Amber Pacific post update

19 February 2011 | 8:07 pm | Staff Writer
Originally Appeared In

Amber Pacific guitarist Will Nutter has posted a lengthy update about the band to give fans a clear overview about the recent member changes, and to kill any other rumours that may be floating around about the band.

Amber Pacific guitarist Will Nutter has posted a lengthy update about the band to give fans a clear overview about the recent member changes, and to kill any other rumours that may be floating around about the band.


Nutter posted:


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"There has been a lot of confusion swirling around Matt returning to the band as well as the departures of Greg and Jesse following the press release that went out about a week ago. First and foremost, I'd like to apologize to all of you for not releasing a statement about these changes prior to the press release, I can understand that it may come as a shock to some of you that everything happened so suddenly but there have been some underlying issues that I'd like to address that will hopefully clear the air so to speak.


For the first time in our career we were forced to cancel the remaining dates of our last headlining tour in 2010. It was one of the hardest decisions we've had to make up to that point, we were letting our fans down and canceling was never an option in the past. However, had we continued the tour we would have come home with a debt that simply couldn't be paid off, we had to cut our losses to minimize the damage. Since that time, Amber Pacific has remained stagnant, not touring or releasing new material since the release of "Virtues" in April of 2010.


It's not easy to stand on the sidelines and watch as the rest of the music industry moves ahead. However, that's exactly what we have been doing for the past several months. It's felt like an eternity with how long we've been out of the spotlight and that starts to weigh on you after awhile. Especially considering the amount of work we've put into this, anyone who saw us in our early days of Warped Tour knows we were the first band out there setting up our tents, asking people to listen to our music, and pushing our CD as you all were walking to your cars after the last band had finished their set. This has been our lives for the past 8 years and we do it because we care, we do it because we still want to make a difference with our music and to anyone who takes the time to listen to it.


That being said, following that headlining tour, we submitted ourselves for Warped Tour, several fall and winter tours, and came up short in every attempt we made. As a solution, I urged the band to make the most of our situation and start playing locally again to generate some new fans as well as to please the current fan base we've spent the last few years building here in Seattle. The band was split on whether or not that was a good choice for everyone involved, Jesse in particular.


Prior to choosing Jesse as the replacement for Matt, we had taken several singers out to dinner to discuss what being in Amber Pacific would require and in each of those meetings we stressed the importance of relocating as part of the commitment. Each singer we met with assured us that that wouldn't be a problem. After choosing Jesse, that requirement was never met and as an alternative, he chose to remain in Canada and fly down for local shows and tours when need be. I aided Jesse by providing buddy passes, food, and housing while he was in Seattle and though the arrangement wasn't ideal, it worked. However, we hit a certain point where Jesse informed the band that he could no longer come down for local shows as the financial burdens were more than he could afford. He also told us that he would be willing to tour and do shows as long as they made sense financially for him. At that point, I realized that Amber Pacific had a choice to make and that's when I reached out to Matt to see if he'd be interested in returning to the group.


Matt has been attending college working towards becoming a teacher and eventually a principal just as he stated as the reason for leaving Amber Pacific. When I reached out to Matt, he was pleasantly surprised and excited about the opportunity to sing for Amber Pacific again and told me that he missed that part of his life. After my conversation with Matt, I reached out to the members of AP to see where they stood on the current status of the band and the idea of Matt returning to front the group. The band was split on the matter and a few months had gone by without finding a resolve to the situation we were faced with.


Something had to change and the time to make that change was now. I informed the band that Matt would be returning and Jesse would no longer be a part of Amber Pacific. The important thing to remember here is that Jesse wasn't forced out of the band, the decision we made was based on the fact that without Jesse willing to come down the band would ultimately fall apart, we love Jesse and wanted him to be a part of this more than ever. Unfortunately, it reached a point to where it no longer worked under the circumstances.


It comes with a heavy heart to say that Greg has also decided to leave Amber Pacific. Greg and I have been friends for almost 11 years now, I remember approaching him in the halls of our High School asking if he'd be interested in joining this band called, "Follow Through" with me. I don't think either one of us could have predicted what that band would accomplish as Amber Pacific for the years to follow. He's played a vital role in the band writing the lyrics to Poetically Pathetic, Save Me From Me, and The Sky Could Fall Tonight as well as contributing to merchandise ideas, album artwork, and reminding us all that being in a band should be fun, not always just business. He cared about every single fan we had, Amber Pacific was his life and his top priority for the last 11 years and as a friend and member of the band, I'd just like to thank him for everything he's done. I don't know if I could have made it through some of the hard times without him and it will definitely never be the same without him there. Some of you have left comments wondering if the return of Matt is the reason for Greg's departure and the answer to that question is, yes. The details behind that answer are private and will remain that way for the life of AP.


Amber Pacific has always gone as far as the fans have taken us and that model isn't going to change. Moving forward, in a perfect world we'd love to make a new record, tour the world, and continue doing what we first set out to do before anyone knew who we were. For the short term, we are planning on scheduling acoustic sets at various colleges, festivals, and will be planning a full band hometown show towards the end of June.


I remember seeing Jimmy Eat World, New Found Glory, and Blink 182 at the Gorge. It was my first concert and I still have the ticket stub to that show in a box underneath my bed. I was a sophomore in High School and watched from the hill as these bands blew me away. Jimmy Eat World and "The Middle", New Found Glory and "Hit or Miss", and Blink 182 with hit, after hit, after hit. It was then when I realized what I wanted to do with my life and that was to write music and be in a band with hopes of one day playing that very stage, one day changing someone's life just as they had changed mine. Music is a powerful thing, it gives us something we can all relate to. No matter how distant we may feel from the world around us, there's always a band out there that we can connect with, almost as if they're speaking directly to us in our most trying of times. The best part about being in Amber Pacific doesn't come from the fame, the fortune, or the lifestyle. For me, it comes from the fans, the conversations I've had with some of you who tell me that our music has changed your life. That is the greatest reward an artist could ever ask for is to know that their music is making a difference to someone out there, even if it's just one person, I assure you it matters to them.


Please continue supporting the artists that could use the support such as Ace Enders, Just Surrender, Hawthorne Heights, Wicker Hollow, Andrew McMahon, and let the radio fans support the artists on the radio. The experience you'll get from attending a show with one of the artists listed above is priceless compared to spending $50 on a ticket to see someone on Top 40 radio, trust me.


If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, I will do my best to answer them as soon as I can. Thank you to everyone who has supported Amber Pacific in any way, it means more to us than you will ever know. Please check back for more updates on our facebook page, myspace page, and other media outlets in the coming weeks, we look forward to moving ahead."