Hello friends & freezepop fans around the world,
Almost exactly 10 years ago I cold-called Liz out of the blue to see if she might want to start a fun blippy synthpop band with me.
At that time, the idea of Freezepop and the music we would make were kind of a silly lark that I thought would be fun to make but probably wouldn’t really amount to much. Little did I know how untrue that would become in reality and that 10 years(!!) later the band would still be going strong and our successes continuing. Over the past 10 years we have played shows all over the world, met tons of amazing people, gotten into some wacky hijinks, oh yeah, and made some music along the way. I hope you have enjoyed listening to it, dancing to it live, and playing it in videogames as much as I have enjoyed making it. It’s with these incredibly fond memories rattling around in my brain that it pains me to bring you the news that I’m leaving Freezepop. But don’t fret as this is totally not the end of Freezepop, as Liz and Sean will continue to make amazing music and play fantastic shows for all you guys. They've already been working on a bunch of really exciting new songs that i think are gonna knock your soxxx offf. I'm even hoping to get my mittts on some of these hottt tracks for some remix action!
The details leading to my decision to leave aren’t terribly interesting or dramatic as it's been something that I’ve been thinking about for a year now. My responsibilities at Harmonix making games continue to increase which takes away from my time and energy to compose and go out on the road to play shows. My plan is devote the time I do have creating music for my side endeavor Symbion Project for which I’m releasing a 4th album in just a few months. I hope that you find my music interesting enough to follow me on whatever music adventures I decide to pursue. Your best bet for keeping in touch would be through the symbion facebook page and myspace page and I’ll still be getting freezepop email at duke@freezepop.net so please stay in touch!
For those of you who want to catch me one last time at a Freezepop show rocking the keytar/qy70, my last 2 shows will be our 10th anniversary show in Boston on July 25th and at PAX2009 on Sept. 5th in Seattle, although you never know when i might drop in for some danceparty action. In the spirit of brevity, let me just say what an honor it has been to make music for all of you over the past decade. To know that I’ve impacted your lives in even the most minute ways brings me immense satisfaction and delectation. Freezepop Forever yo!
::the duke of pannekoeken
and the sean-and-liz update, in a soothing purple color.
Hey gang. If you're like us you're probably reacting to the Duke’s news with shock, sadness and a little fear mixed in for good measure. Although we were not super-duper-surprised, and definitely understand his reasons for doing so, it is still jolting to hear that a very, very important third of your band is no longer on-board.
We were really just acquaintances when we started Freezepop, but over the years, through many trials and tribulations (and lots of small victories) we became quite a close unit, more like a little family. So it's always tough to lose a family member, especially the one who had the idea for Freezepop in the first place.
The Duke was more than just 'important' in the early days of the band, he basically was the band. Liz would sometimes send in three sentences about robots or science or whatever and then two days later, blammo, a song, fully programmed on the QY-70 in Freezepop's, and in particular The Duke's, own unique style. I (Sean) was constantly impressed at the creatively and breadth of the programming and production, especially on the second album, which is probably the best recorded example of what a $200 sequencer with a few sounds in it can do. You won't be disappointed with the new Symbion stuff either....
It has been tough explaining the great Catch-22 of The Duke's career to our fans on the road the last few years. His job at Harmonix was the reason that the majority of our fans had found out about us, but the demands of this job made it such that he no longer had the time to tour with us, and a very limited amount of time to devote to writing music. When you add in the stress of having to deal with the business side of a band, it can quickly turn into a second "job", and when you can't have the satisfying stuff of being in a band (meeting fans, playing shows, making records) it's completely understandable that Kasson would need to step away from Freezepop and just focus on Symbion Project.
There is some good news: The three of us have gotten through the last ten years with our sanity (more or less) and our good friendships intact. This is the most important thing. Everyone is still on great terms, and from our perspective at least, the door is always open should Kasson want to contribute anything in the future (remixes, guest appearances, whatever).
As for the future, well, we're very very excited about the album we've been working on, and we'll have a lot of exciting announcements about that soon. We're not really looking to totally reinvent the band, but there are obviously going to be some changes.
Freezepop is very lucky in the sense that we can lose a major piece of our band and still have enough strengths to make an exciting new album that we're proud of. We will keep making music as long as we feel like we're making music that is still vital, and we hope you'll enjoy it too.
Kasson, of course, has our absolute best wishes going forward at Harmonix, in Symbion Project, and whatever else he decides to become part of. We're very proud of him in what he has already accomplished.
We'll have more news really soon. Hang in there with us this year, there is a lot of good stuff (and an excellent record) on the way...
Sean and Liz