On a humid June evening I arrive in Leeds ready to see Josh Doyle for the second time in four months. After an intimate, acoustic solo gig in April, this time Josh is back with a band for a few dates around the Isle of Wight Festival. The Cockpit is small (sweaty) and contained, but with an intimate, energised atmosphere.
Josh’s set is an eclectic mix. His solo material is wildly different from the Dum Dums days. The sound alternates between nostalgic adolescent-themed pop numbers from the 90s and the sombre, mature country/folk infusions of Josh’s incisive solo album and EPs. Though currently settled in Nashville, Josh originally hails from Kent and only moved following the Dum Dum’s split. The post-Dum Dum’s road hasn’t been easy, from a band who had 4 top 40 singles, and laid the path for more manufactured ‘boybands with guitars’ such as Busted and McFly, to a solo songwriter having to support his family, Josh has had to organise and fund his own tours, while picking up shifts at a Nashville restaurant. He is humble and willing to hustle, something which has gained him many loyal fans and friends who are always willing to accommodate him during his visits.
He opens with songs from his eponymous solo album and it is easy to see how he beat 17,000 people to win the first national USA Guitar Centre Singer Songwriter Competition. ‘I Figured the World Out’ is a masterpiece, a song that originated upon a single thought – that no matter how many times he mowed the lawn, the grass would keep growing back (‘I freaked out in the garden depot / cause I can feel the grass growing / despair blew me away / like a leaf on an autumn morning’). Around that theme he builds a stunning and poignant portrait of modern quotidian life and the human condition. All it needs is the guitar accompaniment, the lyrics more than carry the power of the song.
The solo material is intense, truthfully bitter, mournful and perceptive, and often very personal to Josh. This comes across in his performance. He switches between the charm of his crowd interaction and casual jokes before smashing out each number with raw emotion.
With ‘Bird of Prey’ he brings a bit of Nashville to Leeds. Laced with country twangs, it’s supremely catchy and a little macabre (‘I didn’t know this bird of prey / would be eating my bones away’). The sounds of his guitar and his voice meld warmly and satisfyingly together in all of these songs. ‘I Want to Break Your Mended Heart’ is the perfect bitter-ex tune and ‘Meaning of Life’ is another piece of thoughtful and resonant songwriting: ‘And all of my life I’ve been afraid of myself / been putting on a mask for everyone else / scared of the future, scared cause I know / I’m just a kid in grown up clothes’. The influences of Bob Dylan and Cat Stevens linger over the material from this album. Most emotional perhaps, is Josh’s performance of ‘Zombieland’ – an unreleased track he wrote about the Anoka High School suicide epidemic. It is ruthless, haunting and dark and everyone in the audience is held captive for its duration; goose-bumps abound.
The Dum Dums material balances the atmosphere with its up-tempo power-pop vibes, particularly in songs like ‘You Do Something to Me’ and ‘Plastic Flowers’ with their trademark staccato riffs and distortion. Some of the songs begin slower, more stripped back, before the band burst in with relish and power. ‘Setting Sail’ provides the calm after the storm, affectionately sending everyone home.
With a new band project on the horizon back in Nashville (where he is working on another new sound), this tour is likely to be the last the UK sees of Josh for a while. His extraordinary perseverance and dedication (to fans, family and the music) mean it must surely only be a matter of time before the word spreads and this singer-songwriter gets the attention he deserves.