Gentleman Reg: CMW '09 Special

Gentleman Reg released his long-awaited fourth album, Jet Black, on Feb. 24. The disc is the man born Reg Vermue's first album since 2004's Darby & Joan and is a return to his brand of upbeat indie pop.

CHARTattack recently caught up with Reg to talk about spring cleaning and photo shoots with cranky horses.

Hometown:
Toronto

Members:
Gentleman Reg (vocals, guitar)
Francois Turenne (guitar)
Kelly McMichael (keyboards)
Greg Millson (drums)

Official website: www.gentlemanreg.com

CHARTattack: So, you're about to play the big industry event that is Canadian Music Week. What is the most shameless thing you've ever done to promote your band or yourself?
Gentleman Reg: That's a funny question, 'cause what should I tell you... hmm... I'm trying to think of a good answer. I don't know. The only things I can think of are too embarrassing to tell you. I guess I'll just say going up to people and giving my album to celebrities who I'd like to play with, or whatever. That's some shameless stuff I do. People like Daniel Lanois or Juliana Hatfield, or whoever I run into. I always give my record out. So that's kind of shameless, I guess.

What's the hardest part of being an up-and-coming artist?
Being broke and not having a lot of leverage in terms of what gigs you can take or how much you get paid, or riders or things like that. You're a little bit more at the mercy of other people and the industry.

How important is it for you and your band members to circulate and flirt with the audience before or after a show?
It's important to me, especially after. I'm generally the one selling my merch, so I just inherently meet the audience and stuff through doing that. I think it's totally important. I've always appreciated that when you see bands and stuff.

Have you ever stolen from someone else's rider? If so, who was it and what did you take?
They always have so much food, so I always eat. I'm not a big drinker, so that's not that important to me. I tour with a lot of bigger bands, and they always have fancy riders, especially in Europe. They get treated like kings and queens over there.

Have you ever been graded before according to CHARTattack's Rock 'N' Roll Report Cards?
I think so, years ago. I haven't played CMW in a long time, so I don't really remember. I know I did, but I don't remember when it was. [CMW 2005]

Have you done anything new or interesting this week?
Yeah, I guess so. What day is it? Oh, God. It's only Tuesday.

I'm sort of in this, like, spring fever mode, even though it's not spring yet. But I've been obsessively cleaning and I threw my mattress out on to my roof yesterday 'cause I'm buying a new bed. It doesn't sound very exciting, but it's very exciting.

I'm doing that all around. I'm getting rid of clutter in my life and just preparing for the new year. That's actually very exciting to me. I'm doing a million things like this and getting ready to release the record, which comes out next week. I don't know. That wasn't very interesting.

I did a photo shoot with a horse on a farm, with a white horse. It was really fun. That horse was very difficult to work with, but it's a horse, so... There's some amazing shots from it.

Gentleman Reg plays the Horseshoe Tavern on March 12 at 11:10 p.m. as part of the annual CHARTattack/Horseshoe/Canadian Music Week showcase.

Check out CHARTattack's official CMW microsite here.