(posted first at thelowhello.com)

Hi there. I wanted to make a bit of an announcement. After playing a bad (in my eyes)/ok (according to some viewers) show last night, I came to the realization (well, actually, I’d been thinking about it for a while) that I’d like to not play shows for a while. I am just a bit worn from it, and not sure if constant stage action (well, it hasn’t been constant, but more than I enjoy) is for me.

I’ve had a great time playing live shows with this band, and I’m not saying we won’t ever play live again. It’s just that I need a break from it to sort of regroup my thoughts about music, and what it is to me. I started writing songs out of a love of writing and home-recording songs, and decided to venture into forming bands and playing shows fairly “late” into my “career” (with the exception of my first and best band, the Immigrants, in high school). I’ve got a lot of stage fright, and while I’ve gotten over some of that through playing with this band, and have met some awesome people along the way, I’m not sure if the constant dread before a show is worth it to me right now.

On top of that, I would like to work on new material if we are to play anymore shows. I’m just kinda sick of my songs! Though I think YOU should still listen to them :) Anyway, I’ve cancelled the rest of our summer dates (sorry to any bands out there that we are letting down, particularly the Professorate, Word Play, Sister Lovers and Syscrusher; also maybe some others I’ve forgotten), and am not scheduling anything for quite a while.

Dan, Robb and Adam have become good friends to me and are guys I enjoy hanging out with and having funny conversation with a lot, so I hope that aspect of it stays alive. There’s also the possibility that we’ll come through this with some great new songs and decide to do a couple shows next spring or something. It’s all up in the air right now, and we’ll figure out what happens organically. As Robb said last night, using a new-to-me cliche, “There’s no point in pushing a rope.”

I also have a solo project I am incredibly excited to start working more on because I’m doing the demos in my basement and it brings back the great feeling of self-making music for the fun of it that I missed so much. I might be posting early finished versions of those songs over at my own site, howdoesitknow.com.

So, I’d really like to thank everyone who’s helped us book shows, let us open for them, paid us money for doing our little show, told us we did an awesome job after a show, taken (or downloaded) and enjoyed our free CD/MP3s, complimented a flyer, or otherwise promoted and enjoyed what we do/did.

Keep checking in, though, because we may be back in some form or another sooner than you think. -Sunil