Gentleman Reg

It’s often rare to find bold and beautiful faces of the Toronto indie music scene on the east-end of the city. After all, it’s ridiculously far from all the music venues and hip bars; to most on the west-end, anything east of Yonge St. is irrelevant and almost a blur of obscurity. But on this warm Saturday afternoon, I am sitting at Jet Fuel Coffee on Parliament St. with one of the coolest people in Toronto – Reg Vermue. Or as folks call him, Gentleman Reg. This is his neighbourhood – well our neighbourhood, and as we sit down for a drink before Reg heads off to the gym and attempts to tackle some laundry, we chat about his recent residency at the Drake Hotel, playing encores and a new album in the works.

The Singing Lamb: So it’s the one year anniversary of your last album, Jet Black – have you recorded anything new since then?

Reg: Well we put out a digital EP – two songs are remixes but there were four songs we recorded. But besides that, I’ve been writing and doing a bunch of demos with Heather Kirby from Ohbijou and it’s been going really well. Part of doing this residency was trying new music so we’re playing about 4-5 new songs each week. It’s like the first time I’m writing with a label so it’s interesting, there are rules now!

Is having a label a good or bad thing?

Reg: It’s good because I want it to be a really good record; I don’t want a mediocre record.

Do you think any of your past records have been mediocre?

Reg: The very first one I did – it came out in 2000, which nobody knows – I would say that was mediocre.

Do you ever go back and listen to it?

Reg: I was listening to it a little while ago because this friend who was playing bass with us for a little bit wanted to play a song off of it. And just last week, someone at the residency wanted to buy the album which was so interesting to me because I forget that people even know it, so I brought them a copy. And I also forget it’s sort of not up to me to decide what people will like – if someone wants to buy it, its cool. I just can’t play anything off of it because it was ten years ago.

Do you even remember how to play any of those songs?

Reg: No, absolutely not!

Let’s talk about your February residency at the Drake Hotel – why that venue?

Reg: We were looking at the Tranzac, the Rivoli, and the Cameron house and then it was about who was available and that got narrowed down to the Tranzac and the Drake. Say what you will about the Drake, I like the basement; at least during the week. But honestly, they’ve been nothing but amazing to us and it’s going well for a Wednesday night; they should be nice to us! I like the aesthetic, I like to dress up for my shows and I like the Tranzac but it’s old and dirty. It’s a fine room, it’s just not my personal aesthetic; this feels right. I’ve had many people who said they couldn’t come see me because it was at the Drake and two friends broke their rule by coming to see me, but whatever! It’s fine, people are coming.

The bill each week is very diverse – what do you think it is about your music that’s so universal and comparable to all those bands?

Reg: Well I guess it says more about my taste in music because I chose all the bands and part of it was based on availability and who could play which weeks; some bands weren’t available at all but about half the bands, I’ve never seen so it was exciting for me because I was experiencing it for the first time. Of course I checked them out first and they’re all so good.

How does it feel to headline these shows?

Reg: We had no idea how this would turn out; part of this thing is that we’re the perpetual opener so these were the first headlining shows in a long time! We actually had no idea who would show up and obviously people are coming to see the other bands too but this has been a very interesting experiment so far.

And you can play encores too!

Reg: It’s great! That’s one of the coolest things is that we can play as long as we want, we can play encores and mess around and play new stuff – there have been some scrappy moments and we can get away with them because people know that there will be some new songs. The encore thing is great because there are definitely times on tour opening where in theory you could put on an encore or people would want it but you just aren’t allowed or its not the way it works.

So when should we expect a new album?

Reg: I don’t know! Hopefully by the end of May we’ll have a record worked out and ready to record.

And finally, if you were a singing animal, what would you be?

Reg: Some sort of albino animal because I’m always getting people telling me – like this past week, someone was at the zoo and they saw these albino reindeer and they said ‘Wow, we saw these albino reindeer and it reminded us of you!’ – anything white reminds people of me! So what would I be? Maybe an albino reindeer; they’re graceful, they probably have long eyelashes and are cute!

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Don’t forget to catch the last instalment of Gentleman Reg’s February Heavy Head Residency at the Drake Hotel today! Doors are 9PM and tickets will be on sale for $7.00 at the venue! Opening for Reg will be Evening Hymns and Everything All The Time!

For more Gentleman Reg,
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/gentlemanreg