRAMX and FACEBOOK whilst you can find details of any upcoming shows that he announces on his WEBSITE.