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Seaford's Bandcamp is calling it quits

Glenn Gamboa | DROPS

June 22, 2008

After a string of local Top 10 singles, a major-label contract (and exit), several national tours and lots of great music, Bandcamp is calling it quits.

The Seaford-based band announced the breakup on its MySpace page last week, much to the disappointment of many fans who wanted to see the quartet play again.

However, singer Matthew Bair said the power-pop band, with such local radio hits as "Celebrity" and "Valentine" over the past six years, had run its course and that their success in other projects had made it increasingly difficult to get back together.

"Everybody's lives kind of got in the way," says Bair, who will continue to tour as part of Eve 6 and focus more on a solo career - with a new band name, ... la Dashboard Confessional. "It wasn't like we had this big fight or anything. It just kind of fell into place that we should try something else."

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Bair's brother, Kris Mazzarisi, who co-founded the band with him, has just signed on as the drummer for Ryan Star's upcoming tour. Guitarist Sean Gould has been the engineer on many of the hits from the Crush Management stable of artists. Bassist Steve Shebby is already playing with several other bands.

"We were going to change the name anyway," Bair says. "It made a lot of sense when my brother and I started the band when I was 14, but I didn't wear the name as well anymore. I was kind of finding myself in this box that I didn't want to be in. We were part of the whole Warped Tour scene, which was great, but we were starting to get deeper into that pocket. It was starting to become a skin that wasn't what I wanted to wear anymore."

Bair plans to announce his new project's name this week, which coincides with his appearance on MTV's "The Real World" on Wednesday, where he becomes part of the story line of Brianna Taylor, when he offers her one of his songs to record. And he hopes to debut the new project on Long Island in August, followed by some East Coast dates.

"It's the start of a new chapter," says Bair, who recently turned 21. "It's time to be something else."

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