Green or Blue

Green or Blue Matt Nicolae: guitar/vocals Ben Gorham: piano/vocals Andy Weber: drums Green or Blue is about that precious moment where art connects with an audience at such a base level that an unbreakable bond is formed. The connection resonates and endures, and at the core of that connection is the song. "In college, I wrote a song about what color a girl said her eyes were," says singer/guitarist Matt Nicolae of where the band name Green or Blue came from, "years later, Ben [Gorham, piano/vocals] and I were talking about how people change over the years and how you can't pin them down, how they're behind a veil. Ben said, 'sometimes they're green, sometimes they're blue..." And just like that, Green or Blue became more than just the name of a sappy song. Influenced by everyone from Goo Goo Dolls and Death Cab For Cutie, to Coldplay and Barcelona, to Taking Back Sunday and, in the case of drummer Andy Weber, "definitely Steve Jordan, John Mayer's drummer," Green or Blue can't be defined by their influences, but their influences do say a lot about where they have come from, and where they are heading. "From a growth perspective, Thrice is right up there," says Nicolae. "They're an ever-evolving band, and we never want to stop growing." Born on Long Island, a stone's throw and an extremely congested highway away from New York City, Green or Blue began with Nicolae and Gorham playing together in high school talent shows before branching into their own material as a duo, and Weber rounding out the trio a few years later. The big progression came in Gorham's basement though, when he inadvertently started singing harmony. "We had been really trying to take steps to combine elements we loved from our favorite songs, and experience as musicians definitely played a big role in that development, but the biggest key was Ben playing piano and starting to harmonize on vocals," says Nicolae. What started at talent shows evolved through college, where despite the fact that Nicolae and Gorham were hundreds of miles apart, they recorded music by exchanging tracks and ideas via email. They released their music digitally, steadily building a loyal and international following that contributed more than $17,000 on Kickstarter to fund the band's full-length debut ‘A Shot Below the Moon', which has received support from countries including Canada, Japan, Germany, Brazil and Australia. "A Shot Below the Moon" - the album's title track - is the culmination of their growth and development. "We wrote that in the studio and it just flowed out of us, underlining how unpredictable the whole songwriting process can be," furthers the singer/guitarist. "The song is pretty-much who we are as a band... I had the title written long before, Ben was playing something on piano, I ran over and started playing guitar, and the song was done in one night." Green or Blue... The words may be colors, but when they're combined musically the results resonate and endure.