Farewell to The Format

Its insane to me how with the landslide of music available, with the multitude of artists that can now reach an audience, with technology that can put tone deaf in pitch and make your bedroom mimic a 1,000 dollar a day studio, it doesn't seem to me like there are any more good or great bands out there than there were before. It doesn't feel like a renaissance, it feels like a big loud convention with everyone more focused on ways to be seen, ways to be heard through the pandemonium, than the actual art.

I hadn't heard of The Format when our booking agent emailed to say he had secured us the opening spot on their 2006 summer tour, my first ever fronting a full band, and I had no idea that the tour would bring me in front of thousands and thousands of people, opening up for musicians I would really come to respect.

I was excited that they were going in to make a new record, that in a matter of months a really enjoyable new handful of songs would be thrown in my lap and I wouldn't have to sift through the trenches of the internet or old boxes of vinyl. I can't say I'm not bummed and that I wouldn't have loved to tour with that group of guys again sometime, but I'm sure that a lot of great music will come from the splintering of Sam and Nate and Mike and Don and Marko. I'm really excited to hear what they all do next.