Garret Gregory performing at the Flats Fest Music Festival held in Canal Flats, BC. on Aug. 20, 2022. Photo by Braden Spenc
Although 36-year-old Garret Gregory from Hanna, Alta. works for the Western Financial Group, he is becoming a rising music sensation garnering thousands of fans from his music.
Gregory has been making music since he was 14 years old. He started his first band in high school with a few friends called Rattle Cloud.
“We started playing rock music because we listened to a ton of rock back in the day,” says Gregory. “It was Creed, Nickelback, Default, Daughtery, we were doing a ton of that music.”
After performing and garnering interest in Hanna, Gregory and his band landed gigs in Edmonton and Red Deer.
Although he enjoyed making rock music, he realized that rock music in Alberta was not very big. He believed the province is very rural, country and farming based, so he made music to reflect that.
“We ended up playing some country music and the results of that show were big time. Our fanbase grew tenfold.”
As Gregory grew up, he drew inspiration from his older brother, a performer in a local band called Cadence.
“One day I was at one of their shows and I went; ‘man, I really want to do this’,” said Gregory.
It laid the groundwork for his music career and inspired him to start making covers of popular songs before moving on to write his own music.
“I kind of wanted to do my own stuff here, so I was like; ‘what the heck’s a 15-year-old kid going to write about’,” says Gregory.
“So I just wrote about girls and basic stuff that was just very, very vague and didn’t have very much meaning behind it.”
Gregory listened and learned as much as possible to help build his music writing skills.
Although he is a performer, he has a regular job working with Western Financial Group dealing with insurance for residents in Hanna.
He enjoys the balance from the opposing jobs as they give him regular cool downs between his daily and performer life.
In discussing his first single, Leavin’ You, Gregory notes the popularity of the song exceeded his expectations.
“I did not really expect much out of it,” said Gregory. “[…] I didn’t know how it was going to compare with everything else out there, so I was setting myself up so I wouldn’t be disappointed.”
Although his goal was to get his music out, people started to contact him about his work. With thousands of listeners online, Gregory never anticipated the success of his first song.
“It’s pretty shocking and humbling hearing that they’re enjoying the song,” said Gregory.
Gregory and his music have brought him to different venues in front of thousands of people.
From his earliest performance to being on stage at Nashville North, the Canadian National Exhibition and even the Calgary Stampede, it has all been a long, arduous journey he will never forget.
Gregory has plans to release three new singles with an album planned for December. He will continue to make music and has no plans of stopping anytime soon.
“I can’t wait to put out more music for people to listen to,” stated Gregory.
Daniel Gonzalez
ECA Review
