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BIO:Over a dozen years of musical endeavors (Nigel Six, Not My Ritchie, The Stryder, West Beverly, Staring Back and Punchline) have featured Greg Wood on bass, guitar, drums, and vocals. Greg has performed in 48 of the continental United States, as well as Canada and Japan, playing shows with attendance ranging from 4 to 4000. Through it all, one thing never changed. Every incarnation of creative energy thrived on the idea that anything is possible, and the power to create oneself and one's life into whatever he or she desires is not only possible, but quite possibly the most honorable pursuit.
Greg Wood's solo endeavor, bearing his name, began in 2001 during an unplanned hiatus of his band, West Beverly, caused by the loss of a member. Greg began playing West Beverly songs on acoustic guitar at coffee shops and open mics. Slowly this evolved into a project in its own right, with its own songs. The music carried elements of pop punk over to acoustic guitar at first, and slowly evolved into more ambient pop acoustic experimentation. Greg's voice, often compared to Jeff Buckley (who, because of the comparisons, Greg investigated, became enamored with, and came to adopt as one of his biggest influences!) delivered soaring melodies over unique guitar work alternating from intricate to minimalist. After the ultimate demise of West Beverly in 2002, the solo project became his full-time focus, and he once again hit the road, playing 200-250 shows per year for the next two in support of his 2001 EP 'Focus, Surrender, Experience, Understand.'
Between 'Focus' tours, Greg began experimenting with looping and effects pedals, which, in effect, allowed him to become his own backup band - even in a live setting. By looping himself playing guitar and beatboxing into his microphone, he could then layer the recorded parts, and even harmonize with his own vocals. Contemporary artists doing likewise included only a few names, such as Keller Williams and Howie Day. Greg was in a different scene, however, playing mostly to the indie-punk crowds he'd always known, and crowds reactions were uniformly surprised and amazed by the sounds created from this single person. Greg recorded a full-length album in 2004 which featured all of the songs which he had been performing for the last year. Recorded without heavy production, or the inclusion of a studio band, his debut album 'Vibrating Glass' presents the songs as they are crafted live layer upon layer. The album never got released, however, because of an opportunity Greg could not refuse, which directed his energy elsewhere.
In January of 2005, Greg filled in as lead guitarist for friends, pop-punk band, Punchline, who had lost theirs suddenly. Before long, filling in led to a permanent position, and Greg spent the next couple of years traveling the world with Punchline and lending his songwriting and guitar work to their 2006 Fueled By Ramen Records release '37 Everywhere.' In his time with Punchline, Greg found himself in places and situations he'd dreamed about his whole life. Eventually, though, the incessance of the travel, and time limitations on other pursuits caused Greg to grow weary of the touring lifestyle which had been his passion for so long, and in September of 2006 he left Punchline, to return to his home in CT.
At home, Greg returned his focus to the solo project which bears his name. Vibrating Glass, finally saw its release in June, 2007 (Please scroll up to the iSound player to purchase these songs!).
The next two years saw a silent hiatus from writing his own songs, while Greg began establishing himself as a producer of local artists through his production company, Wood Cuts Music Production. In doing so, and exploring the technical and musical potential of his clients' projects, he acquainted himself with the limitless potential of the recording process, and increasingly with electronic music (long intriguing to him in artists like Bjork and Squarepusher), which inevitably led to a new period in his own composition. Greg is now working on establishing a platform to share music with friends and fans online. MySpace is part of that, along with the Facebook group, Greg Wood Music, and Twitter, on which Greg tweets @highwayskies. With fewer "professional" music aspirations (i.e. touring), and much more writing, recording, and releasing on the to-do list, Greg looks forward to sharing his new music freely, over the "interweb of magical immediacy."
As always, Greg's goals are simple: stretch himself by writing as much and as well as he can, and provide the stimuli to himself and his fans that beg the pursuit and realization of the endless potential of the individual.
