It’s been a tough few days for old school emo fans. First off Spencer Smith has announced he is leaving Panic! At the Disco, but now even more sad news comes with Framing Hanley calling it quits after 10 years of making music, and performing.
The Nashville alternative rock band have been some of the heroes of the emo scene for the last few years, and it seems as “emo” seems to be dying as a style, the bands seem to be leaving with them, or at least becoming more and more like nostalgia trips than anything else. Framing Hanley have clearly taken a time to think about what’s happening and decided to leave now before they too become too much like a trip down memory lane.
The need to create a Kickstater campaign for their last album, The Sum Of Who We Are, may well have been a way to connect with the fans, but for so many bands these days, it seems to be becoming the funeral bell as well.
You can read their heartfelt goodbye below. Beware it’s a bit of a long one:
“The last 8 years of our lives have spawned memories that we’ll cherish forever. Stories that we’ll all have & share with our children, our grandchildren, those stories only exist because of any of YOU that have supported us at any time over the last 8 years. Whether it be the purchase of a single, whether it be coming out to a show, whether it be you picking up a copy of one of our albums, whether it be you simply telling someone to check out Framing Hanley; ANY of that…YOU kept this ship sailing. A special shout out to everyone involved in our Kickstarter for our last album. The only reason there was a third album was because of you. That’s not hyperbole. That’s truth; that’s fact. You did something remarkable for us. While I know that we can’t ever express to you the amazing things you’ve done to our lives, we still thank you from the bottom of our hearts and will continue thank you for the rest of our lives.
That being said, at this juncture in our lives, we know that we can not give Framing Hanley the time/attention/and overall nurturing required to keep this thing running in the capacity it has been for 8 years. Out of respect for what we’ve accomplished together, we have decided that this is the time to close the book on Framing Hanley. It wasn’t an easy decision, to say the least. However, simply put: it’s impossible to keep this going anymore.
**Author’s note: I know it’s not necessary, but before I go any further, please let me tell you that I absolutely cannot express to you enough that this isn’t some secret “all the band members hate each other” bullshit. There is nothing but love here and I know in absolute certainty that we will all continue to be in each other’s lives on a daily basis.**
I realize that I just killed the mood in here with the “yo, we’re breaking up,” but if I’m being real here, we want to create a few more special memories before we punch out our time-card. With that in mind, we aren’t going out without a last tour! A FHarewell Tour, if you will (I know, I know…that one’s worthy of a dick-punch). I will post the dates at the bottom of this entire novel. We wish we could realistically come to every town that we’ve made friends in over the years, but, sadly, that’s impossible. Know this, though: these are not ALL of the dates. There will be another set of dates coming that will go into June. If you’re reading this, I hope that we’re coming to a town near you, and I hope that you will come join us for a night of rock n roll and memories; and a proper goodbye (aka: porty).
To all of our friends in Europe & Australia: we wish more than anything that we could return & have a “going out” party with you as well, but unfortunately that’s just not an option. Please know that it breaks our damn hearts. Specifically speaking to our FHamily in the UK & Ireland: I cannot stress enough to you how much we’re gonna miss playing in front of y’all. So many of our fondest memories happened on your soil. Thank you for embracing us the way you all did. From the very first trip, to the most recent tour last year, you all had our backs from day one, and we appreciate that so much. We had some very special times; thank you.
ALLLLLL of you, again, thank you for ever being a part of this ride. We love you. You changed our lives. Please understand that we mean that when we say that. You truly CHANGED OUR LIVES.
Hopefully we’ll see y’all out there one last time.”
Framing Hanley do have a few more tour dates coming up, sadly none of which are in the UK or Europe. So for us, we have already seen the last of them
