My debut solo album "Gem ii ini" (pronounced gemini) is now officially available worldwide on Vinyl and CD

About a year ago - I had just received the digital master for my debut solo album called Gem ii ini from Noah Mintz at Lacquer Channel Mastering in Toronto. Noah mastered my first full length album with The Good Luck Foundation in 2009. I did a quick blog about the album at that time, but here is an updated story with a bit more insight about the album now that the Vinyl and CD are now available worldwide.

Going back as far as 2020, I knew that I wanted this album to be called Gemini, in fact, I initially thought that maybe GEM II INI would be my next new band name as I have done in the past with bands of mine like The Good Luck Foundation and Reverie Band.

Due to the lockdown of our global pandemic in 2020, not knowing really how bad things would get for us all, I decided I knew what I wanted to do at that moment. It was time to make an album. For my first time, I was alone on the recording and production for this one.

I had previously always recorded my music with musicians and recording engineers at some really great recording studios in Toronto and Montreal.

This time was different, this album was an entirely homemade affair, recording the album in my parents basement other than drums and piano parts that were recorded at my good friend's home on and off over the course of five years.

The time had come to put all of my previous recording experiences to work while the world and I were for that matter were going through unprecedented changes to our ways of life.

On one end, self producing the album did create a lot of freedom for me to dig deeper into the age old craft of songwriting, experimenting with sounds and finding all kinds of inspiring references and happenings as I was refining the sound of the album.

It certainly was not all fun and fancy free, there were many challenges and revisions along the way, but it was very rewarding with every breakthrough along the way. I did do some recordings with other musicians during this time as well, but for the sake of this album, once the theme of lockdown was established, I decided early on with my producer hat on that this particular album would be all solo to reflect that time of isolation and disconnection and contemplation that we all experienced.

Throughout these years of work, I also began teaching music again after a bit of a break working in a corporate environment. I began to teach guitar, vocals and piano to at one point a maximum of 40 people a week.

Teaching a whole new batch of guitar players and musicians while also learning from them too. I found it so interesting to learn about all of the varied musical interests of my students and how today's musicians are discovering their music today. Very different from the days of Much Music, MTV, Radio, youtube and I-pods when I started teaching music lessons in 2005 that's for sure.

To my surprise, about half way through working on this album, I discovered that google had named their brand new A.I technology Gemini. Coincidentally, this website www.gemiiinimusic.com went live a full year before that.

I found that to be a pretty freaky coincidence, because the album name and my website for that matter were already live on social media and the concept art was already well underway through a remote collaboration with graphic artist and designer Regina Tirsgaard out of Copenhagen. I interpreted that coincidence about the gemini A.I thing as you're onto something, keep going.

The cliche'd race between man vs machine was on. It was also served as a catalyst of inspiration and purpose for me. It encouraged me in a way to fight for the age old craft of songwriting and playing instruments. I also went to many live concerts from many of my favorite artists post lockdown over this period of time as well. All of those concerts really were their own kind of therapy i'd say as we got to reintegrate back with society.

At some point I also decided that the album would only consist of full uninterrupted takes on this album, to really accentuate the "playing" and kind of get as close to how they used to do recordings back in the day on tape. It was my thought that if I did that, it would add a certain vibe and character to the album's sound.

Over this period of time, I also read and studied as much as I ever have before. Taking vocal lessons of my own, meeting many of my favorite musicians today who are all doing incredible things today with their music.

It was so reassuring to hear how many of us musicians encounter so many of the same struggles in a musical life, especially while the world was and still is undergoing so many changes and we were now "competing" against a.i artists..... a surreal thing to type even to this day.

I did hear many affirmations along the way that really encouraged me that I was on the right track, and to keep going.

For health reasons, I was also advised to take on some lifestyle changes during this time period including a long journey to sobriety with the help and support of my family, a great psychologist and some group work sessions and some serious alone time and studying.

This new lease on life personally did wonders for my imagination and creativity. Having always been a lover of reading autobiographies, hence my writing style there was a perfectly timed chapter that I read at one point from one of my favorite authors and comedians, the legendary Sir Billy Connolly.

In the summer of 2023 I think it was, I was really going through it, and his book Windswept and interesting was a perfect thing for me to have read at that time with where I was at. There was a particular chapter in that book about when it was time in Mr. Connolly's career to give up alcohol. He went on to mention that him quitting also helped inspire Ringo Starr to quit too.

In the book, Billy says that Ringo said he had to see that Billy could still be funny without it and when he saw that he was indeed, if not even funnier, Ringo got serious about giving it up as well.

Reading that book really inspired me, and I could relate with Ringo's thought process then. It was very familiar, I was certainly asking myself similar questions. Could I still play a show without a few drinks? Can I still record music without loosening up with beers first?

These were silent battles and questions that only I could answer for myself, and working on this album helped me process and answer those questions. So did my solo acoustic shows during this time period. I did one, than I did another and then another, and slowly but surely I was re writing the narrative my old self seemed to be so sure on. The same can be said about the recordings, no alcohol was consumed while making this album.

For me, the answer I arrived at was this. Absolutely you can still make music. You weren't drinking when you started loving, connecting and playing music to begin with, you just hadn't tried it that way in a long time. You're on the right track, keep going.

Early days recording the album in 2020.

Recording this album was an incredibly cathartic period of time in my life mixed with many highs and lows and everything in between. And I know I am not alone in sharing those sentiments over the past six years.

I ultimately recorded dozens of songs along the way which I'm sure you will hear at a later date as there are definitely more albums to come.

That being said, it wasn't until I put these 8 particular songs together in the order that they're in that I knew this was my debut solo album. Short and sweet, from Chaos to Clarity, 5 years boiled into 35 minutes.

I truly hope you enjoy Gem ii ini. I wholeheartedly stand by this work and I hope it is enjoyed for years to come.

A huge thank you to everyone who supports independent music. When it comes to music, I vote for team human, always will.

Click on the picture above if you'd like to order your copy of the album on Vinyl or CD. Shipping takes roughly a month to arrive to you.

A few last minute musical synchronicities:

The vinyl and cd of Gem ii ini became available this past Friday, May 29th 2026. A date that I had circled on the calendar a while back as it's my birthday weekend and I thought it would be a pretty cool gift to myself if I could pull that off in time. A few days before the release, I discovered that this was also the release date of Paul McCartney's new album The Boys of Dungeon Lane.

I also discovered that the 29th of May was also the death anniversary of the late, great Jeff Buckley. Both of those bits of musical news felt pretty special to me as they are both big influences of mine.

Finally, as I was writing this blog post, my vinyl copies arrived of these two beautiful new albums! I had to put them on while I finished writing this obviously.

Feeling the love bigtime. You're on the right track, keep going.

Paul McCartney's The Boys of Dungeon Lane on vinyl. There are many colours offered with this release. I chose the green vinyl, sticking to my birthday theme, Emerald is my birthstone.

Ringo Starr's amazing new album Long Long Road on vinyl. For this one, I chose the Purple vinyl edition because it matches Ringo's shirt! Which apparently is the same shirt he wore while recording Abbey Road.

Thanks for reading this far! Peace and Love to all. God Bless music.