Teacher Interview: Music with Mr. Geddes

This interview by Grade 12 student Claire Ru was originally published in The Jag, Issue 08, the student-run newspaper at St. Michaels University School.

By Claire Ru '26

For this issue, I interviewed Mr. Geddes again, but this time on a different topic. You may have noticed a band involving SMUS faculty and alumni has emerged recently. As a part of the band, Mr. Geddes shared insight on pursuing dreams and passions at any stage of life.

As a graduating student, I found this interview especially inspiring, as it sheds light on how even if some of our passions are not connected to our primary career, they can still be pursued and realized through consistent effort.

Could you please briefly introduce your band and your music to us?

The band is called Door D’or, which refers to the Golden Door, because "or" in French is gold.

The band features the following members;

Mat Geddes, vocals, guitar
Evan Fryer, keys
Owen Sanquist-Sherman, bass
Darin Steinkey, drums
Ry Clayton, lead guitar

We've just released our first album. It's called the Exquisite Dream, and it's got nine originals and a cover song. There are a couple of songs that I wrote myself, for example, Fiber Optics and Walk on Water, and I've played those in the chapel before. The other songs were collaborations. The first song we wrote together was called Shelter, which was written in the chapel mostly because we rehearsed there a lot. Mr. Bateman has also collaborated with us musically and he designed the art for the album cover.

What intrigued you to start engaging with music?

We always had the radio on in the car, so I just would listen and look out the window. We didn't have iPads when I was a kid, so the window was your screen. I went on lots of road trips, and because we live in a beautiful part of the world, there's a lot to see. The music helped me just get off into a different space, like a daydream. Additionally, I love to sing. So, that is where it started.

Then I think, especially in my teenage years, I listened to a lot of music on a Walkman. I listened to everything, from rap to metal to pop. It was just that there was a lot of good music coming out, and so it was inspiring. It really helped me get out of my normal day to those cool, little imaginative worlds. It gives me that kind of access to emotions or things that I haven't experienced, but other people are telling me about.

What prompted you to build a band?

I guess it's just always been a dream, but mostly it's reconnecting with friends, and we had these songs that were relevant in the current world. We wanted to put them out there. That's the main thing.

It's also fun performing live, which is totally different from just making music. There's something that's quite special. I've always been a concert junkie, and I love to go to as many live concerts as I can. I think being part of that and being on the stage is really fun. The way that we operate is that we don't play the same way every time. We're trying to have some improvisation, so that's really exciting because you never know where it's going to go. Sometimes, you're able to get to these new places that you didn't think you could get to, that are beyond what you've done before.

We kickstarted this year to build a band, because some friends wanted us to play some songs at their festival. So we were like "okay, well, we’ve got some songs. Let's get a set together.” But then that festival didn't happen. It fell apart, but it got us going, we played our first show and that momentum led to the album.

How do you balance your career and your passion?

I always wanted to do music as a career, but then I got this teaching job, and it was just a great place to be. It's fun, it's challenging, and there was lots of room for upward motion and lots of lifelong learning. That, coupled with house parenting, plus having a family, amounted to more than 20 years. It was tough to do music as well. I was still writing songs, but not a ton, because I would get home after all of that stuff and feel pretty tired. There was not a lot of creative juice left.

During COVID, and just after that, my kids were getting older, doing their own things, so I started putting more time into [music]. I picked up my guitar more and spent more time with other people playing music, which led to the creation of the album. I was influenced by the people around me. Mike, who’s a previous house parent, was a big reason why I enjoy playing, because he's very creative and super fun to be around. He returned home from living in Oman for 15 years. That was a catalyst.

What are some challenges you encounter in building the band and the album?

It's really hard to get five people together at any given time, so just managing schedules is one challenge, but also, to do any project like this, you have to have a huge commitment and a vision. You just have to keep going one step at a time, and there are way more obstacles than things that are helping you, so you really just have to go for it. If your heart desires it, you just have to do it. Thankfully, Darin, who's the drummer, also considers putting out an album to be a lifelong dream for him, so the two of us could push this all the way forward.

It has been pretty stressful, because there's so much work to getting yourself out there. It's not so much the record–it was super fun to be in the studio, and it's not so much creating the songs, although that requires work too. It was all the things like building a website, making different profiles on social media, promoting yourself, and these are all things that are different from actually making music and playing music. These tasks probably take ten times as long as creating the music.

Are there any interesting stories behind the process of creating the album?

When we were getting ready for the album, we had this one song sort of start to appear during one rehearsal. The next day, I went out and sat by the ocean in the sun. It was a beautiful day, and I just wrote down a whole bunch of possible lyrics. I had my guitar, so I figured out the chord changes for the songs.

At our next rehearsal, we started a voice memo recording and we just started playing, and for whatever reason, it was a very inspired performance. Though I didn't have ideas organized into verses, all of the lyrics seemed to work. That take was so good, and it's the first time we ever played the song. We ended up duplicating that performance for the record. It is unusual for a song to be born all at once, so this was in that special flow state that people sometimes reach. The song is called “In the Radiance”.

In your first officially released album, what is your favourite song? Why?

I think "Shelter" is the most interesting song. It was the first one that we wrote. It was on my birthday in 2021. We had a jam, and that song started there. It's a song that starts with finding a way through the darkness and sums up a lot of the themes in the album, whether that was a global pandemic, or the conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, or difficult situations or relationships, there are tough times. It's like a storm; the storm is horrible when it's there, and it seems very dangerous. It's threatening, but it will pass, and there will be sunshine one day.

I think that the theme for our band, as suggested by its name, is that your inner self can walk through the golden door to something better. So, I think that's my favorite song because it sums up so much of what this project has given us, which is a way to get together and connect musically, that we can work through all of that difficulty together. The song starts with finding a way through the darkness, and it ends with “here comes the sun”, so that’s nice.

Is there anything you would like to add?

I've also recorded a solo album coming out, and it's different. It's more acoustic. I recorded it in Nashville with top musicians and Steve Dawson, a top producer and superb guitarist, so thatwas really exciting.

Door d’Or has an album release show on June 12th at Herald Street Brewworks downtown, and Colin Craveiro from grounds, he's in the band called Sail Cassady. They are going to open for us. Also, Owen has a band with Julian and Gage called The Foundations, and they are gonna open as well. Then we've been invited to play this big festival in Vancouver on July 11th called Khatsalano festival. There are over a hundred bands. We get to play on the Vine Stage at 11am to kick off the festival, so that's really exciting too.

We really do need the support of the community to help us, otherwise the algorithms don't know that anyone wants to listen to us. So stream on!

People can support the band the most by buying the album digitally or on vinyl. You can also stream and support using the following;

Door d'Or

https://doordormusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-exquisite-dream

https://www.youtube.com/@Doordormusic

Subscribe on YouTube

Follow on Insta/FB/Tiktok @doordormusic

Stream on Spotify/Apple/Amazon etc.

Mat Geddes - solo album

Fall 2026 release The Gedi Night

First single “Shake the World” drops May 30, 2026

https://matgeddes.bandcamp.com/track/shake-the-world