The Paramedic goes on indefinite hiatus

Whats up friends? Jake here. None of us wanted to do this, but I have some news for you. So if you've ever read anything from this page... Please read this. It all started on our last tour. Things with Mike weren't going well. As many of you know, he was saying a lot of terrible things that began to circulate online. The damage his words caused was really detrimental to our band as a whole. Coupled with the fact that he was unbearable for all of us to be around, both on tour AND at home, the rest of the members all mutually agreed to continue the band without him.. I won't go into all the details here, but I posted about it on my personal page a while back if anyone cares to look for it. The bottom line is; he was my best friend in the world and it plain sucked... but the show must go on, and it had to go on without him. Preparing for the next tour was hard. We all had different ideas of who should be our new frontman. Ultimately, I came to a decision. It was my understanding that the band was on board and backed me all the way. Later it came out that Sean Salasny, one of my best friends in the world, disagreed with me on who should fill the spot. We agreed to disagree for the sake of the band and our friendship and kept on trucking. At the same time as all this was going on, Colten and I decided to start a brand new band... a band called Up All Night. We needed a fresh start in a bad way. The Paramedic had earned a terrible name due to our previous frontman, disagreements, and stupid misunderstandings that accumulated all this time. ALL WE WANT is just to make the best music possible, have fun, and be able to focus on giving our fans the music they love... WITHOUT looking like idiots with the worst reputation brought on by people that aren't even associated with our band. Our ex-guitar player, Chris "Hollywood" Bluser decided he wanted to be in a new band as well... for different reasons. As usual, he asked me to join my new band. Chris has a baby boy on the way, because of this, he made the decision not to go on tour with us for the time being. I COMPLETELY understood and supported him in that. Family comes first, all the time. However, if he couldn't tour with or dedicate himself to The Paramedic because of his unborn child, (which again, I totally supported) how could he dedicate himself to a brand new band - starting from the ground up? It just didn't seem like it was going to work out. So... that's when he tried to talk to the singer of our new band out from under us, and also started talking to Mike Luciano again, all at the same time, in attempt to get him in another new band with him too. His method of making nice with Mike? Talking shit about me. His best friend of 15 years. The guy who took him into his own home when he had absolutely nothing on more than one occasion. Obviously I found out and that was the final straw. I told him that I didn't really appreciate him being so blatantly two-faced and expressed that we just could not be in a band together anymore for the sake of our friendship. I left it at that. It's not like it had been sunshine and rainbows with him in the band anyway. He begged to join the band, promising the world to us if we just let him in. Unfortunately, he never came through. Quite the opposite. The only thing he brought to the table was drug addiction and ego. He was the guy who BLEW UP on us because he believes he "should be the face of the band" rather than Mike, our frontman at the time. He demanded to be front and center of all of our promos. It was horrible, and all because he happened to be in a Black Veil Brides music video one time five years ago. He even tried to give other members of our band hard drugs, freaking them out as expected. It's tough to have a friend who is on drugs. Of course, you want to be there for them... but at the same time, you just simply cannot have hard drugs in a van driving across the country. One thing I myself and I'm sure a lot of other people who have been effected by drug users know is this... they lie. Chris began to lie to everyone in The Paramedic, telling them that I had been stealing money from tours in order to pay my rent. What he didn't take into account was that he was the ONLY member of the band that wasn't involved with the business side of the band. Everyone else was. So when he came to them with it, they just told him the band simply didn't make enough money for ANYONE to steal. We've honestly never made anything more than gas money. When all of his plans to turn everyone against me failed, Chris, in a last ditch effort to bring me down, sent an email on Sunday (which is unprofessional in itself) to all of his friends in the industry (my guess is probably about two people), to have my name "BLACKLISTED" because I didn't let him in my new band. Anyone who knows anything knows that this isn't the 1980's and if you want to "blacklist" someone, you don't send silly emails loaded with typos and grammatical errors to interns you met at a bar once, begging them not to work with people who are in your band. His unprofessional behavior was probably met with a fitting response either way. It's a shame that he feels the way he does and that he has carried himself like this. WHEW... that is enough about that guy. Basically, the band has just been completely dysfunctional over the last couple of months. It's not just because of Mike, it's not just because of Chris. There were lots of underlying issues within The Paramedic. Too many egos colliding, constant struggles for power over a band that was supposed to stay fun forever. The band that was started in my mother's garage with my best friends. The band that always put the fans first, because we love you all so much... became the band that was dying slowly because we lost sight of what we started and why we started it. Who is to blame for all this? I guess it depends on which member of The Paramedic you ask. If you ask me, I'd say no one person is to blame. We're all at fault. I just know that through everything I have always tried my best to take care of my band mates, be the best friend possible, treat others the way that I would like to be treated because that's how I was raised to carry myself. That brings me to my last point here before I wrap everything up. Is The Paramedic done? Is it finally over? Who knows. A lot of people want it to be. Everyone seems to hate everyone. There is so much drama for the sake of drama... it's just a lot to handle. So for now, Sean, Colten, and myself are taking a step back to focus on other things. We think that is the best step forward for the band and for each of us. SO WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN NOW?!?!: Colten and I have decided to continue on together! We have launched a brand new band with a brand new name. This is the band that The Paramedic should have been since day one. A band who is truly in it for the fun, and for the love of the fans! SO become part of the takeover! We're gonna do whatever puts a smile on our face, and refuse to do anything that doesn't... If you'd like, you can check us out and give us a "LIKE" over at www.facebook.com/upallnightOH Sean Salasny will probably be doing something fucking awesome as well. If he does, I'm sure he'll post it on here for all you fine young people to check out. I will forever be one of his biggest fans. I can't speak highly enough of Sean. Although we didn't always agree, he is probably the nicest man I have ever had the absolute pleasure of being friends with, and one of the best musicians I have ever had the honor of sharing the stage with. I hope and pray that we will stay friends for a very, very long time. We've done it all together buddy. Seen the country, played the best music we knew how to right, and been on many adventures. I hope they keep on coming. If Mike and Chris want to team up in all of their bitterness and start the greatest local band of all time, I would fully support them in that. I hope that they can find peace and happiness either in themselves or in each other, and I hope they get over whatever they are going through soon. At one point in my life, for a very long time... They were both my brothers. Although much has changed, and honestly I wouldn't even invite either of them into my home anymore... I still certainly wish the best for the both of them. Maybe we can all put our childish bullshit aside after a little bit of time apart. Maybe we'll miss what we had together. Maybe our lives will lead us back to each other one day. Maybe we'll come back and put out the greatest rock 'n' roll album that has ever existed. Only time will tell. So until we figure all that out... Stay tuned and listen to Up All Night! Thank you all so much for your support all this time. We are forever indebted to you. Please continue to send all of us positive vibes. I'm sure we all need it in one way or another. We love you guys so, so, so fucking much. You have given us everything. I hope we did at least a pretty good job at giving back.