Distraction Or Despair is a collection of some of Gerard Way’s unreleased songs, which he released due to the current coronavirus pandemic to comfort his fans. Some of the tracks, such as “Phoning It In”, were planned to be released as singles.
He decided to call it Distraction Or Despair, as these were the two things he kept shifting between.
Gerard Way shared this on his Instagram:
Hey all, with all this uncertainty I just wanted to start uploading some unreleased stuff. Just so people can check it out and have something to listen to. Just felt like sharing. I think I have a bunch of this stuff, as Doug and I have been recording little bits here and there over the years. Some of these, like “Phoning It In”, were things that I planned on releasing as singles, and I may still do that at some point when I finish them, but I figured why not. It feels good to share. Who knows if some of this stuff would have ever come out?