Imagine getting your first job when you were 16 years old and doing that exact same job for the rest of your life. Even if it’s the dream job that most people would kill for, eventually you need to stop for a minute, not see your best friends for a while and see what else is out there. We were all so young when we started that we couldn't venture off into unvisited territories.
This is one of the most difficult decisions we’ve had to make but after nearly five years of nonstop touring and recording PANIC! will be taking a break after a few off-date shows this January in the United States. This break does NOT mean the band is breaking up or going on hiatus it just means were going to stop for a little while and focus on other things in our lives besides PANIC!. This break may last a year, two years or a few months, as of right now we don’t know. We’re talking to some friends about doing a quick tour to South America as well as options to tour Europe, Japan and Australia again and we're not ruling them out. We just aren’t going to be doing any full time touring or recording as PANIC! for a while.
We’ve had our ups and downs over the years and every time we thought we had the right team something would happen that would change the whole aspect of the band, or our label would start whining at us about doing a tour or record a new album when we weren't ready to. Every since we started there were people who loved us and would do anything for us and others (that every member has brought one into our atmosphere at one time or another) that just didn’t give a shit about our band and after going through this for such a long time we need to take a step back and figure out what’s next for PANIC!.
Before we go we have one last tour to say goodbye to everyone and we’re working with our label Midnight/Mythic Records to make this best tour ever. We will do our best to play as many songs off all four of our albums on tour.
This is not an end but a new beginning, to celebrate this new beginning we have a some exciting news to share with everyone. Sometime this spring or early summer we plan to release a Greatest Hits/documentary, that will chronicle the last five years of our lives as PANIC!. We have tons of video to find and dig through and interviews to do with everyone to properly document that part of our lives but we think we can have it ready by the summer. Plus there is still a few singles to be released off our latest record "
Broken Down on Memory Lane" so look out for accompanying videos for those whenever they are released to radio stations.
Everyone in the band will still be busy so you won’t be able to get rid of us that easily.
Ryan just finished recording his second and third studio albums as a soloist, set for release on December 28, 2009 and Spring 2010, respectively and a tour will be announced soon. Rumor has it that he might be starting a duet side-project with fellow PANIC! bandmate Ashley Perry in 2010.
Ashley will begin her highly-anticipated solo career in 2010. She will be recording early next year for her full-length debut album hoping for a mid-2010 release date, with a tour following soon after. As stated above she might be starting a duet project with Ryan Ross Hernandez next year.
Gabriel has been working on a new pop-punk project with some hometown friends, called Breaking Dawn at Sunset, and just happened to release their debut album a couple weeks ago. They will have their first headlining small venue tour run from January to March of next year all across the US and Canada. Please show your love and support and check it out. They have some more big plans in the works and plan on announcing them as soon as they can.
Nick, Josh, and Joey will be starting a company that we will tell you all about once all the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed. Of course Nick has a band that he will be jamming with as well and when we have more to report on that we’ll let you know. Most importantly Nick will be going back to his hometown of Oklahoma City to make up for some lost time with family and old friends. As well the Fallon brothers are going to be starting a little side-project in their basement back in Tennessee and will also take some time off to reconnect with family.
Announcements like this are so hard for everyone, especially the band, and we want to make sure we didn’t leave out any information, so if anyone has any questions for us please send them over and we will try our best to answer them as soon as possible and as best we can.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the last five years and see you all at the SnowStorm festival and Midwinter Mashfest MMVI next month and on the couple of dates in the US this January. Tickets for both festivals are available now and for our short goodbye tour, dates will be announced this weekend and tickets should be available soon after.
•PANIC! will be back!•
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Ashley Perry, Ryan Ross Hernandez, Gabriel Hunter, Nick Asher, Josh and Joey Fallon