ifitbeyourwill Podcast
“ifitbeyourwill" Podcasts is on a mission to talk to amazing indie artists from around the world! Join us for cozy, conversational episodes where you'll hear from talented and charismatic singer-songwriters, bands from all walks of life talk about their musical process & journey. Let's celebrate being music lovers!
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ifitbeyourwill Podcast
ifitbeyourwill S05E04 • Alan D Boyd of Movieland
From punk rock venues in Edmonton to London art galleries, Alan D Boyd's creative journey spans decades and continents while remaining true to his Canadian roots. The musician, filmmaker, and sonic explorer shares the winding path that led him to form Movieland in early 90s Vancouver—a band whose unreleased recordings have found surprising new life through 604 Records' Decades imprint.
Boyd vividly recalls his formative years in Edmonton's vibrant music scene, where venues like Spartan's Men's Hall hosted legendary punk acts alongside local heroes. These experiences shaped his DIY ethos as he moved through various musical projects before landing in Vancouver's fragmented but fertile creative community. There, working at the 24-hour Benny's Bagels, he connected with kindred spirits influenced by everything from Stone Roses and De La Soul to the emerging sounds of Dinosaur Jr and Nirvana.
The analog era of music production comes alive as Boyd describes crafting Movieland songs on his trusty Tascam 488 eight-track recorder, challenging conventional studio wisdom by deliberately pushing guitars louder than vocals. These recordings, preserved on deteriorating cassettes and ADATs, have been meticulously restored using AI technology—resulting in music that sounds so contemporary that listeners question whether it's new or from decades past.
Beyond Movieland, Boyd explores his parallel project Little Sparta, which merges post-punk aesthetics with folk sensibilities and cinematic landscapes. His collaborative approach extends to filmmaking, with documentaries about UK session musicians and the late artist Bill Fay currently in development.
Don't miss Movieland's upcoming single release on March 28th, with Boyd returning to Canadian stages in Vancouver and Edmonton this spring—a homecoming that bridges his past and present creative worlds.
Let's pretend we're free and I'll say so, crazy. But to me that's yesterday. Again, I can't believe me. Back Yesterday I gave, I gave me. Alright, we are chugging through season five. I mean season five, bureau Podcast. Welcome everyone. Today I'm reaching well across the pond, but to a fellow Canadian across the pond, I have Alan D Boyd with me today, who is from well. We're going to talk about his band, movie Land, but we're also going to talk about Little Sparta and a bunch of other amazing things this guy does. I mean, alan, you're a talented guy. I'll just say that right off the bat. I mean, not only are you a musician, but you're a director, you're an editor, you're, like you just dabble in so many areas, um, which we'll get into. But I want to just first of all thank you for joining me today.
Alan D Boyd:Yeah, thanks for having me, chris. This is really cool and, uh, you know I've been looking forward to it. Uh, working up towards the evening, I've been sort of really busy today, sort of getting ready and everything, and always nice to join people for new podcasts.
colleyc:Absolutely Well. Thanks so much. I think that this will be a great conversation. And maybe to start off, alan, I know that you were born in Edmonton.
Alan D Boyd:In the dead center of the Canada, you know.
colleyc:You can't be any more Canadian, right? I mean you're central Canadian.
Alan D Boyd:Which I think I've got this idea. I think they should move parliament there, Because then maybe people will just have a better idea of, like you know what's going on. But I was born in Winnipeg but my parents were from Scotland and five days after I was born they took me to Jamaica. Wow, so that was my first thing. I was born in January, so I think I went from minus 30 to sort of Jamaican sunshine within a week. Then they moved to Birmingham in England for a little while and then we moved back and they settled in Edmonton, alberta, which is where I spent my formative years growing up.
colleyc:Right, right, and to tap into those years a little bit when did music start for you, Like, in those days, what was the setup and like, where was the interest and how did you get drawn into? You know wanting to be involved in music.
Alan D Boyd:I think there's kind of two things. One, my dad was a bass player. Uh, he was a doctor, but he also. Oh, here comes, here comes the interruption.
colleyc:Thank you very much, so glad to whine there.
Alan D Boyd:There you go um, my dad was a doctor and but he grew up playing bass and so he kind of bought me a bass guitar, I think when I was like 13 or 14, and said, oh, you should have a hobby, you should get into music, it's a great hobby. And I was like, uh-oh, this is what I want to do now. This is it. And around that same time, which is like the early 80s, the hardcore punk scene in America was kind of kicking off. Punk scene in america was kind of kicking off and in edmonton we had this really cool scene going on at a place, uh, kind of you know, one of the main places, a place called spartan's men's hall where we had bands like snfu. Uh, we had a local band called junior gone wild. Uh, when we had bands coming in from calgary, we had like bands coming in from the west coast, we had touring bands like Dead Kennedys and Black Flag, bands from all over, and it was like this, 14 and 15 years old, and I just discovered this amazing independent punk rock scene that uh, in in Alberta too, it was mixed with a bit of the country thing. I mean, katie Lang comes through that scene as well.
Alan D Boyd:So, edmonton, alberta, which is like, you know, it is a bit sort of in the middle of nowhere, had this incredible a cold place, cold winters, beautiful hot summers, with like long nice nights and barbecues, but had this amazing vibrant music scene and I had friends who got involved with it and we, you know, we would just go to the gigs as much as we could and it was also, you know, I was interested in music and I was interested in film and I think the 80s were a really good time for films and stuff like that. You know, this is like the VHSs and VCRs had just come out. So you're like at home discovering stuff like that, out discovering music, there's a cool record shop sharing tape, so that was kind of it. So 14, 15 years old, and then a group of friends and I at school we started a band and that was it. I was brought into the band and from there I just sort of never stopped and I don't think I've. I think I might have started acting like I'm 16 now and I don't think I've.
colleyc:I think I might have started acting like I'm 16 now. And what was it that drew you to punk Like? What was that aesthetic, that kind of pulled you in?
Alan D Boyd:I don't think it was anything about there being anything specific about being drawn to it, because I need to go check this out. It was just somebody going oh, we're going to this thing, there's places where live music is put on, come and check it out. I was just somebody going oh, we're going to this thing, there's places where live music is put on, come and check it out. I was just like, holy shit, this is amazing, this is so cool. And you know, it was a scene that at Spartans you weren't. They were all ages shows, right, and upstairs people would be like the bands would be playing and then downstairs people would be skating, skateboarding and and doing stuff. So you got like and you got a real mix of just everybody went who was a sort of certain age.
Alan D Boyd:And also I have this theory about the 1978 commonwealth games in edmonton. They built this lrt system that connected. You know, at that time it was downtown, up to the north side of the town, which is where spartans was. So suddenly this you could get out to this place, which was I had no idea how it got there, otherwise we weren't driving. You know it's minus 20 and we're taking buses and things like that and we go to this great shows. And it was just this, it was just this vibe in this element. So you know, I think I saw black flag on boxing day Day 1984 at Spartans, you know, and there was this incredible energy and within two years I was playing gigs and putting on shows with other bands, local bands, like a band called Idle T which has a great Edmonton guy named Evleroy was part of, with Craig and Henry, and then obviously Junior Gone Wild, who were like one of the greatest bands I've ever seen in my life play, and then of course, snfu, who years later I ended up coming over here on tour with them.
colleyc:Right, right. And when you first started getting your band together, was that to become eventually MovieLand. Like I read that it was 1991 that MovieLand formed.
Alan D Boyd:Yeah, so the Edmonton bands were like I was in a band called Edgeware Road because we thought that you know it's the name of a tube station in London and we thought that sounded really romantic and it's not london. We thought that sounded really romantic and it's not. And then that led to being in a bus, uh, a band called kentucky church bus. That was with, uh, some other friends that I met and you know, got to know. So edgar rowe was kind of the high school band. Kentucky church bus was the post high school band.
Alan D Boyd:And then I got um asked by the montreal band, the gruesomes, to come out there to montreal and join them when, when Jerry had left the band. So I went to Montreal and I played with the Gruesomes for about six months, which was really fun. We toured Canada, it was a good time. But they basically had decided they'd done, they wanted to quit. I don't think I kind of came in and fit exactly what they wanted to be, so they decided to just quit. So at that time it was, uh, I think it was 89, the Berlin.
Alan D Boyd:I remember the Berlin Wall coming down, you know it was a time in you know, in the world, and being in Montreal was really interesting. I remember hanging out with Ivan from Men Without Hats at Fofoon. You know, and you know it was it was fun it's a great scene like such a good scene.
Alan D Boyd:Oh, it was fun it was so cool um the dough boys uh you know, I have, uh, I lived in this house at, uh, I think it was 2112, prudhomme was our address, and uh, there was some crazy drug house that was across from us. It was really famous, but yeah, it was across from us. It was really famous. But yeah, it was a really amazing experience being in Montreal. But then that ended and so I just went. Okay, well, went to California for six months, had a girlfriend there, stayed in California and because I couldn't stay, I just thought right, I'm going to go to Vancouver and see what happens there. And that's how Movie Land starts. Wow.
colleyc:Interesting, interesting. And what was your impression of Vancouver music scene once you finally arrived there? What did you think about it?
Alan D Boyd:I think the Vancouver thing was like one of the things about Vancouver which draws many people there is the weather. You know you don't get the winters like you get in Alberta. You know Alberta is cold and dry, montreal cold and wet. You know you have these crazy Canadian winters everywhere except you get to Vancouver. I was just like, oh man, it's like minus two, we better stay in for a week. You're like this isn't winter. So you get this like influx of people from all over you, most a lot of western canada. You know.
Alan D Boyd:A lot of people I knew and got to meet were from calgary, edmonton, you know saskatchewan, from manitoba as well, some people from the east. But a lot of people from the east would go to toronto because there's things going on there, and it was. It was an interesting place because there was a lot of great people doing really good things. But I always felt the problem with vancouver at that time. It was it's like an la city, it's very spread out and these great universities but they're not in the center so there didn't seem to be these kind of concentrations of people that were going to gigs. So you didn't feel like, uh, it didn't have a scene like like montreal had, you know, like the way that you'd go to fafun and just everybody would be there.
Alan D Boyd:Yeah, totally, there was just a vibe going on. You know you're talking, you're from what band, you're from what band? Right, vancouver, um, there's a lot of really cool bands, but it just seemed a little bit more, um, disparate to be able to like to get to gigs, to get people out to gigs, and you know it's, it's a city where people, like in the evening, they leave the town center and they head to their suburbs and they, you know that's it, and everything just quiets down in the evening. And I think I go back now. It's a different place. It's so so much more vibrant. There's so many more people, there's so much more going on. But yeah, at that time it definitely felt like you really had to work hard to sort of make or have a scene be happening. Not that people weren't trying and not that there weren't amazing bands, it's just getting a scene going was really hard.
colleyc:Yeah, totally. And coming to Vancouver, did you have a feeling that you wanted to start something on your own? Like, was it time for you to kind of step out from being just a musician or one of the members of the band to becoming the front front person?
Alan D Boyd:I think the thing about movie land it was when I got there I'd play. I played with a couple of different people, people that I'd known from other you know, some people from Edmonton that were there and I was trying bits and pieces out. But eventually I ended up working at this place. It was called Benny's Bagels, which was this like institution there, and it was up on I think it was on Broadway, up towards like Broadway, and I don't know McDonald or something like that, but it was this place. It was a 24 hour bagel shop that students would hang out at. 24 hour bagel shop that students would hang out at. Everybody that was, you know, sort of living over in West Vancouver not West Vancouver, but the West side of Kitsilano, and stuff like that. That's where everybody hung out. You could go there at two in the morning, after the places have closed, and just sit down and have coffee all night and eat bagels.
Alan D Boyd:And I went to work there and I met some other people that became started becoming my friends. It was kind of like a sort of university scene almost. You know You're meeting the people. And that's where I met the drummer, Justin, who was in the original Movie Land lineup, and he said, yeah, I got a friend, John, and yeah, we should do something, let's get together. We all seemed to like things like the Stone Roses and De La Soul and you know there's music of that time, this kind of sort of british influence, but then also some of the hip-hop stuff that was happening, a lot of the cool indie radio that was happening dinosaur junior, you know this, you know what would later take over the charts, but then was still like college radio. Sonic youth and nirvana, of course, was just sort of coming up at that point and we all like that time, like Super exciting time.
colleyc:eh, it was an exciting time For music.
Alan D Boyd:yeah, and that band came together and that became Movie Land, and so you know it was. I was going to be the front man of this. It was a three piece, so that was a big thing for me, because I was going to be playing guitar and singing and being the main guy and I hadn't really been that thing before you know.
colleyc:And where did the songs come from, Alan Like, are these songs that you had kind of been penning throughout you know time, or was it something that you guys all sat down together and decided to write together?
Alan D Boyd:A combination of two things. It was like sort of getting together and jamming and playing stuff out and playing ideas, and you sort of jam around on um, um, playing around and you know playing Stone Rosa songs or whatever the kind of things we liked. But then also, uh, you know, this was the days of like four tracks and eight track recorders. You know the cassette ones. So I had a cassette tascam 488. Little beauty, so cool, great one right you know you could do eight tracks on it, not four eight and it was so exciting.
Alan D Boyd:So I I, you know, I had a little elise's drum machine, um hr 16, a tascam 488, some crazy guitar pedals and I just sort of and actually one of the very first sans amp, you know, the first replicator and so I'd write songs at home that I'd bring to the band, but then we'd also jam stuff out. So it's a mixture of both and I really enjoyed that process of writing. On the eight track, yeah, and I'd often like sort of start with like you put down a drum beat and listen to a tone and listen to the these ideas of like kind of what's the beat? And then build on that and jam along to them. But you had to sort of think very linearly, okay, and then programming drums, okay, it's going to change after four. So I have to be ready to change. What am I going to change? It's almost like sort of planned improv, if you see what I mean.
colleyc:Yeah, it really gave, though, the access to having those layers, you could start to see a song come to life right with those first four track, eight tracks that were out there. Like many musicians that I've I've spoken with, those are some of their fondest memories of writing is with their four track or their eight track in their bedroom. And I was starting to see their songs Like wow, like okay, I got, I got a. I got a line here. Now I got a main chorus. I got a few lyrics I can put in.
Alan D Boyd:And you really think about when it was like that, when it was on tape and you really had to think about what you were doing and you put it down. It's like I mean, I love digital and I love what you can do with Logic or Pro Tools or whatever now, but that sense of like, and even like a cassette committing to it. And then, when you had to, you know you thought, oh, I need a few more tracks. I'm gonna bounce down the drums and the bass are gonna go down to one track and then seven more. This is gonna be a.
colleyc:It's gonna sound amazing bouncing the tracks and just like crossing it.
Alan D Boyd:Am I going to come back?
colleyc:to that.
Alan D Boyd:I can get rid of that now. So you know there's, there's sense of commitment, but yeah, I know it's fun, but then we'd take those in those demos and we'd interpret them Right and so and so that would. Then that just took it to another place. You know, which was great.
colleyc:So what, what? What's the story then with the reissue? Because I know then and now it came out december 2024 and those were demos and unreleased singles, right that that you guys had compiled over time. Can you tell us a little bit?
Alan D Boyd:yep yeah, yeah, no, I just saw that I found this today, which is like I had this because I've been digging up this stuff for the label. But this is like one of the original tape covers and so which is interesting because now it's kind of coming back. So it was right on the cusp of between vinyl and CDs had come in that period of time right, it's the early 90s. Cds are coming in, you can get CDs pressed, but they're really expensive, vinyls, just out of everybody's league, because you know how do you even get together to make to make a vinyl record, unless you've got a load of cash. Um, but cassettes, there were these, all these cassette duplicating plants that existed. So the bands, people would make cassettes. So when we would record, we'd put them together, make a cassette and sell them in the local record shops like zulu records, odyssey, you know whatever else there was, and and and I spent you spent a lot of time in kinko's.
Alan D Boyd:I think it was making covers like this. They're cutting things out. And I think I had corel draw on my mate's computer where I would like design everything up and then I'd print things, then go photocopy and and and you know it was, it was. It was a real kind of um uh factory that you sort of putting stuff out, real diy. And again, this goes back to that inspiration from meeting and seeing all these touring bands, you know, when I'm like sort of 14 and what they're doing and going around the country printing t-shirts in the back and selling them, but the the tapes and stuff. You know we made three different tapes which we'd both send to record companies and sell in shops.
Alan D Boyd:Um, and that's when we got to meet Jonathan Simpkin, who is one of the owners of 604 with Chad, and Jonathan was the sort of local lawyer who I think he was doing criminal law at that time but he was really into music and wanted to eventually do something to do with music. And he heard us and he started championing us and he became our lawyer as such, our representative, as he did with many bands in Vancouver. He went around and found the bands that he really liked and he said, yeah, I'll help you guys along Now with us. I know he took us out to somebody in Toronto I think it might have been A&M Records as he did with many other bands, and unfortunately we weren't one of the success stories. They were like, yeah, ok, well, they're OK, but we won't go with that band.
Alan D Boyd:We might like this one, we might not like that, but it was a weird time too, because you really felt that Vancouver was seen as this kind of thing on the West Coast. It was really far away, you know, it's not there in the sort of Ontario, quebec, sort of mega power where everything goes on. And if somebody was going to get signed from Vancouver, yeah, maybe we'll sign a band from Vancouver this year. You know, we'll see if we've got the budget to compete with everything else that we're doing. So there was that sense of being really on the outside and I'm sure people in sort of Nova Scotia, new Brunswick, you know, alberta, yukon, all those places must feel that same sort of sense of not being part of it, so different how the world is now. But you really felt you're in the frontier and, um, so yeah, so we put these all together.
Alan D Boyd:And then jonathan got in touch with me a few years ago and said look, man got this great record company now done pretty well. Might have heard of carly ray jefferson, you know heard of her. I've heard of, uh, have you heard of nickelback working with them? You know, working with people like nardwar. We're doing all these amazing things, um, so what I want to do now is I want to go back to reissue some of these bands. I used to want to get signed or to do stuff with people who've had a small amount of success or didn't have any success, and I'm going to start a label called decades and we're going to put your stuff out and he says and I want to start with movie land because you're the big one that I really think should have happened but you didn't.
colleyc:So cool, so cool. And when did this? When did this idea first start to bubble up, like was it recently or has this been kind of in the talks for a while of putting out? Yeah, it's it's movie land release I I'm trying to remember it perfectly.
Alan D Boyd:I think it was pre-covid talk started about like ideas of like what might be happening, being interested in stuff. But then a few years ago maybe, maybe just sort of after the covert thing, maybe jonathan, I think you know, really kind of thought okay, this big thing has happened. It cemented his idea and he really came back and said, yeah, we're doing this. Now, this is going to happen. I'm putting budgets together, I'm talking with the people at the label and we're going to figure out how we're going to do this. And the name Decades hadn't been decided upon yet at that time. But he said I'm going to start this little label that's part of 604, part of that group, and let's get the ball rolling. So he said to me what do you got?
Alan D Boyd:So I started digging through sort of boxes, old boxes, so I'd go back to my family's house in Edmonton. You can go out to the garage and go oh, what's this box that's been sitting out here for 30 years in the minus 30 and the plus 30? You know what's in there? And I found this treasure trove of tape and ADATs and 8-track tapes and posters and photographs. I thought, oh, it's a good thing, I'm a hoarder.
colleyc:There's some good stuff there, amazing, and this is like pre kind of digital anyway, right, like this stuff was not digitalized at all, it was just on those, those cassettes and ADATs, and I love it. So when you, when they decided to do a reissue, what, what's the process of that like? Do they pull all that stuff off of your, your off of you know the analog stuff, and then remix it, they redo it, did they add parts to it Like what's, what would the reissue like if you had to define it, like what happened with that with with your music?
Alan D Boyd:Well, this is cool because I think this is what's wonderful about the digital world we live in. Is that I basically um, about the digital world we live in? Is that I? Basically, it was so perfectly timed because all this AI software for pulling songs apart and editing was just starting to come out. So this first cassette which I was showing you, which is what was sort of the black cassette which recorded live to dat, so it was just two tracks stereo recordings. So there were no mixes of it as such, it was just straight up. You know the masters, that's all that existed.
Alan D Boyd:And I managed to pull apart the drums, the bass, the guitars and the voice and do a slight remix on it now, because it's very reverb, heavy and noisy and all sorts of stuff. You couldn't quite get in there and separate everything perfectly, but it was enough to just be able to boost a few frequencies and I put it into Logic and started mixing it a little bit, which just gave it a bit more beef than it had had before. So that's the first tape. The second tape was done as an eight-track reel-to-reel recording with this guy, adam Sloan, who lived in Vancouver and was with a band called Perfume Tree and also did his own dub stuff. And that one I had the eight tracks which I sent to a company here in Oxford who digitized those. So I got the actual tracks tracks and so I remixed those.
Alan D Boyd:And then the third recording we did was done on a dat which was 16 track, so it was two a dats, uh, which was sort of our first digital format that we started working with proper, and those again were digitized. But it was really cool because there were some bits of tape, um disintegration that happened in them, so I was playing around with those a little bit. But in the end we kind of cleaned it up and I did the mixes uh, didn't add anything to it, wanted to keep it as what it was. And then we uh sent those to uh joseph, who's the a, and our guy uh for decades who's working on the project, and he sent it off to get mastered and that came back and went yeah, that sounds pretty cool and we couldn't believe, in a way, how well it stood up.
Alan D Boyd:Yeah, after that much time, you know yeah absolutely Well.
colleyc:even listening to it and I've listened to it a bunch of times I mean it sounds timeless. I mean it's just like it could have been recorded 10 years ago or like last week, like it feels relevant.
Alan D Boyd:um, thank you very much. I mean, I think that was, I think one of the things. That which struck me is that that comments come back from a few people going is this now or is this then? Is it real? Is it memorex? You know, and and and I think that that's um. You know, I do think there was a little bit of a zeitgeist that we were trying to encapsulate and be part of, which was this new kind of music that was coming in, sort of mixing between the american grunge stuff and the british sort of more ethereal shoegazy stuff, which wasn't even we didn't even call it shoegaze then, you know, that term existed but it was more derogatory, you know. We kind of really called it um, we kind of thought of ourselves as a psychedelic rock band, you know.
Alan D Boyd:You know a sort of indie alt psych band that was, you know, with big, loud guitars and all these noises and things like that sound and exactly and and you know, and there were challenges because I'd go sometimes be working with engineers and getting things mixed and going, no, no, the guitar needs to be louder than the vocal. They go, you can't do that, you can't make the guitar louder than the vocal. I say, yes, you can. You just push the faders and it is look they do it, they do it. No, it's not allowed. The kick must be there, this drum.
colleyc:And I thought, no, it doesn't have to be like this well, that's cool pushing the barriers, you know like seeing how far the sound can bring you trying to, trying to absolutely so it's. It's such a really good release too and and I was trying to pinpoint too like where there's certain levels that were changing, or like cause the songs were recording different, and it just flows so nicely on.
Alan D Boyd:It's just well, that's a.
Alan D Boyd:I got to give a big shout out to Christian who did the show. I think Montato is his last name and he's, I think he's based in Toronto and please, please, forgive me, christian, if I said your name wrong, but he, when I got the uh, the masters back, there was a few like oh, can you just tweak this one and make that one fit more like this? And he nailed it and it was just. It was really cool to have that, that final process, which is, I guess, the modern mastering techniques and what you can actually do and what you can actually do and what you can pull out and how you can make something feel and flow, and I guess that's what great albums are. They've got that feel and flow and he, he really brought that to it.
colleyc:Amazing, Amazing. So, as we kind of bring things to a close here on again, thanks so much. I've really loved listening to your your journey here over this.
Alan D Boyd:you know half an hour.
colleyc:I wanted to mention Little Sparta as well because I mean, I just once we set this up I listened to it a bit and it does have a different feel to it, but something you know, definitely that's you there. What would you say the um comparisons are, or the differences, I guess I would say, between movie land and little sparta, in your opinion?
Alan D Boyd:I think the one thing that that exists between the two of them is a love of the sort of sonic, the sonic landscape, the sonic, the sonic quality and the feeling in it. Um, and though Little Sparta could arguably be called a sort of folk, post-punk folk kind of band, there's a sense of space and a cinematic element to it, which I think Movie Land has too. There's this sort of sense of wanting to be opulent and cinematic in some way. And as a guitarist, I know I'm very much a, I'm a real strummer, you know like I'm. It's about chords and textures and noises and, um, you know, I, I, I think I'm pretty good at what I do, but you know, if it gets to sort of noodling and coming up and playing a blues jam, I might not sit in quite, quite right to that which is, which is fine, I'm happy with that, you know. And I, it's not that I don't want to play blues jams, it's just it's not the thing I do the best. But with little sparta, um, that sort of started when, when I came here and I was putting this band together, meeting people trying to do something, and eventually, um, I don't even know, I don't even know how the sort of sound developed. But eventually I met suzy honeyman, who was and is the violinist in the Mekons, and Susie came on for this track. We were asked to record for Fire Records for a James Joyce compilation, and from that point it was kind of, oh, this is what we need to have. And we were working with this poet, this guy, namederry mitchell, who he was really talented but you know he really burned me. In the end it was. You know, that was very unfortunate because we did some really good work together.
Alan D Boyd:But that took us to this sort of fire record stage and we had this seven or eight piece band and, um, we'd go around and that was the sort of 2005, 2006 and there were some really cool clubs. There was a place called the Spitz in Spittlefields Market that we used to play at Betsy Trotswood and a lot of these places have kind of gone now and you know I had a young family so my time was less to be able to do things. But Susie, scott Skinner, who's the drummer, and myself carried on and we did some. We would play art galleries and Susie's husband's quite a well-known painter named Jock McFadyen and we'd do openings with him and we'd play these really cool spaces and we kind of had this thing where we were playing music in and reacting to art, and then a lot of that was instrumental. Then eventually suzy said, oh, we can get sally from the mecons, maybe she'll sing a song or two with us. So we started getting sally to sing a few songs and that brought the next thing and so, yeah, so it's just been this thing where we kind of mix between our instrumental things that we're doing and I've got a few new songs I'm working on right now that are with Sally, and then actually I started singing again in the band.
Alan D Boyd:So it's this place where we kind of Little Sparta is much more you know, a kind of it's. I don't even know what to describe it as, but before I had a studio in London which I had to give up last year. It just became too expensive. Before I left we just set up and put down 10 tracks and we just turned on the mics and just started playing and just jamming them out. So it's very, you know, it's kind of like you know, that sort of the ideas behind can and stuff like that.
Alan D Boyd:Uh, you know, with a folky vibe to it, maybe a little bit, but suzy's got this really amazing way of playing, so there's this openness to it, and then I'll pull them together, do a few edits, add some instruments and then write some lyrics. Then if sally's passing through town, I'll make dinner and say I've made dinner, and then when she gets here you have to think and, and these things just sort of come together and they come up together every so often one or two come out here and there. But yeah, that's what's what Little Sparta is, and it's something I don't think. I think it's one of those things I'm never going to give up, but it's not something that we put massive amounts of effort into. It just happens when it happens. It's quite an organic thing.
colleyc:That's cool. That's cool. So, to end things up here, alan, what can we look forward to? I know Movie Land had some other things, possibly for 2025. And if there's anything else you'd like to share, please what does 2025 hold for you?
Alan D Boyd:Well, 2025, I mean the Movie Land thing is that on the back of putting out the old material, because I'm terrible like this. I just said to Jonathan. I said, look, if you're going to put that out, can I? I record some new songs as well? Yeah, okay, go for it, man. And you know so, here's a budget to do about four songs or whatever. And so I I went oh sorry, man, I just did an album of 10. Oh, okay, I guess we'll put that out.
Alan D Boyd:So there's an album coming. I think it's eight tracks in the end. Um, we picked for it, but um, it's called now and then before the beatles. We came up with that before the beatles said it, so it's then and now and now and then, but I guess it's a bit kind of like let it be by the replacements. Right, you know, right, we'll share it with them.
Alan D Boyd:We'll let them share it and that's, um, you know that's, that's a sort of couple of songs from you know were written specifically around the album coming out and then the summer from years over the last sort of five or 10 years, where I've had these songs sitting there. That sort of fit into that vein. So that's the Movie Land thing. And the first single is the 28th of March and I'll be in Vancouver on the 27th to play a show at the Red Gate of March and I'll be in Vancouver on the 27th to play a show at the Red Gate. Then the 29th they're having a decades, some sort of thing about decades happening at the six or four space. So I think I'm playing there as well, and I think the Junos are on the 30th and then I'm off to Edmonton where I'm playing at a place called the Cask and Barrel on the 5th with a full band. So that's going to be really fun. But then I'm playing at a place called the Cask and Barrel on the 5th with a full band. So that's going to be really fun.
Alan D Boyd:But then I'm also making films. So I've got a film I'm trying to make about UK session players which I've been working on for 15 years, kind of like the Wrecking Crew, but for London. I've got a film I'm trying to make about the artist Bill Fay, who just died a few weeks ago. It's really sad. We've been working together, uh, doing some interviews with him, and he's a very private man, but he asked me and his friend ray russell to work with him to make a film of his life, so we're seeing if we can get that finished. Um, yeah, and you know, that's hopefully what 2025 is going to bring. And then there's a very small possibility, but I might be working on a film about Neil Innes, who is the music guy from Monty Python.
Alan D Boyd:So, we'll see. You've got a full bucket I do I have a full bucket A?
colleyc:very full bucket. I love it.
Alan D Boyd:Now all I need is the money. That's right.
colleyc:That's right. Well, usually once all these things are set, that starts to flow, hopefully. I hope so. I hope so.
Alan D Boyd:It's an interesting little world right now, you know, and I think creative people are finding it hard because of, you know, digital world, social medias, you know streaming services all that that's affecting creative people of all sorts. But you know, I I tried to always sit back and think how lucky I am to have carved a path through this. You know, you know I'm not a millionaire but like I'm sitting in a room with like seven guitars and you know I was working on a Pro Tools session all day today and you know I'm out meeting amazing people making music and doing things. And you know I was working on a Pro Tools session all day today and you know I'm out meeting amazing people making music and doing things and you know I'm pretty lucky.
colleyc:Yeah, you're living your life. You're living the life you want to live, which is amazing, like it's great to carve out your journey the way you want it to be, and it sounds that you've done that or you're doing it. I mean it's.
Alan D Boyd:I'm working on it and I'm really looking forward to. You know it's nice to spend a lot more time in Canada, actually, and you know coming back and spending that time in Vancouver with the amazing support of the label, which has been so fun and so cool.
colleyc:And then you sort of, because I've been doing that it's been rediscovering places like my hometown, Edmonton, which is really fun and really cool. Well, you're always welcome back in Canada whenever you want.
Alan D Boyd:I want to come to Montreal again. I've never been to Quebec City. That's where I want to go to Quebec City, explore Montreal. That's it.
colleyc:Well, anytime you want to come play anywhere around here, come on down and it will be nice to meet you in person. And again, thanks so much for this, alan. It's been really insightful and I love your stories and the journey that you've had so far and the excitement of what's to come. So I wish you all the best with all of that and I'm looking forward to this uh, um, new stuff coming out in 2025 for movie thanks, man, and thanks for being you know, thanks for doing shows like this.
Alan D Boyd:It's people like you that get the music out there, so it's really important, so thank you so much for this. I appreciate that I appreciate that.
colleyc:Well, you have yourself a good one, and we'll talk soon bye, thank you.
Alan D Boyd:Guitar solo. Stood down on the ground. No pride, no pride. I knew that you were my God. Guitar solo. I am the sun, the moon, the light, the kiss, the dawn. No-transcript yeah.
