Gamal “Skinny Fabulous” Doyle has been in the music industry for the past 22 years and will release his first album called BAD on January 12. BAD is an acronym for Beyond A Doubt.
An official launch will be held at The Residence Restaurant and Bar, Port of Spain, from 7.30 pm on January 12.
For those wondering why it has taken the musician, singer and songwriter known for his hits like 2019’s Famalay done with Machel Montano and Bunji Garlin or 2014’s Worst Behaviour, so long to do an album, he candidly said it was because he was guilty of falling into the trap of festival music.
“I, myself, was guilty of being comfortable in seeing soca music as just a touring genre; a genre that is based around performances.
“As long as I was fully booked every year, I did not see the importance of an album. I was getting to generate revenue, I was seeing fans and I was doing what I loved. So having an album did not take priority because I did not see the importance as much as I see it now.”
[caption id="attachment_995305" align="alignnone" width="1024"] BAD has 23 tracks and includes collaborations with Caribbean artistes in various genres. [/caption]
However, soca in an ever-increasing digital world has illustrated to him the importance of good streaming numbers and having a strong body of work associated with his brand and name. It is important to him for people googling his name to easily find this.
His commitments for 2023 include dominating the digital space more.
The album is part of this plan. He has been working on the album for the last year and a half.
The 23-track album showcases his vocal diversity and ability and takes the listener through a variety of moods, he said.
Some of the album’s singles are already in rotation on the airwaves. One of those is Come Home, featuring Nailah Blackman.
The tracks are being slowly and strategically released and features collaborations with Nessa Preppy, Jamaican dancehall artistes like Charly Black and Bounty Killer, and St Martin’s singer/songwriter/producer Oswald .
It also features many of the other genres which have fused with soca over the years including Afrobeats and dancehall. Doing this allows him not to be boxed into one particular range or sound.
There is even a groovy soca track which he approaches from a “very soft and soothing angle,” he said.
“Then there is the very aggressive typical Skinny Fabulous on there as well. As you go through the album you will be able to appreciate the softer, more vocally-tame Skinny, and then there is the beast.”
There is a song called Apology which speaks to taking someone’s love for granted and not realising that the person meant a lot until they were gone.
For him, BAD also meant expressing the contents of his heart.
“Whatever mood I am in, in the studio. It may not work in a J’Ouvert party, it may not work for crossing the stage but it works in terms of how honest I am, with myself, in that moment.
“I think people would appreciate that more, if we allow them to appreciate it more,” he s
