Hamilton band The Rest break up
After 10 years, three albums, and 328 shows, Hamilton indie-rock stalwarts The Rest are calling it quits.
Lead vocalist Adam Bentley told CBC Hamilton that it wasn't an easy decision. The band made the split official with a public statement Tuesday afternoon.
"I sat there with that statement with my finger on the mouse for five minutes, not able to pull the trigger," said Bentley. "It felt like erasing something I might need to take back."
Bentley says the band had known things were over for a while. The signs were piling up — when they started, it was never with the intention of being a hobby band that only got together a couple of times a month. But more and more, that was what was happening.
The band also felt they couldn't extend production and effort to top their last record — 2012's Seesaw. "Everything that we did we wanted to ramp up more than last time, and it was apparent we couldn't," he said. That wasn't for lack of trying — life just got in the way.
Jams became less frequent too, the most common sign of a band slinking slowly into a breakup. "Our Sunday's used to run from 12 to nine. Those things just don't happen anymore," Bentley said. So it was time to move on. "We would've been lying to ourselves if we didn't."
He says that this isn't a "drama-filled" decision — no name-calling or hair pulling. It's just the right time to move on.
But they'll being going out with a bang. On June 8, The Rest will be playing their final show, at the Dundas Montessori School, on their 10th anniversary. They're re-learning songs they haven't played in years, from the first record onwards - so it promises to be a night to remember.
"I'm sure there will be new projects," Bentley said. "I'm sure we'll play together in some way."
"But to be The Rest … it should be all of us, or nothing at all."
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