Storied Studio Whiz Kevin Doyle's Nicaraguan Plan

By Aaron Brophy

Veteran recording engineer/music producer Kevin Doyle's recent efforts could soon be helping a number of young people in Nicaragua learn English language skills and improve their lives.

Doyle, a "semi-retired" studio master, recently spent three months at the ABC School in Granada, Nicaragua helping teach English as a second language. Based on his experience there he launched a GoFundMe campaign on March 4 to help the school pay for supplies and much-needed building renovations.

With a formidable legacy as a recording engineer and producer, Doyle has worked with such greats as Hall & Oates and Anne Murray, won multiple Juno Awards and contributed to Grammy Award-winning projects by Glenn Gould. However, it's this humanitarian work that seems to motivate Doyle these days.

"It makes you feel great," says Doyle of helping others. And he should know. His fundraiser quickly achieved its financial goal of $3,500 (actually raising $3,750) and he's now starting to look into the best ways to get the money to the school.

Samaritanmag spoke to Doyle about his time in Nicaragua, what motivated him and the unlikely lifestyle differences that allowed him to work on KISS and Glenn Gould records at the same time.

Before I get started about Nicaragua, I wanted to ask, are you're the only person on the planet who has worked on both KISS records and Glenn Gould records?

That's a definite yes. Even at the same time, if you believe that. Glenn was nocturnal so I would work with him from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Ironically, I was working with Gene [Simmons] and Paul [Stanley] from KISS and those guys are teetotallers. They're normal people. They go to work at 10 in the morning and call for dinner at five, lead very, very normal lives, which is weird for mega-rock stars.

Could you explain what you were doing in Nicaragua? -- Continue reading this feature on the SamaritanMag website.