¬MAKING ELEGANCE ON A NUDIST BEACH
Creating the Album & the Band: Dom’s story
Elegance On a Nudist Beach is the self-titled debut album effort recorded by Dom Hemalas, a Lebanese Canadian multi-instrumentalist based in Montreal. He wrote and performed all the instrumentals and vocals and mixed and mastered the album on his own. Why? He was excited by the challenge!
Dom arrived in Montreal at 18 years old around the same time his best friend had also moved from Lebanon. They’d played together back home as a duo and cut their teeth on blues and rock, jamming, improvising and soon after, recording on a 4-track.
Freshly relocated in the same city, they formed the indie rock band Heroes & Villains, recording two albums at Hotel 2 Tango studios, with Howard Bilerman of Arcade Fire fame at the helm.
Though the other two founders of the group eventually moved from Montreal–one to Europe, the other to the U.S.–their long-standing friendship has allowed Heroes & Villains to continue making records remotely and occasionally in person.
But Dom is “not just a drummer”–he is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. As the global environment shifted at the onset of the pandemic, Dom decided to turn crisis into opportunity and record the songs he’d written in the past and in more recent times, allowing his love of the creative process and music production to shine fully for the whole world to see.
In the studio, jumping from the drums to the bass, guitars, keyboards, vocals and many other instruments, the album started taking shape in his Montreal basement. He would find the journey to be incredibly rewarding yet challenging.


Putting the band together & their goal:

After many hours putting this LP together with a lot of attention to detail, the idea of only releasing it online wasn’t fathomable.

The quest for finding band members began back in February 2023. While pursuing his career as a working drummer in Montreal, Dom had developed friendships going beyond the formal corporate gig, which helped in recruiting the musicians.

The goal was to play the album live on August 25th 2023 at the legendary Casa Del Popolo. They agreed that in order to prepare for that date, they’d play 4 to 5 gigs in order to get tight, build chemistry and start creating a buzz around the band!

The Band:

Lead singer and guitarist:
Dom Hemalas has been an active drummer in Montreal for close to 20 years. Initially on drums with Heroes & Villains and other cats, he is today regularly hired to back serious players. Singing, his passion for harmonies and well-crafted instrumental arrangements are what set him apart.


Keyboardist/pianist:
His closest musical friend in the city, the highly respected keyboard & piano session musician, Dave Lines, was enthusiastic to jump back in the psychedelic rock pool and put his sorcery to good use!








Bassist:
Next was John Gurnsey, a busy musician and teacher in town. They had collaborated in A Devil’s Din, and Dom reached out to him to see if he’d like to join on bass.

Lead guitarist:
Then there’s Chuck Doucet, a virtuoso guitarist, teacher and super chill dude they had played with in the past. Luckily, he agreed to be part of this.

The Drums:
Dom had thought that being a working drummer would help in recruiting a fellow drummer. It did not! Most were co-workers who either weren’t interested in being in an original band or simply couldn’t do it.

Yoann Gasniere, a Frenchman who had recently arrived in Montreal, responded enthusiastically to the different influences mentioned in the ad. After an audition, it was decided he’d be the drummer for the short 6-month period he would be in Montreal! They lucked out with a great guy who fit right in.

Inspiration:

Since childhood, Dom has been inspired by The Flaming Lips, Guided By Voices, Pink Floyd, The Beach Boys, and the Beatles, to name a few.

Soon after picking up the drumsticks, guitar became his closest instrument, and songwriting soon occupied a lot of his time. The songs express everyday existentialism–processing difficult relationships and his experience living with Crohn’s disease.

Having spent most of his musical life recording with friends and professionals, recording on his own became a predominant activity, even more so when the pandemic hit us all in early 2020.



More and more, Dom sought out the sensation of freedom he felt when recording alone in the studio. When the pandemic started, as all gigs got cancelled, the best place to be was in the basement. He decided it was time to start recording what would come to be his first LP, Elegance On a Nudist Beach.

The songs were largely recorded in his basement. When the pandemic started settling down, Dom was also able to use his jam space in the East end of Montreal to record late at night when needed.

The LP started taking shape over the coming weeks and months and would end up taking 3 years. The learning curve was huge–from production to songwriting to becoming more proficient on the bass and piano. Most of the songs were about 70% there early on, but once they were up for recording, occasional riffs or a whole new section had to be come up with on the spot.

Dom considered outside help for mixing the album but quickly realized he would have to do the job on his own. After stumbling on the title from George Martin’s book, All You Need Is Ears, he felt fuelled with the faith he could pull it off!

Once the mixes started to get to his liking, the finish line was in sight. All that was left was finding the right sequencing and then mastering the album, which he did on his own, teaching himself as he went.

Dom’s experience with Crohn’s:

On a more private note, Dom has be living with an autoimmune chronic condition, Crohn’s, for the past 7 years. The disease causes inflammation and irritation in your digestive tract.

Living with this disease has been a difficult adjustment, and the road to remission is still a challenge.

Achieving his long lost goal to release a solo album became a priority. After an invasive surgery 4 years ago, time on Earth suddenly felt much more precious and limited.

While taking medication that makes one’s immunity much more fragile, Dom caught Covid-19. He was isolated from everyone and stayed in the basement for a few weeks. That’s when he decided to start recording the album.


Album Cover Trivia

In case you’re wondering, the title was an inside joke that came up on the nudist beach in Toronto. While on tour with Heroes & Villains, Dom was standing there wearing his blazer when everyone around wasn’t wearing anything. He declared right then and there “if one day I get to record my solo album, it’ll be called Elegance On a Nudist Beach”.

His friends thought it was a great idea–they even snapped a photo on classic film of him on the beach, staring down the lens with a smoldering gaze, like a male model in a Gillette ad. That photo would later be developed the old school way and become the album cover.

Most of the songs were written in Montreal. All the material started on an acoustic guitar.