Music or life, The Best Ain't Happened Yet

Ryan Gaio remembers growing up in a Niagara-on-the-Lake full of local young musicians with plenty of places to showcase their original music. 

With the upcoming release of his album The Best Ain’t Happened Yet, and an April 1 performance at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 124, he’s hoping to get the ball rolling in town once again. 

Gaio was in Grade 7 at St. Michael Catholic Elementary School when he first began taking guitar lessons from Bruce Jones, a Brazilian-Canadian guitarist and former frequent collaborator with the Niagara Rhythm Section.

He was inspired by a friend, Dylan Turner, who at the time was in a band called As Above So Below. 

“We refereed soccer together back in the day,” says Gaio, “and he was like the rock star in town. His band played the legion for one of my friend’s birthday parties. I knew right then that I wanted to do that, and Bruce was his guitar teacher.”

So returning to the same venue to debut his own songs is a no-brainer for the enthusiastic 30-year-old who is now living in downtown Toronto and teaching English and history at the independent, progressive York School.

Gaio put out a CD of original songs about 10 years ago and played a show at the Sandtrap Pub & Grill. But for many years he put music on the back-burner as he finished an undergraduate degree at Western University, then hightailed it to the University of New Brunswick for a Masters in creative writing before attending teacher’s college in Toronto. 

“I guess I thought I needed to grow up and get a job,” he laughs. “But lately I was finding that I had no passion project. I needed to do something for my soul. When I was a kid, I always said that when I grew up I wanted to be Tom Petty. In the last couple of years I just decided that I wanted to put my music out in the world and express myself.”

The influence of Petty, as well as the Beach Boys, Sam Roberts and even classics from the 50s can be heard in the four songs from the album that have already hit streaming services such as Spotify. 

“When I was a kid, my grandparents always had the classic oldies on their radio on their Concession 1 farm,” remembers Gaio. “That specific AM radio jukebox sound stuck with me. I love those harmonies and the oldies retro sound.”

Headed for a Heartache is a mid-tempo number with crunchy guitars and soaring background vocals. Haunted features some clever word play, a nifty piano solo and a chorus of “shoo bops” backing up Ryan’s lead vocal. So Much Younger Then is Gaio’s reminiscence about life in NOTL and attending Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School. And Song for Cecilia is a paean to the patron saint of music. 

“It’s my prayer to the rock and roll gods,” he laughs about Song for Cecilia. “I grew up going to Catholic school, so we learned all about the saints. It’s my plea to St. Cecilia to help me create some good songs.”

A fifth song from the album, a love song appropriately, is set to drop on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14. The full album will be released on Spotify on March 16. 

Gaio says many of the 10 songs on the album were written in Niagara-on-the-Lake, while others were created during his years studying in London and Fredericton. 

“They all just came to me,” Gaio explains. “I didn’t sit down and labour over them, I didn’t force them out. They just kind of emerged. It’s for that reason that I’m doing it and I’m hoping to inspire other people to do it in NOTL.”

Gaio recorded the numbers with a loose collection of friends and colleagues in the Toronto area, a group he refers to as his own Traveling Wilburys. 

“We recorded it in various different locations here,” he says. “One of my friends has a home studio, so that became our home base. But we recorded tracks wherever we needed to, at our bass player’s house, at a keyboard player’s house.”

The album title perfectly summarizes Gaio’s positive view on life. The Best Ain’t Happened Yet celebrates, he says, what’s gotten him to where he is now, but also looks forward to what is to come in the future. 

“It’s about not resting on your laurels,” he says of the title song. “There’s a line in it that says ‘Living’s only living if the best ain’t happened yet.’ It’s the idea that you have to keep on moving on, looking to the future. My return to music fits in with that attitude.”

“This has reinforced the joy in my journey, not in the destination,” adds Gaio. “I’m almost sad in a way that the album is done because it’s been so nice to have something to work toward. It really felt good to do, and I don’t want to not do it anymore.”

Another local musician, Matt Meagher, will open the April 1 show at the legion. 

“We grew up together, we went to Beavers together,” laughs Gaio. “He went to St. Davids Public School and Niagara District. He was in a couple of bands back in the day, Honour Among Thieves and Pindles. His music is guitar-based rock like mine.”

Gaio is hoping the show at the legion is just the start of something bigger. 

“I want to see shows back at Simcoe Park,” he says. “I remember original rock bands playing their tunes there, I remember my guitar teacher playing at St. Mark’s. NOTL is not just a tourist destination. I want to inspire other local performers to do this, I hope we can create a hub for the performing arts.”

Tickets for the April 1 album release party at the Legion are $10 in advance, $15 at the door, and are available by visiting ryangaio.eventbrite.ca.