02/26/07 : 2007 Year of Change

There are many rumors going around right now about our band, and we have finally ended up in a position to be able to share with you what has happened over the last couple months since the Atreyu Tour fiasco, the cancellation of the Lost Prophets tour, and our backing out of the Give It A Name festival.

Sonny Moore has quit the band and is working on a solo career. We (Good, Richter, Bloom and Matt Manning -- now an official member, by the way) were in the studio writing for the new record getting ready to fly to Los Angeles to meet up with Ross Robinson and Sonny when we got the news about him leaving.

We know that Sonny's departure is going to be a huge deal to a lot of our fans, and we are sorry that these things continue to happen to us (and you). We all tried to make compromises, but sometimes artists just have to do things for themselves.

To make matters worse, Capitol Records was on the verge of being bought out by another label and bands were being dropped. Money was put on hold from the label and with FFTL already in debt due to the Atreyu tour and studio costs..... Well, we were pretty much crippled.

We had a decision to make that night at the studio that I will never forget... This was the most epic, movie-worthy event of my life. We just said, "Screw this. Let's just do it ourselves. The whole thing -- just us four." The good news is Sonny leaving meant that the band had to make changes, and these changes couldn't have been more positive. And so, that is exactly what we have been doing over the last couple of months -- self-producing the new From First to Last album, without a record label or Sonny.

To get the ball rolling, I quickly called my friend Lee Dyess who owns the EarthSound studio in Valdosta, GA where we recorded "dear diary" and "aesthetic" (we also helped him build it), and arranged for the studio time which cost us the rest of our money and favors from Lee. We also teamed up with our close friend Jordan Schur who is not only managing us now, but signed our band to his label Suretone (through Interscope).

Matt Good is now fronting the band along with vocals from myself and Manning. We are extremely excited about this record, and we are stoked to be singing again.

Thank you everyone so much for all of your support, and to the U.K....we are really sorry you seem to have taken the worst from this, we are gonna make it up this year we promise.

Check back for updates and keep your eyes peeled for a complete online over haul for FFTL...

- Travis & FFTL