All their lives, Dana and Alden McWayne knew they wanted to be in a band together. After cutting their teeth at jazz jams around their hometown of Eugene, Oregon, they formed a duo simply bearing their first names and cut an EP titled Brothers in 2021. Over 2023’s Quiet Music For Young People, 2024’s Coyote, You’re My Star, and 2025's Speedo, Dana and Alden quickly established an eclectic, genre-agnostic sound drawn from their omnivorous musical upbringing — built on Dana’s saxophone and Alden’s drums, rooted in jazz, but pulling strains from indie, pop, rap, funk, pretty much everything.
Recorded in London at Malcolm Catto's studio, Papa’s Boat includes new faces and old. The duo’s backing band, Ebba Dankel (vocals and keys), Andrew Mitchell (bass), Eli Torgersen (vocals and guitar) and Salim Charvet (sax and synths) appear throughout as key voices on the album. Mei Semones, a friend of Alden’s from Berklee, studs her feather lite vocals into their psychedelic jazz sky on “Lee’s Greenhouse” while longtime collaborator Cinya Khan appears on “inthistogether.”
Dana and Alden have always had a wanderlust, something they credit to their maternal grandfather. Affectionately known as Papa, he was the kind of person others naturally gravitate towards. It was a photograph from one of his trips to Asia that inspired the album which doesn’t just commemorate their papa as a beloved character, but shares him with the world.
