Time and Distance

Editor’s Note: After talking to Greg online for a while I finally decided to interview him, and he was happy to oblige.

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Gary: Okay so i guess i’ll start out by asking you to introduce yourself and the band

Greg: Alright. well i’m Greg, and i play guitar and sing for Time and Distance. and being as i’m the only member, i guess i AM Time and Distance.

Gary: I guess that’s true. Have you always been the only member?

Greg: Yeah, see, i started doing Time and Distance because the band i was in split up, and i couldn’t find anyone serious to play with that wasn’t terrible. so i just started writing songs acoustic and looking for a band. I never intended to get serious with this, but i never found the band i was looking for and finally decided i’d just try doing stuff my way.

Gary: So when it says on your site you’ve played with bands such as Taking Back Sunday, Movielife, MIdtown, was that with the old band or was this the way you are now, the one man acoustic show?

Greg: That’s how i am now. my old band didn’t do much more than play out of state a couple times. Every major musical accomplishment i have in my life, has come from Time and Distance.

Gary: So when you get on stage playing with those bands, and you get up there with just an acoustic guitar, how’s the crowd’s reaction and does it change when you start playing?

Greg: It depends. sometimes kids are really receptive from the beginning, and i’ll introduce myself and the entire crowd says “hi” back to me and stuff. other times they’ll just kinda be standing around and as i start they’ll kinda come up and watch. But the shows with all those bands were reallly awesome I played with A Static Lullaby, and i was super nervous, because we don’t really mesh that well together. but the kids were awesome.

Gary: Yeah i can understand that one…kind of two ends of the spectrum.
So at these shows do you usually have someone come up and sing with you? i noticed on your site there’s a picture with you on stage with someone else singing back-up. Who is he, what show was that at?

Greg: I recorded my ep with a good friend of mine, derek reese. he played some guitar and sang backups on almost every song on the cd, so whenever i play at home he’ll usually come up on stage and sing his parts with me, and occasionally he’ll play guitar with me too. but other than those shows at home, it’s always just me. that picture was from the first show i did at home after my summer tour.

Gary: That’s cool. why doesn’t he tour with you?

Greg: He’s got other musical interests pretty much, and he doesn’t like to be gone for as long as i do. Sometimes he comes along for weekend trips and stuff. he and i actually play in a band together as kinda a side thing, too. it’s called stay the night.

Gary: Where can people hear more about that?

Greg: www.staythenightrock.com

Gary: Wicked. So i guess on the topic of acoustic music, do you think you’ll always stay acoustic? or maybe eventually you’ll lead into a full band, like The Early November.

Greg: I’d really like to take a band out on the road with me one of these days, and i figure that soon enough i will. as for the records, if the songs need the full band treatment, they’ll get it. there was one song i recorded for the ep but didn’t use that i was going to put drums and stuff on. so it’s hard to say, it all depends on the songs. with my new songs i’ve been writing, i can say for sure that a few of them are gonna be full band. they’re a bit more rock than the stuff on the ep.

Gary: If you ever need a drummer, you know where to look. 🙂

Greg: haha

Gary: So the name’s Time And Distance. Where’d you get the name from and what does it mean?

Greg: To be honest, the name was just some random thing i’d always wanted to use, and never had a use for it. so i just used it and never thought about it much. there’s been a lot of people that have come up with things that i wish it meant, cause they’re far cooler, but it really doesn’t mean much.. it’s just a name.

Gary: Yeah and most bands with random names like that will make up a cool story to match…but i guess your just not like that. An honest gentelman…or just no imagiation.

Greg: haha. i’m just not that creative. you can make one up and put it in the article instead if you want.

Gary: haha i’ll think about it. So your from Charleston, West Virginia. How ‘s the music scene there and was it easy for you to find your audience?

Greg: West Virginia’s scene is slowly growing. i’ve basically grown up here, played in all my past bands here, so i kinda already knew everyone that puts on shows, and most of the kids that go to shows. so everyone was real cool about it. i don’t play here much, because there’s bigger markets out of state and stuff. i usually play charleston about once a month when i can. It was weirder when i started having to headline shows here. that was the last show i played before my summer tour. I still feel weird about it, cause there’s all these bands, and then me headlining. it’s just odd.

Gary: It must feel a little wierd being the “main event”

Greg: Yeah. i’ve headlined in Jacksonville, fl, and New Jersey, too. it’s always crazy when it happens.

Gary: You released an EP on isurrender records called “Blood Loss for an Excuse”, Why did you decide to call it that? Were there any other names you had before settling on that one?

Greg: At first the ep was going to be self titled. and then i decided i wanted to name it, but i didn’t know what. so i came up with a few different ones, and then Rob (who runs my label) said i should combine two of them (“your best excuse” and “blood loss and battlescars”) into one. Thus we got “blood loss for an excuse”. And it’s actually not gramatically correct. it should be “blood loss AS an excuse”. I should be an english major.

Gary: Grammatical errors kick ass. 
So you mentioned Rob, as in Rob Hitt, drummer of the band Midtown and the head of isurrender records…how did you hook up with him?

Greg: haha, you caught me.

Gary: What do you mean?

Greg: Basically i had met him a few times through a friend of mine, who is a good friend of his. My friend (who is now basically my manager) was going to help me put something out, because I was already recording and couldn’t afford to press cds. So as i was recording i was sending rough mixes to her, to see what she thought. So the first time i sent her a couple songs (pretend you don’t know, and snap) she flipped out over them and she sent them to rob, and HE flipped out over them. So they decided to start a label to put it out. It was pretty crazy. but it was cool.

Gary: That’s pretty cool. Yeah last time I talked with Rob in Toronto he was actually picking up some of your cds from the company that packages them.

Greg: yeah?

Gary: He’s a busy guy I tell ya!

Greg: haha I know.

Gary: So playing with all those “big” name bands, do you ever get recognized anywhere? Or are you not at that stage yet?

Greg: Yeah, it happens sometimes. it’s pretty weird. i’ve never been recognized at some remote place i’ve never played before or anything, though. it’s usually just other shows around here, or the mall, or out of state sometimes and stuff.

Gary: Anyone ever go crazy and act star-struck? Or are they usually just like “hey your that guy in that band”?

Greg: haha, no if anyone i didnt know got starstruck by me, i’d probally run away.

Gary: That would be a sight to see, girl goes crazy, greg goes running.

Greg: haha

Gary: Wrapping it up, what are your future plans with Time And Distance?

Greg: uhm, i’m home taking it kinda easy right now. i leave for tour in the southeast – midwest on nov. 28th and get home dec 20th, then i’m home jan / feb, then i leave at the end of feb on a tour that’ll hit pretty much everywhere in north america. i get home at the end of april, and then i’ll either record a new cd, or go on tour again, i’m not real sure yet.

Gary: Coming to Canada? Toronto/Barrie area?

Greg: Yeah. Sometime in April.

Gary: Sounds like a plan, let me know and i’ll be there

Greg: Right On.

Gary: And my last question would be: Can i have a free sweater? That things bad ass!

Greg: haha. i don’t know about that =D

Gary: I was about to ask you that actually…go ahead!

Greg: okay. check out…. i surrender records, stars hide fire, post break tragedy, blue star drive, genco records, good intentions, neutral agreement, under dark skies, the makeover, sommerset mills, run dash sprint, and love hurts clothing. that is all. 
thanks for the interview!

Gary: No, Thank You! Maybe in April we can do it in person.

Greg: Rad.