Fruit Punch - The End

After nearly two of the most fun years in my life, last night I decided that it was time for Fruit Punch to throw in the towel.  We accomplished a lot in the last two years, but in the last couple months, we have been on a fast downward spiral, and before it got out of hand, I decided to stop it.
When Fruit Punch first started, it had a real meaning to me.
We stood for so much. Gay rights, Female rights, Human rights, Animal Liberation, Straight Edge, and plenty of other political topics, were among our song range. My biggest reason for starting this band, was to give not only queer kids a voice, but all kids a voice. I started this band, because I saw someone close to me, my own cousin be outcast and disowned by his family for coming out. This hurt me deeply because I never understood how anyone could disown there son for any reason, let along something so trivial. I have always felt that peoples life choices are their own, and should be nobody else's  business.  This happening, really opened my eyes to the amount of homophobia, drug abuse, and ignorance that was even surging in the crowd I was hanging around. I quickly distanced myself from most of my friends, and looked for an outlet to let people know how I felt.

Fruit Punch started with just myself, and Drake, as a two piece. We played a few shows, and recorded an 8 song demo.
We where both happy with how the band was going, and continued playing shows as a two piece until we decided to further our sound and look for a drummer. We found Jordan, and our sound was almost complete.
When I met Jordan, he honestly was not much of a drummer, but he somehow challenged himself, and progressed to being the perfect drummer for us.
With our new found line up, we played constantly with some great bands. Resistant Culture, Broken Frequency, SSCP, Hell Or High Water, hoodrat, CKK, Agents Of Change, Mindset, and many more.
We toured every chance we got, and even,  recorded an album "Freak Parade" which was released on Queer Control Records.
Queer Control, at the time was the most fitting record label for us. They stood for all the same things that we stood for, and were a small independent label, who support us in every way.  When the album came out, we sold 60 copies the first night, and sold out in 1 week.
After the first album, we decided we needed a second guitarist, because I played two guitar tracks on the recording. We immediately found Pork, and knew that he was the perfect one for us.
After only being in the band for 3 days, pork played his first show, one week later we did a 4 day tour.
We had found our full and perfect line up!
Everything was going great, we toured, and meet a lot of great people, and made a few enemies.
In June we flew out to California, for the first Queer Control tour!
It was one of the most fun times I have ever had in my life. Every night was great, we played some of our best shows, and I made a lot of friends that I hope I will always have!
When we got back home to Philadelphia, Drake decided to leave the band (on good terms), because he thought we were straying from our original message. Which I secretly thought as well.
We got Joe from Submarine Screen Door, to try to fill the gap, but it was never really the same.
We wrote some of our best songs once Drake left the band, but the message, and the love and respect for each other just was gone. After a southern/northern tour with Bros(from Philadelphia) I really came to see that we just were not the same band anymore. In fact, we were almost becoming everything I did not want to be in a band. More drama happened on that tour, than primetime on the lifetime channel.  When I watch the tour DVD now, I'm pretty much sickened with not only our shabby pitiful performances, but at how much drama was going on within the band.
We played a few shows after the tour back home, and then played one last show at the Champ, in Harrisburg. That show was one of the worst performances I have ever been apart of in my entire musical career, and decided that that was it.
A week later myself, Joe, Jordan, and Pork all met up for ice cream and had a meeting about our "Hiatus".
We decided that Fruit Punch was done.
After that in an attempt to revive FP, myself and Jordan tried looking for another guitar player, Talked about another bass player, and eventually record the new songs that you are hearing on our page now. Which I believe are our best songs we have ever written.
After playing a small local show as a three piece with myself, Jordan, and Joe, I really realized how pathetic we had become. I miss the days of Myself, Drake, Pork, and Jordan.
Yes I miss Pork's crazy turrets outburst.

The other day, after talking to Jordan, I really knew that it was not the same.
The band is no longer his priority, and now it is no longer mine.
I have to admit I have been much more excited about The Heels shows, or even other bands that I have been doing , who before I did not think compared to the once raw intensity of Fruit Punch's live performances.
Sadly, we will probably no longer be finishing the other 40 songs for the record, which now, will most likely not be released.

Although, I am still cool, with all the members of Fruit Punch over the last 2 years, I doubt we will ever be in the same band again.
I have a couple new projects in the works, including plenty of shows with The Heels, and a record coming soon, and plenty of other goodies with other various bands.

I would like to thank Queer Control records for everything they have done for us over the last two years.
I would also like to thank, Broken Frequency, Hood Rat, CKK, Slitstich, SSCP, Subscreen, Resistant Culture, Disaster Strikes, all our friends from CT, All our friends from California, Texas, NY, NJ, Draconus, Coco, everyone from Woosta!, Skylight studios, Will Yip, I Hate This, Pat,
Blamer, Cody, Kyle, Lee, Jordan Gamble, Ethan, Bob, CB, Brian, and everyone else I forgot.
I also want to thank, Jordan miller, Drake, Pork, and Joe. I hope we will all remain friends.

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE BEST TWO YEARS, AND THE WORST TWO YEARS OF MY LIFE.

Love
Steve Sxaks