Down the years one of the classiest American AOR acts to put albums in the CD racks have been GEOFF MOORE AND THE DISTANCE. Mr Moore was quizzed by Jan Willem Vink.

In what sort of ways? Could you recall one or two moments that were very special to you?
"I think it probably began with a real sense of inner peace. Peace that wasn't based on success necessarily. My career got off to a very slow start. We were very strapped financially and worked very hard for very little and yet it was totally fulfilling. I had this sense of inner peace that I was doing the right thing and then just to see that there was spiritual fruit as a result. There were people finding Christ as their Saviour as a result of our music and concerts and people that would really be impacted in their spiritual life by listening to our music. And so, if a labourer is known by his fruit, I could say God had given us some results from this"

What would you say are your biggest musical influences at this point? What do you listen to?
"This is always a tricky question for me. It's kind of the 'Do as I say, don't do as I do' kind of suggestion, because I listen to a fair amount of music that I would not encourage Christian teens to listen to. I listen to some mainstream music in order to really try and remain current and educated and informed of what's happening in the popular music world. I'm real aware of the work of Alanis Morisette, Joan Osborne, Cheryl Crow, Counting Crows, and Green Day. I'm aware of that music. It's not a regular part of my musical diet, but I do listen to it, I think it's critical, I'm gonna continue to be sharpened artistically. I need to be aware of what's going on.

"I listen to a lot of country music, I live in Nashville, country music's capital. Lyricists get work in country music right now. Mainstream rock music took a pretty long vacation from writing great songs and country music contracted a lot of great writers.

"As far as Christian music that I enjoy right now, I am a pretty big fan of Out Of The Grey. I really enjoy a couple of new bands that we toured with, Big Tent Revival being one. We're touring right now with Christafari, I'm having a ball. Reggae is a musical genre that hasn't been used for promoting the Gospel. Christafari are really authentic. Above all, I'm really drawn to great songwriters. I love Rich Mullins. A new artist that I listen to is, and am really impressed with, is Carolyn Arends. I really try and be a pretty diverse Christian music buyer."

Probably a key element in your current musical success is also the fact that you started writing with Steven Curtis Chapman...
"Absolutely. In fact we started some writing on his new album that he's working on right now. Yeah, that's been a very formative thing, for both of us I think, to take a good friendship and use that as a foundation to write heartfelt, honest songs. That has been one of the highlights of my career to work with him."

You told me that your family had an orientation toward athletics. With the theme of 'Home Run', did you come full circle?
"Yeah, and a lot of my thought process was formed by athletics. I spent a lot of times with coaches, a lot of time in teams, a lot of times considering my opponents. Those were all good things for spiritual analogy. As a family of God we are part of a team. We have to work together and we have an opponent in Satan and in our own fallacy, in the sinful world, that'll do whatever it can when we step up to the plate to strike us out. I was particularly taken with this idea of people out on base, representative of people that are in different places of coming to understand a relationship with God and I do what I can with my life to hit them home. It seemed to have great and rich symbolism for me."

What other things inspire you when you write? For instance, "Evidence Of God" has clearly been inspired by a lot of things you see in nature.
"It's often that way. I grew up in a very small town, about 2,000 people, and lived way out in the country and spent a lot of time fishing and hiking and in the outdoors. I think there's always been a real connection with me, particularly at times when you try to convince somebody that God exists and he might not want to embrace it. Trying to argue with him seems not to be such a good approach. That just kind of reaffirms their opinion that Christians are manipulative and pushy. Paul talked about there being examples in creation that people are without excuse in not believing in the Creator. So I think sometimes we need to back off a little bit and let some of the evidence that God has left in our world do the talking about his existence. Many of the songs have been written on a kind of a sabbatical I took in the mountains in Colorado. I took time looking at the beautiful scenery and hiking around and becoming inspired with the handiwork of God. That was a big part in my inspiration."

You said something about convincing people about your faith. Of course, one of your main goals as a Christian artist is sharing what you believe in. Do you feel capable of doing that?
"There was a time when I felt like I needed to be sharing the Gospel in a clever, articulate, powerful way, so in the sung word and spoken word I would really try to make a very impressive presentation. Through the years it has become more and simpler, as I discovered that the good news of the Gospel is very simple and it doesn't need my help. In my sharing of that, and communicating what I feel is the ultimate truth in life. I found myself almost becoming more like Billy Graham, teaching a very basic Gospel message. In our songs we explore all areas of life, the ups and downs of our human experience. But when it comes to sharing the Gospel, I try to keep it just very basic. As a result of that I find it to be more powerful and making a greater impact."

You worked on 'Home Run' with producer Jimmy Lee Sloas and the album definitely has a rawer rock sound than the last few.
"It's something I feel will probably continue. I am excited about the trend of popular music becoming rawer, more simple. So I'm very excited about the direction and will continue in that genre. Early on in my career I made music like that and continue to really like it. So I think in the future you'll see music from us that is that much more raw, simpler, more song driven than production driven, I think."

Do you have a character from the Bible that you identify with?
"That's a good question. Well, I can tell you that the one that I aspire, I don't I guess identify with as I aspire to be like Daniel. I spent a lot of time studying the book of Daniel in the last couple of years because he was a man, his life went through an enormous amount of changes and yet he remained faithful. He was really on the top of the pile in the palace and lived on the bottom in the lion's den and was just faithful with his life, regardless of the circumstances. That is something that I really try to connect with as our career goes well or goes down and when things are going good personally or difficult personally, that there is faithfulness that runs through my life that in a sense is unaffected by my circumstances."