Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun
By Harold Zimm
Photo by Ryan Purcell

I was just frustrated and burnt out," says Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun guitarist Cregg Gibson, "and if nothing changed, I was prepared to walk away from music forever. I was done." Although Gibson's previous band Linger was known throughout the Southeast, he concedes that far too many of its listeners were members of other bands.
"I love that bands come out, but you know they're there because you were at their show two nights ago," he says. "We were so focused on who is going to be there that all of a sudden you have more bands in your audience than you do fans."
One of those other bands frequenting Linger shows was Gibson's then-fiancé's band, Avenge Vegas, 2004 winner of the world-famous Open Mic Madness tournament at Smith's Olde Bar in Atlanta. Avenge Vegas members Lauren McGinnis (now Lauren Gibson) and Micah Silverman had a commanding stage presence that won over listeners, but through their entire run as a band they had a very hard time finding a drummer who was the right fit. Such a hard time, in fact, that they never even claimed the free studio time they won in the tournament.
Linger's Jeremy Cole was one of Avenge Vegas' several temporary fill-in drummers, and although he meshed well with the band, his heart remained elsewhere.
"As far as full-time commitments go," Cole says, "I was 100 percent focused on Linger, and I would have loved to have had the time for Avenge Vegas, but if I can't put 100 percent towards something I'm not going to do it. And I don't think it would have been fair to them if I would have been like, 'Hey, let me be your drummer.' I would have always put Linger first."
In late 2005, shortly after Linger dissolved, the women of Avenge Vegas decided to disband as well. The end of the year provided both bands with a much-needed break, but they remained busy nonetheless. Says Silverman, "A lot of stuff was going on, marriages and stuff like that." Once things settled in the months to follow, the now-wed Gibsons, Cole and Silverman began playing music together in a nameless, pressure-free act. Their sole motivation was personal fulfillment, something that had eluded both Linger and Avenge Vegas for the past several years.
When the band, eventually named Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun, first started playing, Cole says, "There [were] no goals set. We just wanted to play music, be it in a basement or at a show - and then we all started playing together, and we were like, 'Hey, let's write songs, and if we play out, we play out,' and a year and a half went by."
Cregg Gibson explains, "We made a pact that we weren't going to play a show until we were ready, and if we all thought we were never ready, we would never play the show."
The time to play out just recently arrived, and all four members of Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun emerged refreshed and ready to work; the work they now do, however, is much more calculated and precise than that of their previous acts. They write at their own speed, they play for their own reasons, and they try to make every show count.
"I think we're just trying to play a little smarter this time," says Lauren Gibson. With only a handful of shows under their belts, their growing fan base is a frill that the band hadn't expected so quickly.
Now that Cole is fully onboard, he gives the same level of 100 percent commitment that he once gave to Linger. "Two out of four shows I had to go to the hospital," he says, citing a fractured finger and a torn ligament suffered from his intense, hard-hitting drumming.
Grounded and realistic, Cole maintains that this time around it's all about the fun rather than the potential for fortune.
"I think everyone here will be perfectly content working our jobs and playing," he says. "The fantasy is great, and maybe it's not a fantasy, but I don't have to play music for a living. At one time I did, but I have a dog and a loft. As long as we get to go onstage and blow somebody's face off, you know, that's all any of us care about."
Adds Silverman, "The hardest thing, as we get older, is organizing schedules, finding the time, coordinating our lives. The music is easy."

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