Mar 27 2008
Despite their catchy “I’ve Got Love,” song taking over this year's Cleveland International Film Festival, the Cleveland band "The Twilight" doesn't aspire to take over the world. These three self-proclaimed “non self-promoters,” Tony Bunce, C. Ryan Kearney, and Greg Hyland, are in it strictly for love of the music. I spoke with Greg recently, after one of the group’s infrequent gigs.
This is kind of unusual, because typically you don't hear much from a band's drummer. Are you the designated spokesperson for "The Twilight"?
Something like that. My band mates aren’t really in the business end of things. They do rehearsals but leave everything else to me.
How did this incarnation of the band evolve?
Tony, the founder, was together with two or three other guys in 2000/2001. They were in a cover band playing in biker bars. Tony had written some songs and they decided they wanted to pursue original music. As it usually happens in bands, people fall by the wayside and you pick up new people. Their bass player (Matthew Schulte) had an accident and unfortunately passed away . Then Ryan, who was already friends with the band, went from playing drums to playing bass. In a few months they lost their drummer. They gave me a call and I joined-up. It was March 2004.
Your sound is somewhat derivative, with its own unique twist. I really can't pin you down to "sounding like" this band or that band, though you have some clear influences. How would you describe your sound?
If you try to pin down our sound, if you ask any musician or artist who they sound like, because they’re doing it themselves, they don’t know. You're always better off asking people on the outside. People say we sound like everything from Pavement to The Raspberries. For as young as Tony is, I was surprised that he likes so much music from 60’s and 70’s. He was more of a student of that era. I don’t know anyone who knows more Beatles songs than he does. He can pick up guitar and play any obscure Beatles song, from, let’s say, Revolver or Abbey Road. I think that’s from his family, he picked up a lot of those kinds of tastes, that older 60’s or 70’s type rock.
How often do you perform live? Are the gigs mostly in Cleveland?
We go in spurts. It took us a long time to record the record. We did shows here and there. We don’t do it all the time. We like to play quality shows where people are going to come out: opening for a national act that’s coming through town, for instance. We keep playing-out to a minimum, and try to play out of town from time to time: New York City, Detroit, Columbus, Cincinnati.
I guess we do about 20-25 a year. I’ve never made money off of the shows. It’s about the music, just playing. I wouldn’t be playing this long and hauling these drums around for all this time if I didn’t enjoy it. It’s just fun to do.
The thing is, we all work other jobs, too. Tony works in light construction by day, finishing in houses, carpentry that kind of thing. I work for American Greetings. I run the prototyping department. I’ve been with them ten years. Ryan works for Sherwin Williams. He’s a technical rep.
That's not a lot of live performing. Why?
We are opposite the usual band. We’re not self-promoters by any means. It’s funny. We’re just not interested in promoting the band all that much. We’re not introverts, either. It’s a little bit laziness. I hate being the guy who says “Hey! Come see my band tonight!" I don’t think that any of us really like being the center of attention. Just in it for the music, because we enjoy doing it. Some people enjoy going to bar and playing darts. I’d rather go practice with my band and drink beer.
You released "Tempest in a Teapot," last year. Was it your first recording?
We put out an EP on a local indie record label. It was run by The Dreadful Yawns. Eric Schulte was manager of Dreadful Yawns at the time. He really liked our band. He had an indie label he ran himself and we put out a limited run of 200 EPs and sold them out. That was in summer 2005. I was in the band for a year. Two of the songs were from earlier incarnation of the band, and the other three we had done.
How did "Tempest" come about?
Back when I was in a band called Kiddo that played in 2001 to 2003 and the guitar player was looking for a place to record I’d heard of Don Depew’s studio. I was a big fan of Don because he played with Breaker. Kiddo did their first album with Don. So when we were recently looking for someone to record with, naturally we went with Don because he just does a good job for us. All the songs [on "Tempest"] were written by Tony -- 11 songs. It gives us one unique sound. Other people have brought in songs in the past and Tony is, in my opinion, a very talented guy, so we used all of his. I look at it as, 'Why should I try to come up with a song for my own sake? It won’t be as good as anything Tony can write.' I think he enjoys doing it. It’s a challenge for him to come up with a good song. He enjoys writing. He’s a true artist that just has to keep creating.
I really love the songs from Tempest on your myspace page. What's been the response to the music, overall?
We've had 99 percent really good reviews of our CD and one bad one. It seems that people are telling us the truth of what they feel, including the person who didn’t like it. I emailed him and thanked him. He probably thought I was being facetious, but I was sincere. I appreciate the review. I don’t want people to hold back. I don’t mind constructive criticism at all. Maybe we’ve had four or five reviews locally. I don’t know nationally how many. We sent out about 30 CDs. Because we’re unsigned and don’t have a track record, I don’t know if they’ll get national review or not.
