For husband-and-wife Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland, life as professional musicians has given the pair more time together than the average couple could hope for. “We make it work and we’ve done it for so long we don’t really know much else,” said Doucet. “It’s been two decades of us touring together.”

The duo makes up the Canadian folk-rock-country band Whitehorse, which has been going steady since their self-titled debut record was released in 2011. Before launching Whitehorse over 12 years ago, the two toured together in each other’s respective bands, developing a unique chemistry on-stage and off. “We’ve toured together as Whitehorse, where there’s us as this shared entity and there’s no hierarchy, it’s just the two of us doing [our] thing. We’ve [also] toured together in different capacities, whether it’s Melissa’s band or my band, or touring as hired gun musicians for other artists… [like] Sarah McLachlan,” noted Doucet.

According to Doucet, the various opportunities afforded to the pair has forced them to learn how to adapt, a key aspect to their success as professional artists. “We’ve had to learn how to exist as different things together. We’ve [recorded] close to twenty albums worth of material together. We’ve sort of lost sight of what it means to tour apart,” he said.

“The fact that we’ve managed to make this thing work… this is the ultimate of mixing business with pleasure, or confusing things in life that should be gingerly left at a safe distance.”

While life together on the road can certainly be a challenge for any pair, McClelland said the two have been able to make it work for decades, with their current arrangement allowing them to spend more time together than if they were both soloists or part of separate groups. “We’ve always thought we’re sort of getting away with murder in some capacity or another. If we were at this stage in life as full-time working artists who were on the road all the time and we were not together, it would be very difficult to see how this would be sustainable.”

As Whitehorse, Doucet and McClelland have enjoyed their fair share of successes within the Canadian music industry. In 2013, the band’s sophomore album The Fate of the World Depends on This Kiss was shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize. In 2016, the pair won their first-ever Juno award, with their record Leave No Bridge Unburned taking home the prize for Adult Alternative Album of the Year.

This past January, Whitehorse released its eighth studio album, I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying, a brand-new set of 12 original songs inspired by the 1970s country music era. The record’s lead singles ‘Division 5’ and ‘Leave me as You Found Me’ were released last fall to critical acclaim.

Doucet described the new material as the band’s “most country album” to date and a return to Whitehorse’s roots.” [The new album] is definitely the most country record we’ve ever made, [but] the second most country record we ever made was the very first record we [released] 12 years ago. So [we’re sort of] coming full circle,” he said.

“There’s always been elements of southern sounds, western sounds… there’s always been country music elements in our work, even if we’ve deviated [away from that genre]. There was a time when we were inspired by experimental production, and we were looking to vintage Portishead, [and] Beck… people who have been experimental and managed to retain some of the elements of roots, or folk, or country,” Doucet added, as he reflected on some of the band’s inspirations.

While the pair often fits into the folk-rock category, over the years Whitehorse has avoided being pigeonholed into one specific genre, which has resulted in a diverse fanbase that spans generations. “Sometimes we’ll get two or three different generations within the same family [at a show], it’s never clear to us which generation dragged the other,” joked Doucet.

According to McClelland, the band’s decision to switch between various genres over the years is not dissimilar to the ways modern audiences consume a wide variety of music, often at the same time. “We’ve definitely kind of jumped from genre-to-genre in some ways, but I think it’s very representative of the ways music lovers experience music these days… I think it used to be a lot more regional and of your time and place, but now we have access to all types of music, to all eras, to all styles.

“I think that’s how true music lovers really consume music, we’re all over the map. And it’s definitely how we’ve wanted to create music, even though I do think there are those consistent through lines for us, [like] our storytelling, the two voices and Luke's guitar sound,” McClelland added.

On past live tours, Doucet and McClelland were often responsible for most, if not all, of their own instrumentals, with the two adding drums and keyboards to their respective guitar and bass duties. However, for their upcoming spring 2023 tour, Whitehorse has brought on Johnny Obercian as a drummer, which will allow the pair to focus on their main instruments and signing.

“It’s been a pretty fun setup with Johnny Obercian on drums, [me] on bass, and Luke on guitar. It’s pretty stripped down and simplified, but also really powerful,” remarked McClelland. While the group will play as a trio throughout most of their show, they still reserve time for the pair to play as a duo. “We do the portion of the show as just the two of us around a microphone, which is [something] we’ve done from the very beginning of Whitehorse, and I think it’s an important element of what we do.”

In support of I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying Whitehorse will be hitting the road this spring, playing 16 shows throughout Ontario. The tour officially gets underway on May 18 in Sarnia, before ending with a three-night stand in Toronto from June 14 to 16.

Whitehorse’s 2023 Ontario Tour will arrive in Kingston at Blu Martini on June 2. “It’s been a quiet winter; we’re getting a little antsy. We want to be on stage, we want to be playing these songs again,” McClelland said of the pair’s excitement for their upcoming shows.

With more than eight albums to their names and dozens of songs written over the past decade, preparing a set list for the tour has been a bit of a challenge, McClelland noted. “This is the first time it’s been really difficult to come up with a set list because our catalogue is so big now… But I think we put together a good set that kind of represents everything we’ve done and allows us to play a lot of the new stuff and also dig into [some of] the old stuff,” she said.

According to McClelland, the shows this spring will also serve as a bit of a homecoming for Whitehorse, as they make a return to Ontario after relocating to Winnipeg last year. “We’ve been living in Winnipeg for the last year, and [while] we love it here, we also miss Ontario. So, to be able to just spend the month meandering around Ontario in late spring just kind of sounds like a dream right now.”

Opening for Whitehorse on their upcoming tour will be Neville Quinlan’s Montreal group NQ Arbuckle. The three artists are well acquainted with each other, and Doucet has even produced a number of Quinlan’s albums.

Given the tone of Whitehorse’s new record, Doucet noted the timing was perfect for the two groups to tour together. “We sort of turned our shift back towards Americana and classic-era country music, and that probably makes our work more compatible than it’s ever been. There’s always been a symbiosis between us, it’s kind of the perfect fit,” he said.

Whitehorse plays Kingston’s Blu Martini on Friday, June 2, 2023 with opening act NQ Arbuckle. Showtime is set for 7:30 p.m. at the downtown Kingston venue. Posted: May 9, 2023