Simply 2010

So I'm going to just say it simply. I'm poor. And Neil is busy with school. The Carps have done great things. We've grown over the past few years and have played all over the place. I never imagined that "All The Damn Kids" would take us to Norway. But it did. And we are infinitely happy about that.

But when a little indie rock band of our size comes to this crossroads of local act/full time venture, you need to make that critical choice. "Do I leave my day job and try to make this work?"

Now, neither of us have day jobs, but I've spent the better part of 2009 ignoring The Carps to play drums with my friends, Thunderheist and Styrofoam Ones. This allowed me to eat and keep playing music. Neil is in the final throws of his PhD at Oxford, and as you can imagine, it's incredibly intense and time consuming. This means, when we do get together in New York or Toronto or the UK, we spend very little time jamming and writing. Simply put, we don't have what we need to commit to this band and allow it to grow. If we were to try, we would end up being miserable and putting out music we don't believe in. Which, is where we were heading to be quite open about it....

This isn't us breaking up the band. We're just not going to tour in 2010. No interviews, no new single leaks. What we will be doing is writing. Writing until we get it right. Until we get something we believe in. Something we'd be proud to play every single night when we are out there making gas money and sleeping in our van. Making music you are beyond OVERJOYED to be playing make all the difference. And we don't have the time these days to make that music.

I can't explain how good it feels to lay on the dirty floor of a soundguy's apartment after an amazing show. It makes all the struggle and hustle worth it. I really hope that when we come back in 2011 to tour that you guys will still be right there with us. Still listening. Still giving a care about what I've got to say and the sounds we're trying to make.

We really do love you all, and are grateful for the few of you who know who we are and have told your friends and parents to download our music from the Pirate Bay. Thanks.

-Jahmal

Jan.2010