The Trews drummer Chris Gormley has given the phrase “Good Morning,” a new musical twist.
And you can credit the pandemic.
From our newsroom to your inbox at noon, the latest headlines, stories, opinion and photos from the Toronto Sun.
Thanks for signing up!
A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.
The next issue of Your Midday Sun will soon be in your inbox.
Gormley — an Ajax native who joined the East Coast-formed, Hamilton-based rock band in 2018 — found himself idle during the COVID lockdown, so he began a side project called The Whisky Hunter during which he reviewed whiskys and wrote songs about them.
But then he and his wife welcomed twins Gracie and Patrick in May 2020 and he thought he should make his music more age-appropriate.
Thus the song, Good Morning, was born.
“They’re daddy’s biggest fans and they love all my songs, “ said Gormley, down the line from his home in Mississauga.
“It just turns out all my songs (were) about drinking and whisky and ‘Raise your glass,’ and ‘Pour myself a whisky,’ and ‘Lord, give me a bourbon.’ And that’s all cute when you’re in the house but then the kids start going to daycare singing my songs and teachers were like, ‘Hey, your kids always talk about whisky.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, dear Lord.’ So just for fun I thought I would try to mix it up.”
Gormley shared the beginnings of Good Morning that he used to sing to his twins in the morning with his Whisky Hunter collaborator-producer Carl Jennings and the two came up with what began as “a little ditty” and turned it into a full-fledged tune.
RECOMMENDED VIDEO
“He was like, ‘This is great,’” said Gormley. “And I needed some lyrics to the verse. And he and I, no word of a lie, we poured ourselves a whisky and we wrote the words in three minutes flat. And the song was done and I just put it out under the Whisky Hunter. And I was like, ‘I know this is a departure from the Whisky Hunter but it’s just got a nice, happy, hopeful vibe,’ and people are really reacting to it.”
“It’s more than just a song for my children, which it was initially. It’s a song for everyone who has to face and deal with the morning, which is everybody,” Gormley said. “It’s like a nice, warm hug of a song.”
If you want to hear the song live, The Whisky Hunter will open for Jennings band, Freedom Train, on May 12 at the El Mocambo in Toronto.
jstevenson@postmedia.com
