People came and went for a variety of reasons, just like the fact that Ashley is no longer playing with COF, the main thing for her was she doesn't like metal and especially not when we toured so much and made no money. She wanted to move on but now that phase has also come to and end. Another keyboard player we had, Kristin Randall, she just did not fit the bill very well so we had to move on. The next keyboard player, Alana, left us just 12 hours before a European tour to join Winds Of Plague... I have no idea why but I would assume it has to do with the fact that they make money, imagine that. I think you may see a pattern here, how many keyboard players must I go through? Its hard to be a symphonic black metal band without a keyboard player right? The thing with Samus was personal differences, we really just did not gel. Two members left the band because they had kids to take care of and with a busy tour schedule out there on the road roughing it making no money we could not expect them to stay in the band.
So there you have it I guess. All of that left me in a strange place, should I stop the band? I decided to keep going and I found what I think to be more capable players to fill the positions (minus keys) and we made an album that we wanted to make at that point in time which meant very little symphonic elements and some slower tempos. I don't treat my band like a business, the good business move would have been to stay on track with what I had done with Legend and ITSOATS, the stuff that sold records and got kids to shows in the first place but my heart was not there so I could not do it. Who knows maybe one day I will be inspired to write stuff in that style again but when I do it wont be because its what the label, fans, etc expect and demand.
