The 9-piece band known as Great Lakes began as the songwriting outlet for Dan Donahue, Ben Crum, and Jamey Huggins. Once based in Athens, Georgia, the core trio, who still write in the collaborative style they've continued to develop since they wrote their first songs together back in 1996, are now spread out across the country--Dan in San Francisco, Ben in New York, and Jamey still in Athens. The nature of this seperation requires long distance songwriting, and a reunion of sorts when it's time to get together to record or go on tour.

Great Lakes' self-tilted debut was released in 2000 on Kindercore Records and has established them as musicians capable of creating epic soundscapes as well as catchy pop songs. Now their follow-up, The Distance Between, is being released on Orange Twin and shows a further development and a wider array of songwriting styles.