Last Thursday I made the decision to leave my band The Ragstripes. There were no “creative differences” and this isn’t an “indefinite hiatus”. My time with The Ragstripes is over and for various reasons.

I got my first job last summer. I’m a cook at Dairy Queen (an occupation I loathe) and because of my profound desire and necessity for money, I’m stuck there. At least twenty hours of every week of my life is spent there and because of school I’m forced to work evenings. This cut deeply into time I had for the band and while I tried my best to balance my work and extracurricular lives, it wasn’t good enough.

Not too long ago I broke the news to Nick and Cory that I would be leaving for college. I’m planning on going to Missouri State and I even got a scholarship. While I’m not positive, I’m pretty sure they took that as me leaving them, which simply isn’t true. However, it would have been hard to continue making music together with me living over 200 miles away, and so we kind of started working like we had a time limit, which isn’t healthy when it comes to being a band.

So instead of prolonging what seemed like the inevitable, I decided to cut if off now and maybe even save some face. Cory and Nick are continuing on as The Ragstripes and I wish nothing but the best to both of them. We had been The Ragstripes for about a year and I’ve grown immensely as an artist and person during that time. They’re like brothers to me and I’ll always cherish everything we accomplished together. I’m not done making music, and I’m not done with the local scene. I’ve grown up with it and I’m sure as hell not going to leave it now. I’ll continue going to shows and giving everyone the lowdown and the what’s what when it comes to local music. And maybe come college-time I’ll be a part of a new band that i can annoy you all about.

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