Toronto-Based Alt. Rocker Gary Edward Allen Reaches Out To His Inner Child on “First Day of School Part 1”
Bluesy, twangy, and reflective, Gary Edward Allen’s “First Day of School Part 1” – available now – is an ode to one’s inner child and the immutable person within us.
“I like the idea of being true to yourself and knowing that the core of you is just as true at seven as it at 27 or 54 or however old you are,” Allen says.
If I could run away …. but not to follow
I’m so easily led astray …
Once I passed a note to the child I once was…
The lyrics are sparse, with the music – introspective, brooding, and then sunny – conveying most of the feeling and message. Allen originally wrote the song for a band he was in called Ottaway Broder Allen, and it was written as an homage to childhood and reincarnation. It’s a song about feeling like you’ve been here before, as well as about true love – with a bit of an apocalyptic twist.
“I remember when my old band recorded it, I explained, ‘Yeah, it’s about living many lives, constantly searching for your soulmate, finding them, and then the Rapture comes and you look at your soulmate and say, ‘Ok, we’ve been searching for each other for many lifetimes, we finally found each other, and now we need to get the f*ck out of dodge before the Rapture comes.’”
That was back in 2014, and Allen’s bandmates looked at him like he was more than a little bit crazy. However, now in 2024 on the heels of a pandemic, “First Day of School Part 1” seems pretty darn prescient.
For the song’s “new and improved” version, Allen recorded the track with Tim Bovaconti and AJ Ottaway, and the song is split into three separate sections. The wholly instrumental “First Day of School Part 2” was released on YouTube a little less than a year ago, and Part 3 might also eventually be in the works. “Stay tuned,” Allen says mischievously.
“I didn’t deliberately record it out of order, but after I did the rough tracks for the entire thing, I was very much in a lead guitar frame of mind, so that [Part 2] got finished first,” he explains.
Gary Edward Allen started playing guitar at seven years old before falling in love with it as a teenager after listening to Queen and KISS. After a brief stint in a music class, he taught himself different guitar-playing styles using his love of different music genres. By his early 20s, he gradually overcame his performance shyness by playing live in Ottawa at various clubs.
After moving to Vancouver in the mid-90s, Allen took a hiatus from performing live but never stopped playing the guitar and singing. When Allen entered his 40s, he decided to return to performing music after meeting indie artist Robb Hill. Not long afterward, he would record his first songs with producer Doug Fury before meeting AJ Ottaway and Jake Broder and recording their debut album Ottaway Broder Allen. This would lead to a local tour in Vancouver as well as a second album, Invictus, that was made and released in 2015.
Sometime after Allen moved from Vancouver to Toronto and met his partner Tara (also from Ottawa, but as fate would have it, they didn’t meet while in the city), the band called it quits. By 2017, Allen would become a solo artist who collaborated with his former bandmate AJ mixing new songs and recording with producer Tim Bovaconti.
What have you been up to since you released the last song?
Hey great to hear from you .
Before “Understood” came out I’d already started recording “First Day of School “.
I originally recorded it with my old band Ottaway Broder Allen back in 2014 and I wanted to redo it, and bring it back to life hahaha….
I decided to break it up into 3 parts, it’s a nine-minute song now; I wrote a new section for the middle and actually finished that first and put it out, my friend and producer AJ Ottaway did a psychedelic video for it.
By autumn 2023 I finished the guitars and vocals for parts one and three but it took a bit of time to get it mixed and get a video made for part one ….
I’ve a band as well now, Lon Chaney Movie, here in Toronto and we were pretty busy last summer and Fall so my focus gets shifted around a bit, or scattered hahaha I can’t tell sometimes.
But here it is “First Day of School Part One” “….
Tell us about “First Day of School Part One”
I wrote it about about looking back at childhood and recognizing that a lot of who we are as adults is rooted in the first things we loved as kids, our first passion is usually true for most of our lives.
For me it’s music; music is just running through my mind constantly.
People talk to me and I just hear it as a melody in my head …. a lot of times I just sing people’s words right back to them and turn it into a little song.
I recorded parts of it with Tim Bovaconti, the rhythm, and lead guitars.
The vocals I did with AJ Ottaway at a studio in Toronto and then AJ produced and mixed it.
He’s my best friend and tech guy hahaha, he does all my online stuff.
I always joke he works harder on my songs than I do cuz it might take 20 minutes or a few hours a week to write a song but he’s gonna mix it and tweak it and find a bass player or a percussionist and upload it and all the things I don’t know how to do ….
Anyways, yeah it’s about becoming aware of your passions in life and seeing them through.
I also write a bit about reincarnation; I’m not religious, I’m not even sure what I believe, and I don’t know what the answers are or even what the QUESTIONS are, but I am fascinated by the feeling that maybe we’ve been here before, that maybe we are here in this life to make it right, that we’ve another shot at joy and happiness.
We all have had experiences where you might have a dream about someone or think of someone you haven’t spoken to in years and the next day they reach out to you …
That’s unexplainable hahaha, there’s no answer to that, and I love the wonder of those things.”
How do you think technology has impacted the way we listen to and create music today?
Well it’s leveled the playing field, technology.
You don’t need a record company or deal to get your music out.
The flip side obviously is it’s hard to be heard amongst everything going on; it’s a 24-hour constant news entertainment world of people with very short attention spans.
It’s hard to wave people down, so to speak…
But anyone can record quality music in their home and can send it anywhere in the world.
You can create a repertoire of music and just share it with everyone you can.
Maybe I’m naive but I always feel I’m at the beginning of good things.
25 years ago I wouldn’t have had a clue how to record or get music around to people.
Now I can record vocals at someone’s home studio, take the tracks and do the guitars somewhere else, and send them to someone to play drums on …..
Technology has opened it up for everyone.
What’s your go-to song when you need an instant mood boost?
OH, that’s a great question.
Off the top of my head, there’s a song called “Diaboloney” by The Ghandarvas.
I just want to leap around when I hear it, it’s just such good, scrappy rock and roll.
Anything by The Trews, “Not Ready to Go”, that’s just such an infectiously catchy song.
The Arkells are another favourite band …
… and Metric! “Help I’m Alive”, that’s one of my favourite songs. The first time I heard that I loved it from the first note but when it got to that sort of Sweet Jane riff I literally put my shoes on, waited for the song to finish and went and bought the CD.
What are your plans for spring and summer?
Well, First Day of School Part Three is done and ready so I’ll get a video made for that and put it out in August.
Each part will have its own video so they can kind of be their own song yes but I’m also toying with the idea of getting a video made for the entire 9 minute song to have a version of it like that, hahaha my version of a rock opera.
My band Lon Chaney Movie is going into the studio to record our first batch of songs.
We are Enrico Ferrari on drums, Neil Folkard on bass, and myself on guitar and vocals.
We have a few shows booked this summer; Linsmore Tavern on Thursday, May 30 and Tail of the Junction on Saturday, June 22 and a few other tentative things.
And booking solo acoustic shows in between.