Dear And The Headlights have announced that they are breaking up. You can read the entire full statement from the band on their website.
As I’m sure many of you have possibly assumed at this point since there has been absolutely no update as to what we are doing, Dear & The Headlights is no longer a band. We broke up some time ago. I can’t speak for everyone in the band, but we have decided to do other things with our lives. The music industry is a rough world to be in. It’s hard work and very draining and it got to the point that we drifted away from why we were playing music to begin with; because we loved it. We got together as friends and created songs because it was the only thing we wanted to do. So we wrote some songs and started playing shows. The next thing we knew, hundreds of people were attending our shows. After that, record labels started showing interest, then other bigger bands wanted to take us out on tour, then we started selling shirts and cd’s and stickers and buttons, bags, frisbees, towels, bookmarks (my favorite merch item we ever sold) sweaters etc. Next thing we needed a manager, a publicist, a lawyer, a better website, someone to respond to emails and messages, and someone to take care of business while we were on the road. Something that we loved so much and took very personally became something that so many other people were involved with. We started meeting and talking about how we could get more fans and how we could get people to our website and not just Myspace or Facebook. How we could put on a better live show so people would buy our t-shirts or cd’s. It got ridiculous and that’s what bands do! All of this is planned out! What happened to just getting together with your buddies and writing songs because it was all you wanted to do? Music is expression. Music should be an overflow of life experience; and when your life is touring, labels, t-shirts, tent signings, interviews with local papers, etc., where does the overflow from life experience come from? How do you create music about your life when your life is all about creating music? It’s a vicious cycle and I personally commend the MILLIONS of bands that do it. It’s hard work. We worked very hard and toured our asses off.
With that said, it was an absolutely incredible experience and I can’t express in words how much I learned about life, people, teamwork, and communication with the people I am/was close to. We have met some amazing and generous people that appreciated our music and has affected them in one way or another. We have stayed on people’s couches, eaten meals with them, milkshakes, gone swimming, and all sorts of adventures. Fans that kept coming back to our shows and buying our shirts and telling their friends about us; you will forever be appreciated. Our families that supported us even though “The chances of us ‘making it’ were so slim.” You will forever be appreciated.
Dear & The Headlights was a huge part of our lives. It was our lives. It was a crazy experience and it was worth every mile we drove (220,000 miles in three years), every show we played (over 700), every person we’ve met (no fucking idea), every shitty fast food restaurant we’ve eaten at (I’m embarrassed to say), and every terrible opening band we played with (no names will be mentioned).
So that’s about it. We are done. We are on to different activities now. Beautiful new experiences that we can write about. An overflow of life experience that is worth creating art for. Families, school, triathlons, different musical projects, solo projects, new work, new friends. A new life.
And since we never had a “Thank You’s” section on either of our albums, I would like to take the opportunity to do it here and now. Again, all of these words are mine with shared sentiment from the rest of the guys. Please don’t take this as verbatim conversation from the group as a whole.
P.J. Waxman
Dear and the Headlights
