Gentleman Reg: Nomad, Underground & Military Brat

Gay Music: In the Key of Q

In the Key of Q is a weekly podcast featuring inspiring Queer musicians from around the world as they share stories, inspirations and of course their music.

Gentleman Reg hails from Toronto in Canada. He's a singer songwriter, drag artist, DJ and makeup artist. He has released seven full-length albums with various bands, including Light Fires, and Regina Gently. A former member of the group Hidden Cameras, Reg has also sung is also sung with Broken Social Scene and Owen Pallett.

Intriguingly he also had a cameo in the film Shortbus, which this year sees a rerelease.

Reg had a nomadic upbringing. With a military pilot father, he grew up in both Germany and Canada. Eventually settling in the small town of Guelph he found himself surrounded by music, not least because of the indie-celebrating festival, Hillside.

Eventually releasing his own music, he worked with many different bands and guises including the highly popular Hidden Cameras.

He has a striking look with white hair and pale skin, and eventually learned to embrace people's wrong assumption that he was albino. And as the effeminate kid in school, from an early age he learned to roll with is Otherness.

Gentleman Reg embraced online living during the pandemic and found himself not only entertaining his old audience but swathes of new people who never usually visited bars. He is an advocate of the alternative side of the queer scene, and this was a natural extension of that, reaching audiences for whom mainstream queer living mostly ignored.

Additional Material

• Gentleman Reg on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp
• Gentleman Reg on Twitter, Instagram
• Gentleman Reg homepage

If you enjoyed this episode why not take a listen to Nick Vaan.

In the Key of Q is a weekly 30-40 minute podcast publishing every Tuesday. I’m your host Dan Hall, and in each episode, I chat candidly with a gay/bi musician about their life and music.

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Enjoy the music of previous guests by listening to these playlists with tracks selected by the artists themselves.

Credits

• The podcast can be reached on email and on social media at Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. The podcast’s forever home can be found here.
• Theme tune is by Paul Leonidou.
• Press & PR by Paul Smith.
• Many thanks to Kaj and Moray for their continued support.
• In the Key of Q is presented and produced by Dan Hall and made at Pup Media. Dan has recently produced the landmark BBC film, "Freddie Mercury: The Final Act" (dir. James Rogan) and is the producer of the podcast series Been There Done That. For audio or video production inquiries Dan can be reached here or at Talent Manager.

Would you like to appear on the show? Or have an artist you'd like to recommend, please tell them to get in touch via email.