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Kuta – Inland Doves (Interview + New Music Video)

Kuta – Inland Doves (Interview + New Music Video)

Inland Doves is a brand new project based out of Toronto and they’ve just dropped a new video for the project’s first single “Kuta”. It’s an incredible and beautifully layered first track about “how we remember a passed moment through the fog of nostalgia” and features Phantom High’s Peril on vocals and Our Lady Peace’s Jason Pierce on drums. Along with the single comes a lofi retro-style video, and if you ever wanted to see Peril projected to the size of a building, this is the video for you! Click below to check it out and for an interview with Inland Doves!

Interview with Inland Doves

Inland Doves is a brand new band, what inspired you to launch this project?

My pals were in a band in like 2001 and I asked them to come to my spot to track a song on the computer – they were blown away by automated verbs and pans – and I was floored by their talent and gift of making beautiful songs – We put a couple songs together and one day at a gig I told them ” I will throw this chair over this balcony if you let me join the band” – they said do it, I did it and 2 days later they called me to ask why I wasn’t at band rehearsal!  

One problem – wtf was I gonna play?  I ended up buying a Roland sp-808 from L&M (well rented…i might still owe them actually shhh) and sampling some of our studio tracks to play live. Now I was in a rock band called Osmosis in the early 2000s with my pals that turned into life long brothers (what’s up Dim, Steve, Jeff and little Philipo!) We played around town at all the legendary spots and did some out of province gigs and it was awesome…One day they kicked me out of the band for reasons we won’t discuss lol – and they went on to make some great music without me. I was a bit crushed by that and decided I would make the best fucking record ever on my own – well, it wasn’t….def had a couple great songs but I had no clue what I was doing aside from the technical aspect of making them.

I was fortunate to be lifelong pals with a guy from one of my fav bands ever Duncan Coutts the bass player from Our Lady Peace – I hit him with some songs, he kinda dug them and we spent the better part of two years hanging out writing and crafting some of those “great ideas”. In all fairness I just didn’t have the drive and dedication to keep pushing and he was getting super busy working with one of the baddest ass people i know FRANKIE WHYTE….So that was the end of my short lived music “career”

Ever since I have continued to make music for fun – but last year I booked a trip to Bali and I said to myself I am going to make a record while I am there.  I had no idea what it was gonna be – but I knew I was gonna do it.  I bought a launchkey mini, some shitty speakers and took my focusrite i/o , a mic and packed it up….

I rented a beautiful villa in North Kuta and made one bedroom my “studio”. Everyday I  made myself make one song….didn’t matter what it was but I was gonna make a song every day…I ended up making 15 of them that I liked and when I got home I got to work finishing them all off. I was fortunate to have one of my best pals Jason Pierce from OLP play drums on a bunch of them and Duncan play bass on a couple as well!

Wow that’s a long fucking answer – sorry for anyone who had to read it.

You just released your first single “Kuta” off your upcoming album Kerobokan, can you tell us about the lyrics and inspiration behind the song?

So my incredible friend and one of the most talented musicians, performers, artists and humans I know wrote the lyrics – with this project I am so open to anyone creating their own vision of my songs – and they did just that – I asked what it’s about and was told ” it’s  just about how we remember a  passed moment through the fog of nostalgia” and that worked for me.

Can you tell us about the concept behind the video for Kuta?

Honestly? – that video was more about having a visual vehicle for the song than about what it is – I knew I wanted a lofi retro feel and for some reason I had this vision of a kid getting chased by a car – sorta John Carpenter Christine vibes meets that apple commercial from the superbowl in the 80s – but yeah not too much thought aside from that went into it.

Do you have any behind the stories from the shoot that you can share with us?

Hmm, my buddies kid really loves french fries! oh and for some reason when he runs he smiles? (Cole fries on me for life pal!)

The video features Phantom High’s singer, projected to a monstrous size, what is the connection between the two bands and will you be working with them more in the future?

I met Peril last year and saw them live at The Bovine – i will admit their music isnt really my jam, but fuck me! They are one of the most captivating and realest bands I have ever seen….not to mention every single one of them is an incredible musician. 

I hit them up to make a video for them and we have become family ever since. I directed their debut video that’s gonna drop in December and could not be more proud of what we created together. Short story, I sent Peril the song, they loved it, I asked if they would sing on it and BOOM! The next morning I got the vocal stem you hear on the track – I cut one little clip out of it – but what is on the track is so real, raw and as far as I am concerned straight up beautiful

You’ve created videos for some of Canada’s coolest alternative bands, including Our Lady Peace, USS and Finger Eleven to name a few. What are a few of your favourite videos that you’ve made to date?

This is tough – with the exception of a couple unnamed people I love everything I do – being able to work with artists I respect and admire is so amazing…..I would say the the best , worst, most incredible and completely insane thing I ever made was with James Black making the video for Finger Elevens “Not Going To be Afraid” 6 months, 2000 cups of coffee and far too many “fun sticks” and together we made something so special together that we had no business even attempting to make  – it will always be the closest project to my heart and one of the pieces I am most proud of.

What are a few things you learned from shooting all those great videos for other artists that you applied to your own video?

Um, I should have applied some of those things heh – I don’t really like this video. I thought for so long that “hey you make videos yours should be the best” and yeah, that didn’t happen….to be honest I just wanted a visual to get the song into peoples ears that otherwise wouldn’t hear it….might sound lame but it’s true.


We’re in the midst of a global pandemic and Toronto’s music scene has been taking some pretty hard hits throughout. What do you think our music scene will look like when this is all said and done?

Damn you’re getting deep now eh? It’s gonna take a lot more than a pandemic to hurt this scene. I feel for my touring family and everyone in the biz affected by this…..but when we can gig again it is just going to reinforce the fact that our scene is world class and the people that love it, live it and make it happen day to day are some of the best humans on this planet.

What can fans expect from your upcoming album Kerobokan?

Songs that don’t all sound like KUTA .  This thing is a mix up, it’s still synth driven forsure, but things get different and I have some surprises in terms of people that are on it! Oh and if I have any fans at this point that would be great! If I ever sell tshirts I hope you guys buy one!

Did the prison inspire the name for this upcoming album? If not, what did?

HA! I actually know a guy who is in there right now…it’s not as bad as you think, dude has a cell phone, new clothes and Gojek (uber eats but cooler) I don’t really like that guy so I kinda wish it was worse 🙂 

But Kerobokan is like saying Parkdale – It is part of Badung Regency which i like saying West Toronto – and KUTA would be like the Junction….My villa was in Kuta and thus the name KUTA for the first single and Kerobokan for the album….I guess I could of called the record Etobicoke and the first single Bloor west if I wrote it there.

What are you working on next?

Finishing the next two singles now and really looking to book a haircut,

Do you have any last words for our readers during these crazy times?

Keep your head up and never eat a day old egg salad sandwich.

To follow Inland Doves and hear the new music as it comes visit www.facebook.com/InlandDoves

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About The Author

Jesse Read

Jesse Read is a videographer, writer and editor for Dropout Entertainment. As a musician as well as a videographer, Jesse has travelled the country numerous times, playing alongside and listening to the stories of hundreds of artists. A few of those are documented on this site. For video's, interviews & features follow the contact us tab!

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