Well, I just saw some very sad news via Lambgoat: A Life Once Lost is breaking up, again, and it sounds like this may really be the end. I’ve been a big fan for a long time. A Great Artist, Hunter, and Iron Gag, in particular, got so many plays in my car that I feared the CDs would eventually just melt. So this really is a bleak development. I’m just going to quote verbatim from the Lambgoat story:
“This has slipped under the radar for the past week, but A Life Once Lost frontman Bob Meadows recently sat down with the Doylestown, PA edition of the blog Fig to discuss his transition from musician to carpenter. The interview (which you can read here) seems mundane enough until you get several questions into the interview, at which point the following exchange takes place:
This time in your life also marks the end of your popular metal band, A Life Once Lost, fill me in on this new phase. Why leave the band after 14 years of success?I feel like I need to step back a little bit from that to just better myself as a person. I just felt like I wasn’t really able to handle that aspect of being in a band or that commitment. I really had to put so many things aside. I’m 33 years old now and I feel like my life has been on hold since I was 19. I’m not complaining about where it’s taken me, it’s been pretty awesome. I’ve been able to put out 6 records, film videos, see countries I would have never seen before and I’ve taken a band further than a lot of people have in their lifetime. It’s a lot of fun and it feels really rewarding.
…
Is this the first time you’re speaking about the band break-up to the press?
This is the first time. It’s not easy to talk about because it’s still so fresh. You do something for such a long time, it ends and you’re just kinda like…shit. What now? It’s wild.
Ending it, to me, is like being released from prison. I have to step out into the world and find myself again. All I knew was getting in a van, sleeping on floors and playing shows at shitty bars for 14 years. But, at the same time, I wouldn’t have changed anything.
While I was on the road, all my friends were going to school, becoming teachers and doctors, having kids…all that. I’m really envious. But, the stories I have are pretty awesome.
It’s really hard to NOT do something that you’ve trained yourself to do, for so long. It’s hard to break habits like that.”
3 Responses to “A LIFE ONCE LOST BREAKS UP”
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One of my bands and I have always wondered why bands would full on break up. It seems understandable if there was some kind of fight between members or if it was just a temporary hiatus but why decide to never make music again?
Any thoughts?
Not in a band, but here’s what One thinks. Apart from necessities in personal life or financial troubles, or along with those, One can think of three reasons for a split up:
1. You can’t handle the person(s) you work with any more.
You’re not just working with any co-worker – you gain a certain level of intimacy with that person. This would be especially true for a group of people who would have to spends weeks, if not months, cooped up with each other on tour. You might not like what you find out about somebody, or the person changes too much for you to like any more. Those feelings could build up over time, and you might decide that you don’t want to know that person anymore – and that’s not possible unless you stop working with the person. So, you stop making music with those people, i.e., you leave the band.
2. You feel that you’ve experienced all that you wanted to experience while with the band, or you get bored of it. So, you decide to leave, and move on to something else in life, or another band.
3. You’re in a creative rut or you feel limited, and you feel like it won’t get any better any time soon if you stay with the people you currently make music with. So, you leave to find another band, or do something else.
i loved Iron Gag but just couldn’t seem to get it into their latest, even after repeated listenings