Wednesday, April 13, 2011

R.I.P. The Famine

I don't normally write these postmortem pieces but I feel compelled to today. The Famine have called it quits and it sucks. The Architects of Guilt was an amazing record and I think the band could have been huge. From vocalist Nick Nowell

“THE FAMINE never should have existed. I don’t mean that like when a jealous brother screams, ‘I wish you were never born!’ at his little sister. What I mean is that we came together as a group of married thirty-somethings with kids and small businesses. Our singer lived on the other side of the country. It was a cumbersome proposition, but we made it work.”

“Most of you are familiar with the fire that claimed most of our equipment and the departure of our vocalist about a year ago. We should have never been able to make our last record, but we did. This brings us to the present day.”

“As of this past Saturday, THE FAMINE is no more.”

“In my mind, bands break up because Courtney Love kills their singer or because they can’t stand each other. Neither of those circumstances is descriptive of our situation. For us, life simply got in the way, as it often does. There is a medical emergency in my family, and I’ll be moving to Los Angeles in August to care for a loved one in his final days. Mark [Garza, drums] and Andy [Andrew Godwin, guitar] both have families for which they are the breadwinners, and Jon [Richardson, bass] has been putting off going to graduate school. Instead of trying to simultaneously satiate Mark‘s drive and Andy‘s inability to tour and my distance from the band and Jon‘s webbed toes (sorry, Jon), we came together and decided as a group that it is time to lay THE FAMINE to rest.”

“Words cannot express how thankful we all are to have had these experiences, and without those of you who are reading this right now, none of this would have been possible. So, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank all of you for the support and kindness you have shown us for the past four years. Thank you for allowing us in to your lives, and for giving us the opportunity to connect, even though most of us have never met. You’ll see us around. You might not see the same faces or the same names, but I know that music means too much to all of us to let it die with this moniker. So, this is goodbye for now.”


I'm not surprised though. When I read that drummer Mark Garza had quit the band it felt like the beginning of the end to me. That even if the Famine didn't break-up, eventually the band would become a rotating cast of musicians supporting Nick Nowell and I'm glad to see the band end it then become a shadow of what they were. They produced two killer records and while it's sad to see them go I'm glad we got the Architects of Guilt before the band called it a day.

The Famine will be missed.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think I may be the only person that likes Raven more than Architects. Time may change that. I really loved Kris' vocals on Raven though.
Not that I only like christian music, but the famine seemed to be going a different direction which as a christian always leaves a sour taste in my mouth. So, at this point the breakup doesn't bother me that much.

Patton said...

While I liked the Raven, the drum production always bugged me. It's an issue I have with most modern heavy music.

As a pure music fan, I didn't mind the change on Architects but I can see how the directional change in the band would bug people.