Valencia announce hiatus
Valencia have announced that the band will be going on hiatus after nearly 9 years playing together. The band has released the following statement:
Valencia have announced that the band will be going on hiatus after nearly 9 years playing together. The band has released the following statement:
Valencia originally came together back in 2003. Most of us were still just in high school, but we all had gotten to know each other through the tightly knit music community we grew up in around Philadelphia. We started this band because of a mutual need to create something heartfelt and to give everyone a message we needed to share. We all felt like music would be the most significant part of our lives, but never in our wildest dreams could we have predicted the things we'd get to do, or more importantly, the people we would meet because of this band and the songs we wrote and shared with the world.
We started touring full time in late 2004, thanks to everyone at I Surrender Records putting faith in our band and releasing our first record. Ever since then, we've given everything we had to our music. We've been touring nonstop since then, playing shows in 46 states and five different countries over seven years, all of them places we were brought to thanks to people that believed in what we had to say.
This band started when we were teenagers, and now, as we enter our mid-to-late twenties, we've decided that it's time for us to scale back our time on the road and explore the other elements of life that are not as easily accessible while touring full time. We aren't considering this our band breaking up, because if that was the case, this situation would feel very final, and it doesn't feel that way to us. It remains natural for us to write music together and there is always a possibility that we will release new music as Valencia sometime in the future. In the meantime, new music will be written and released by each of us and when that happens, we will let you know.
In honor of starting this next chapter, please join us on December 28th, 2011 for one last show in our hometown of Philadelphia, at the Electric Factory. We hope you'll be there with us to share one of the most personal, memorable, and important nights of our lives. Thank you all for everything - the letters, the tattoos, the years of listening, for so many countless, priceless sentiments - there's no way we could ever fully express our gratitude for everything you've done for us. We've been given the chance to go down a path not many are able to take, and because you've had our backs through the story that is our band, we're able to continue that journey through whatever comes next for us.
From the bottom of our hearts,
Shane, George, Brendan, Dan, Trevor, JD, and Max
Valencia
In addition Shane Henderson, frontman of Valencia, has also released his own statement:
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"So as some of you have read the announcement, I’d just like to say a short little something about it all. My time in Valencia is something I will be able to brag to my kids and grand kids about. It was my dream to start a band play songs that matter to me and make it in the industry in some way shape or form. I am proud of the success, I am proud of the traveling, I’ve done, and regardless of how it went, I am proud that I can say my band was on a Major Record Label. We have always been a band who has done everything we can to put our selves in the position to say we did it. We never had a manager that would do big things, our booking agent got us a few good support tours, the only real label that cared about marketing our band was ISurrender. Everything we did, all the 24/7 work we did for little to no pay was well worth it cause we did it ourselves. When we would get on stage and the sentiments the songs would bring back to me, would be screamed back at me by hundreds to thousands of people it was shocking to the point where I would have to step back and do a double take to bring it all in. I love music, I loved my band, I loved traveling, I hated the long drives, I loved our fans, I loved the amazing friends I met who I hope will stay in touch.
This Industry is tough, it will beat you down. When we signed to Columbia the first thing they asked me to do was lose 50 pounds. I hated everyone for it because it went against everything I stood for in music; my beliefs that it should never matter what you look like just how you sound and your presence. But you know what I did, I said fuck um all I am going to do it and rub it in their snooty fucking faces when I do. So I lost 50 pounds in 2 weeks by running two miles a day and eating one fucking subway sandwich a day (healthy I know). The moral to this story is that I did all the work I tried to make my appearance acceptable to the machine, but where did it get us? Anywhere closer to where we wanted to be with Columbia? No. This industry is fucked and I hope someday you will all wake up and see through the bull shit bands singing about bull shit topics that they wrote in a room with 3 other people who arent in the band. Every lyric on every record is a fucking story of my life as well as the guys, its our experience. I’m proud of Valencia and everything it stood for. It was as close to a DIY band as you can get with out officially being a DIY band.
If there is one statement that you should take away from this, I am not done. I have plans to self release a Promise of Redemption EP on ITUNES by myself. No labels no bull shit, we will see who the true people are that support music enough to not download it, (that is of course if you like POR). Followed by a full length shortly after. I hope to god that most of you will follow me on my next journey musically. I am not ready to give up performing. It is what I love and every time I see a band on stage having fun, I wish it was me.
As for my brothers in Valencia. This shit we’ve been through, and seen is far beyond my wildest dreams. Too many stories not acceptable for the internet, and even more that would take hours of writing to get out. I love those times and will cherish them forever.
This is not goodbye, it’s Ill see ya later …
Give us some time, and if you will stick with us through this, I promise some way shape or form we will be back. Don’t forget about us on the way. We love you all.
Come see our Final Show at the Electric Factory on 12/28/11 valenciamusic.net has all the info. Thank you"
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