By Will McGuirk
Regina Gently, the drag alter ego of Gentleman Reg, released her debut album, “Don’t Wait To Love Me” on Friday Sep 18. The album comes after a long sabbatical away from making music. Both Reg and Regina had been performing for two decades sharing stages with Austra, Peaches, Fucked Up and Owen Pallett among others. But burnt-out and disillusioned with the life of a Canadian artist, and to regain some focus the decision was made to step away. The album title alludes to the way art is under-appreciated in the country. Too often artists must make it oversees or down south to garner attention at home. (Covid-19 is only making that more obvious)
Although away from the limelight studying make-up artistry, Gently was still writing songs and now she is stepping back in, up and out with an album of shimmering chunky synth dance tracks, including collaborations with Isla Craig, Lex Valentine, Kelly McMichael, and no stranger to Slowcity.ca, John ORegan aka Diamond Rings.
The record kicks off the heels with the joys of “Vacation” and the celebratory House vibes continue through the following numbers but its the spoken word album closer “Do I Have To Do Everything My Fucking Self?” which snaps it up like a Batman slapping Robin memes.
Slowcity.ca reached out by email and Gently reached right back. . .
Slowcity.ca: When was “Vacation” written - it seems so on point now during this pandemic? We do all need a vacation - has it taken on another meaning for you too because of Covid?
Regina Gently: “Yes we do! Having everything shut down and being forced to stay at home is a form of Vacation but certainly not the kind any of us wanted. We’ll certainly need a vacation from this vacation. But no it was actually written years ago. With all of these songs I was trying to up my relatability and come up with universal sentiments, and I came up with this sort of mix between Madonna’s ‘Holiday’ lyrically and Robyn’s ‘Call Your Girlfriend’ sonically.”
SC: What was the reason you quit music, was it for a ‘vacation’ - and more importantly what got you back ?
RG: “Ha. It was artistic burnout and poverty and approaching my 40’s. After touring my one woman show in 2015 across Canada from Montreal to Victoria for a summer i arrived back home and realized I’d only just broken even financially on the tour and I just kind of decided I had to stop and reassess my life. I realized I needed some new skills and went to College and studied Makeup artistry then worked in the makeup industry for a year….which ironically absolutely made me hate makeup! But the whole time I was sort of writing and recording very sporadically the songs that became this album. So even though it makes no logical sense I just can’t seem leave music behind!”
SC: Happy to see John O'Regan in the credits - what was John's contribution - and as he has been very quiet lately how did you get him involved?
RG: “This album originally was going to be a second Light Fires album, my band with Jamie Bunton. (Our first album came out 2013). But part way through the writing I realized i didn’t want to make another ‘indie’ sounding dance album, I wanted a real classic sounding dance album, that you could play next to stuff from the 80’s and 90’s, and so John suggested I meet Matt and Mark Thibideau as they make synth based techno music and their studio is like an analogue dream, full of drum machines and synths and we just hit it off. Then John lives down the hall from the brothers we just called him one day to come add some backup vocals, not sure if he’d want to and he said yes! As it turns out even though our voices are very different they blend extremely well, so its hard to pick him out but he’s there on a few tracks like ‘Good People’.”
SC: “All My Rich Friends” has a Pet Shop Boys “Being Boring” vibe in its celebration of nostalgia but there’s a similar sadness in how , “some of us just got lucky” - How did that song come about?
RG: “Ooooh what a great reference! We definitely were playing lots of Pet Shop Boys in the studio during recording including that track. That’s a very personal track, maybe the most on the album. I’ve sort of spent the last 20 years watching my friends and peers and exes race by me in their art careers achieving these successes that I just never seem to reach. And just when i think ‘oh there’s no way anyone else close to me is going to blow up’, it happens again! And now it’s happening on T.V. and social media which are whole other beasts! So it’s about that whole idea of ‘why do some people have great success and others fail?’ What part of it is luck vs talent vs timing vs perseverance etc. And at the end of the day we’re all actually still the same people we were before but the realities around us shift. And then to pull it away from any sappiness we made it the longest and most club ready track on the album. The second half is all instrumental, so it can almost have two lives this song.”
SC: There’s no difference between pretending to be brave and being brave, that came to my mind during ‘Work It Out’; “If you’re insecure don’t put that shit on her”, “act like you can work it out” - “don’t fall back in old patterns. . step it up”, Where does your bravery come from - to dance like everyone’s watching?
RG: “Totally that’s exactly it. I was a huge fan of rap when I was a teenager, and specially female rappers. MC Lyte has this track ‘Act like you know’ and I’ve just always kept that line in my head as like a life motto. Like a ‘fake it til you make it’ kind of sentiment. And there’s an abusive sentiment in that line as well. Like stop taking your shit out on other people and figure out how to deal. I think my bravery comes from everyone watching. I somehow am most comfortable in my skin when I’m on stage when there’s a mic in front of me. Then i retreat to my solo life and recharge.”
SC: So much to unpack in “Do I Have to. . .” - a rap with a slap? - an acceptance speech for Drag Race? - why did you do that one, as spoken word and not as a song?
RG: “Well that comes from the ending to my one woman show. And in the show it is a rap, but, it’s a comedy based show, so there’s a humorous element to it as I certainly am not a rapper. . . and it’s longer and has music. But then over the years I would often just throw this version into my live music sets, as more of a throw down beat poetry vibe, and also to catch my breath and stop dancing, and I found it was often the showstopper in the middle of a set of dance tracks to suddenly go there.
I never thought it would work in the context of an album, but I thought maybe as the long lost a capella secret track. And it also gives people a very real sense of what I do live as my shows often have just as much banter as they do music. And unless you’ve seen me live you’d never know that, so this is a taste. Also, the line ‘do i have to do everything my fucking self?’ is easily one of the best lines I’ve ever written! ha.”
SC: The title of the album is about how Canada doesn't treasure its artists until another country does - There are places in Canada who do value artists - here in Oshawa not at all but in Guelph they do - or seem to from what I see - why do you think some places do and why Canada overall doesn't seem to? What changes need to be made?
RG: “Yah that’s the never ending debate. I wish I had the solution. But every time I go to Europe to travel or perform everything just seems to make so much more sense. I don’t know if it’s the inferiority complex or our smaller population mixed with being so spread out. But we really do seem to wait until others approve of something before we adopt it back as our own.”
SC: Because of Covid shows are on hold, some artists may draw some sense of value from an audience - referring back to the title, we may have to wait to love you in person so how do we in the meantime? Are you planning a global zoom dance off, a from your house house music night? How are you dealing with having a new record out at this time of no shows?
RG: “Something we’re all figuring out. I have been streaming live shows and DJ sets but kind of put that on pause for the summer. But getting back into that and working with newer, platforms like Twitch and using Instagram live a bunch. I’m going to be filming some ‘live’ performances to post and there are some music videos coming and honestly you’ll likely know as soon as I know. I’m basically up for anything at this point!”