Gentleman Reg Returns

If Gentleman Reg were any other up-and-coming artist, a five-year gap between albums would have hurt his career — and maybe even destroyed it.

But the Toronto-based singer/songwriter was far from forgotten when he released Jet Black on Tuesday.

The man born Reg Vermue didn't rest on his laurels after 2004's Darby & Joan, since he appeared in films like Shortbus. But he was forced to record Jet Black as a free agent after his former label, Three Gut Records, folded in 2005. Everything was different, and that carried over to the album.

"In the past, I'd recorded with a band," Reg says. "We just had songs and we'd go record them all at once. That's actually incredibly different from what we did this time."

Reg and drummer Greg Millson began recording Jet Black at producer Dave Draves' Little Bullhorn studio in Ottawa in 2007. The three laid some tracks down and then invited a slew of guests — including Constantines singer/guitarist Bry Webb, ex-Organ singer Katie Sketch, Land Of Talk singer/guitarist Liz Powell and Reg's former Hidden Cameras bandmate Laura Barrett — to help record Jet Black.

Powell co-wrote opening track "Coastline," while Sketch duets on the traditional "Rewind" and lends back-up vocals to several tracks. Webb has appeared on every Reg album and was once a member of his backing band. While Reg has known most of these musicians for quite some time, they helped him create an album that's his most upbeat and hooky to date.

"I just treated the songs a little less preciously and a little less like finished things," he says. "I sort of was open to, you know, even if we put them in the computer and chopped them up a bit.

"There was lots of that, which I'd never, never done before with my songs. I was just very open to different things this time."

Two other songs, including the dance-oriented "We're In A Thunderstorm," were added later.

Once Jet Black was finished, it needed a label to release it. After shopping the record around, Reg settled on Arts & Crafts. It was a natural choice, since Webb's Constantines are now on the label that's also home to Broken Social Scene (with whom Reg has collaborated on several occasions) and Stars and Feist, with whom he's toured.

"We've been around each other for years," Reg says of Arts & Crafts. "We've been close, but there's never been the opportunity to be on their label 'til now. I was always on Three Gut.

"It took a long time for the deal to come together... It was sort of a case of finding the right [label]."

Reg says he doesn't regret the gap between albums and the search for a new record company.

"It's sort of frustrating, and then you realize, 'Oh, this was how this was supposed to happen.'"

Gentleman Reg plans to tour extensively in support of Jet Black and a spring tour is in the works. He'll play Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern on March 12 as part of the annual CHARTattack/Horseshoe Tavern Canadian Music Week showcases. You can also see him at The Montreal House in Peterborough, Ont. on March 11 and at Beauty Bar in Austin, Texas on March 21 as part of the South By Southwest Music Festival.