50 years into his music career, Gil Moore’s commitment to music as a “unifying force” includes education, accessibility and wellness
By Mitchell Fox | Nov. 11, 2025
Perhaps the only thing about Gil Moore that signifies a rockstar is his long, tangled hair.
Clad in a camouflage sweater, t-shirt and black jeans, leaning slightly back on a rolling chair and talking about his busy week, Moore doesn’t appear to revel in the fact there are 25 Gold and Platinum awards in the hallway outside his office door. His fame is communicated in the pictures—or in one case, an elaborate black-and-white drawing of him behind the drum kit—on the wall, but the rest of the office is cluttered, covered in stacks of files and lined with family photos.
For the drummer of Triumph, one of Canada’s most successful rock bands of the 1970s and 80s, there are more important things than being a performer. For him, music is a “unifying force.” It’s a pursuit that took him around the globe and ultimately back to his hometown of Mississauga, Ont., where his focus is now education, opportunity and awareness.
“Music has a role that I’m hopefully going to push from whatever little pulpit I have in my little spot in the world,” said Moore. “I want to try to push it as hard as I can, because I think music is undervalued.”
Moore is the founder and CEO of Metalworks Institute—a post-secondary school developing Canadian music talent on stage and behind the scenes—and Metalworks Studio, where global talents such as Prince, Drake and Guns N’ Roses have recorded albums. He also co-founded SoundsUnite, a tech start-up-turned-charity that aims to unify people around music.
While the studio started out as a recording space for Triumph in 1977, Metalworks has come to represent much more. Drawing from his own experience with abusive teachers in high school, Moore started the Metalworks Institute in 2005 with the mindset that “it’s the school of Rock and the kids will rule.”
“Part of me thinks I’m the last person in the world that would ever operate a school…but I guess I was determined to have a different outcome for young people,” he said.
In 2016, Moore created SoundsUnite alongside long-time friend and music industry professional Brian Huston and Metalworks alumnus and OVO engineer Noel Cadastre. The SoundsUnite app started out as a professional tool—essentially Metalworks on the Cloud—but developed into a multifaceted music education and production program that Huston says continues to develop.
When Dr. Allison Sekuler, chief neuroscientist at Baycrest Hospital in Toronto, asked if the platform could be used to share music with her dementia patients, Huston says he and Moore realized the program could do much more—it could support caregivers, at-risk youth organizations, hospitals and essentially anyone in need.
“What we’ve done is built a platform for education, wellness and collaboration,” Huston summarized.
The result was the formation of SoundsUnite Canada, a non-profit aiming to provide access to music education, wellness and collaboration to all Canadian students, as well as at-risk youth and marginalized communities.
For Moore, this represented a way to “help people harness the power of music to heal the soul.” He devotes much of his time to research on music and the brain.
Huston said he’s seen this in action, as playing Elvis Presley or The Beatles for his mother with dementia energizes her.
“‘Music is therapeutic’ was a theory. But recently it’s become factual and it’s going to become more healing for people as more innovation and technology comes out,” he said.
Huston met Moore when he delivered cases of beer to the studio—which he jokes made them instant best friends. Many years and projects later, Huston sees Moore as someone who loves music, but also a thoughtful soul.
“If you were to ask him in his 20s, he probably thought he was going to be a rock and roll star until he died, like Mick Jagger,” he said.
With Triumph resurging—they were featured in a documentary in 2021, had a tribute album in honour of 50 years of their music this year and are even planning a tour—and Metalworks and SoundsUnite always keeping him busy, Moore still makes time for students, friends and others interested in music. He goes to the Metalworks graduation each year, speaking with students and exemplifying a successful pursuit of music.
“It’s about passing on experience and knowledge to the next generation. And he’s very good at that,” Huston said.
In October, Moore was named Mississauga’s Citizen of the Year, awarded by the Cornerstone Association of Realtors. The award wasn’t for his music with Triumph—which most recently earned them an induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame—but for his involvement in the community. For him, it was a “nice and humbling” award from a home he has never wanted to leave. Despite travelling the world and having every chance to live a star’s life in New York or Hollywood, he now lives a few blocks away from his family home.
He says Mississauga is a music city, as city council has embraced music’s importance. The City released its first Music Strategy in 2022, which includes objectives to increase frequency of live music events, create employment for musicians, make city music spaces more affordable and create music pathways for youth.
“If Metalworks can play a role in [Mississauga’s musical pursuits], or if I can be influential through things like the Citizen of the Year, then good,” Moore said. “Whatever influence I have, I’m going to try to use it to push the music message.”
Moore’s love for being behind the scenes isn’t just technical. Even with awards on his shelf and his name in several halls and walks of fame, he doesn’t seem to flaunt anything.
But Moore knows it took time to look beyond driving his band to the top. In his early twenties, like any young man, his brain “needed a few more minutes in the microwave.” He sees today’s younger generations as mature and capable beyond their years, but they need music, the arts and sports to realize that potential.
“Society’s job is they got to let the kids keep it real,” he said. “Part of that is they’ve got to encourage collaboration, and a lot of that collaboration comes from music, sports and other creative arts and team activities.”
Metalworks recently started up an Artist Development Program, which offers classes to middle- and high-school students. Moore says anyone pursuing music—as a career or as amateurs—needs knowledge of the business, industry and recording technology.
“I always encourage people to take a really good look in the mirror before they decide to be pros. Amateur music is incredible, because you can do it until the day you die,” he said. “It’s very important for people in middle and high school to have access to as many resources as possible, because they’ve been cut back in the public education area.”
In June, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) voted to scrap the Itinerant Music Instructor (IMI) program, which employs 74 music instructors who travel between schools, by the 2026-27 school year as part of balancing their budget.
Moore doesn’t think anyone should lay a finger on music.
“If they wanted to fund sports and creative arts, they could do it. They just don’t have the will to do it,” Moore said. “To me, as a citizen, as a taxpayer, it’s disgusting. It’s public money. And it’s like, ‘How dare you take these things away from young people?’”
With help from Huston, Moore and Triumph band members Rick Emmett and Mike Levine got involved with the Coalition for Music Education in Canada (CMEC), which seeks to raise awareness for music education’s “vital role” in Canadian schools. The CMEC recently gathered over 7,000 petition signatures against the TDSB’s proposal to scrap the IMI program.
Each May, the CMEC hosts Music Monday, a celebration of music in schools across Canada. For the 2025 edition, Moore connected with CMEC executive director Stacy Sinclair to put together a livestreamed performance of Triumph’s “Hold On” by a youth orchestra at Metalworks. Triumph and “Hold On” will also contribute to the next Music Monday on May 4, 2026.
To Huston, Triumph’s extensive involvement with Music Monday and Moore’s willingness to give away free subscriptions to SoundsUnite showcased the difference between him and many artists of his time.
“Gil went over the top and offered his studio for free and helped get the orchestra together…and it became epic,” Huston said.
“I wish other people that have had the same experience and success as an artist would be able to expand and give back more like he has,” he added.
Moore compares music to sports often. As a kid, he wanted to be an NHL player. When “Lay It On The Line,” one of Triumph’s biggest songs, was used for Rogers commercials during the NHL playoffs, he felt a nice pat on the back as a song that has taken on an aspirational meaning spread across the country.
“It’s the closest I’ll ever get to playing in the NHL. I was at a Stanley Cup playoff game. I was playing drums, not left wing,” he said.
Triumph played at Maple Leaf Gardens and the Colisée de Québec and even helped induct the 2022 Hockey Hall of Fame class. But Moore didn’t bring that up—he seems much more eager to talk about spreading music.
Earlier in the day, Moore had been in Metalworks’ warehouse looking at new light fixtures with some of his employees. Like them, he was ecstatic.
“I still get excited about that, as silly as it sounds,” he said. “I don’t feel like I have a job. I feel like I’ve been escaped through life without ever having a real job.”
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