“It was very, very joyful. I don’t really remember saying the words that I said," said Justin Gray, Humber music professor and 2026 Grammy Award winner for Best Immersive Audio Album, trying to recall his acceptance speech from the stage of the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles Sunday. "I remember standing there and feeling good and feeling present,”
The musical journey that led to the Grammys in L.A. began in Gray's hometown of Toronto, when he was still in middle school. He told Humber Et Cetera he knew what he wanted from life shortly after he held a bass for the first time in his hands back when he was in grade seven.
Later, Gray started at Humber as a bass student, completed the program and then went to India for quite some time.
There he studied Indian classical music before eventually coming back to Toronto to do his master’s degree at York University in Ethnomusicology.
Along the way Gray has performed jazz and in a variety of global music traditions like Indian classical music, flamenco music, Afro-Cuban music and some Persian music.
“And at the same time, I’ve just always been kind of equally fond of and passionate about the world of the production side of music,” Gray said.
He said he eventually began to produce some of the records that he was playing on and built a studio in his house.
Gray said he made this decision about a decade ago that he would slow things down on the performing side and be more focused as a producer and an engineer.
He said this was a big transition period for him. He has since worked on various records for the artists in Toronto but also internationally.
“This whole immersive audio part of it is that I really love, I really love the concept. I’ve always been very fond of the idea of music being presented as a three-dimensional experience,” Gray said.
He built a Dolby Atmos studio, one of the first of its kind in the world, but certainly the first in Canada for music production.
“I did it just because I felt passionate about it. I felt like it was something that musically I wanted to express and explore,” Gray said.
He said that he has watched the Grammys since he was a kid as his parents are “absolute music lovers.” They have always loved watching all the award shows the Grammys, Emmys and the Oscars as a way of celebrating art.
Gray said he has played for audiences way bigger than the Grammys before but there was something about the place when he stepped in, just the energy in the place itself.
“And you’re looking around, you know people, and everyone’s dressed up beautifully and I don’t know there’s quite an energy in the room. And so the red carpet is fun, it’s fast and you’re just getting kind of pushed through and seeing folks left and right,” he said.
Gray said that the pace of the show was intense and that they really run a tight ship there.
He said it is probably because of the amount of work they have to get done and the production value is off the charts. He could see how everyone was just so good at what they do.
As the ceremony went on, Gray said he could see the category moving up and he naturally got butterflies, and it was not just him. His team and his wife could all feel it, too.
“I think that’s why we do it, right? I mean in the sense of the whole joy of people being together in the same place is I think sharing that energy,” he said.
Gray said the whole process of making the album and the recognition for the nomination has been intense and emotional for him.
“You just look out and you recognize in that moment what you wanna share when you’re in front of those folks, I wanted to share the gratitude and the joy,” he said.
Gray said his career has been marked by support from his parents and his wife. His family wanted for him to do whatever he is doing to the very best of his abilities. And for as long as his wife has known him, he has always had a bass on his back.
Gray said his work is not done and that he has a long way to go. Humber’s producer in residence Richard King, a McGill professor who was visiting campus the week after Gray's win, has 15 Grammys to his credit, which tells him he has work to do.
For now though, Gray said he is going to appreciate what he has achieved and spend some more time with his family.
“If you reach a milestone, to acknowledge that milestone and to actually just hold that for a second rather than always running forward is important,” he said.
