Hello Everyone,
Thank you all for your patience. Sorry I have not been able to send this email earlier, as I know you are all wondering what the situation is. Hopefully you heard the band talk about it on their kickstarter and/or saw my post on Facebook.
If you want to skip my story about the hiatus, go to the bottom and look for the bold "kickstarter" headline. If you want to read on, this is from me, not the band. Just my perspective.
ANYWAY...so the band has announced that they are going on an indefinite hiatus. What does that mean and why? Well, since the release of "All The Way," Zach has been writing and writing and writing. On their last tour, he learned how to play guitar, and that tool has aided him tremendously in his songwriting skills. In addition to that growth as a songwriter, the guys have been growing and evolving as people. That's just a natural progression of life. When they started "Outerspace Politicians," they were 16 & 17 years old. Getting signed, being on Radio Disney, seeing the world, was all a dream. What kid wouldn't want that kind of success?! But the guys were always musicians and friends at the core. They weren't put together. They weren't just okay singers who learned how to be just okay dancers. And there's nothing wrong with that, by the way, it just was never who they were. YOU guys knew them through their YouTube videos, not a TV show. We never saw eye-to-eye with our label when posting those YouTube videos. We weren't into the smoke & mirrors of that aspect of the music industry.
The older the band got, the more they wanted to progress and evolve their sound. You guys heard the natural progression: listen to Suddenly, the additional songs on Suddenly Yours, the songs on All The Way, to the songs on The American Dream. One song we previewed for you "Ocean Floor," was a very early song that began the progression. That's not even going to be on the new record. The songs that have come after are way beyond that.
So as the songs were being written, and we we launched this Kickstarter, everything was just moving forward as Allstar Weekend. When we started to demo these new songs we realized we had something different. But still...just moving along as Allstar Weekend. We exceeded our funding goal (thanks to you) and got into the studio. Then the songs started to really take a shape and life of their own. We were blown away by what was happening. When I spoke to our producer Jason Lehning, he said "I expected this record to be good, but I had no idea how good. I had no idea of the depth of Zach's writing and lyrics."
We discovered that many, many people...pretty much everyone outside of our happy A-Dub community, were going to prejudge this band and record. Allstar Weekend would always be thought of as "The Disney Boys" - even if they never were. We started playing people new songs and not telling them who the band was. They freaked out. We told them it was Allstar Weekend and they were in shock.
It was at this juncture that we realized that Allstar Weekend is its own entity. It stands for something, means something, and was very important to us and many of you. The more we thought about it, the more we were sure it was time to move on. To end ASW on a high note and let the songs, the fans, the history all be part of a great legacy and memory, was what we had to do.
So did we decide to end ASW because we were called "Disney Boys"? No, not entirely. It was just time to move on. Not one of us is the same person at 23 that they were at 17. If you were forced to like all of the same bands, wear the same clothes, think the same thoughts, live the same life, you'd be frustrated. It's the same thing. These guys are ready to transition. Everything they did was right and real for the time, but now it's time to move forward. There is not one regret with Allstar Weekend. We ALL, me included, had an amazing time and I know the guys will be telling these stories to their kids in years to come...but until then...let the phoenix rise!
And now the moment you've all been waiting for...KICKSTARTER:
Many of the personal experiences have already been fulfilled. Others are being booked. Everything that was sold on this site as Allstar Weekend will remain as Allstar Weekend with the exception of the CD. That will be released under the new band name. All of the merchandise will be Allstar Weekend. If you DO NOT wish to support the new project, we will offer you a refund for the cost of the CD, since that is the only part that will not be delivered exactly as promised. We hope you'll want to keep it, because it is going to be AMAZING.
We know all of you who pledged here support not only the band, but Zach, Cameron, and Michael as people, and there was no way Zach was going to continue doing music without his best friends. So all three members are the core of the new band. Don't worry about Dillon & Brent. We will keep them in the picture.
If you'd like to request a refund for the CD only, please send me a message through kickstarter.
Regarding the fulfillment of the other rewards, we are working on those. It has been a very busy and tumultuous time for the guys, so we appreciate your understanding. The CD will not be out in February. With this last headlining tour the guys are on now, we had to stop recording, and will continue directly after tour. We're looking at a May release date, but I will definitely keep you posted! If you haven't received an address request, don't worry. I haven't forgotten about any of you!
Thanks again for everything.
Stefanie
PS to clarify - This is, in fact, their last headlining tour. They will play the Vans Warped Tour as Allstar Weekend. Those shows will be 30 minute sets. After that, ASW will be done.
