Crown The Empire part ways with vocalist
Crown The Empire have announced that they have parted ways with vocalist Dave Escamilla.
Read the full statement—posted via Facebook—below.
UPDATE: Ex-Crown The Empire vocalist Dave Escamilla posts statement on departure from band
In November 2016, Escamilla took a hiatus from tour.
On Dec. 21, Escamilla tweeted “You'll all understand. Soon” and, on Jan. 4, he posted a photo of recording equipment.
You'll all understand. Soon
— David Escamilla (@DaveCTE) December 21, 2016
Really looking forward to this year. A new perspective is all I needed ����
— David Escamilla (@DaveCTE) January 3, 2017
I feel like I haven't left this spot in days pic.twitter.com/JIJuCJnQo6
— David Escamilla (@DaveCTE) January 4, 2017
Guitarist Brandon Hoover retweeted Crown The Empire's statement. None of the other members have yet to directly comment at the time of publishing.
Vocalist Andy Leo retweeted Crown The Empire's tweet following the announcement which said “And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.”
And now back to your regularly scheduled programming pic.twitter.com/RLkyXepVts
— Crown The Empire (@CrownTheEmpire) January 8, 2017
On Jan. 6, drummer Brent Taddie posted a photo of the remaining four Crown The Empire members.
Most fun I've ever had on a 10 hour flight…love you boys @AndrewCTE @HaydenTree @BrandonCTE pic.twitter.com/0vaLtuyzHV
— Brent Alexander (@brenttaddie) January 7, 2017
In November 2015, AP exclusively announced that Crown The Empire's guitarist Benn Vogelman had left the band. Read his personal departure statement here.
Crown The Empire formed in 2010 and are signed to Rise Records. The band won the Breakthrough Band Skully at the 2014 APMAs. Their third album, Retrograde, released last summer, which followed up their previous two LPs: The Fallout (2012) and The Resistance: Rise Of The Runaways (2014).
The only show Crown The Empire currently has lined up is Download Fest on June 9.
Statement:
“Bands are a lot like a relationship; you've all heard this. Sometimes when shit goes south, it's hard to tell who broke up with whom, if you're ever going to get back together, when to give them back their things – it's messy, and it takes a while to figure out how to get back to focusing on just yourself, when all you've known for a good part of your life is sharing it with this other person.
Dave isn't in Crown The Empire anymore. That's how the chips have landed after the smoke has cleared. Everyone will try and make it out like it's a big corporate thing, and say we're “very excited about the future of what both he and ourselves make as we all continue to pursue music” but we all know that when you see your girl or guy with someone else it sucks. The difference is that we turned to each other during this time. The four of us found solace, respect, friendship renewed, and our purpose within this band, and stopped letting our selfishness divide us. Instead we've come together, bonded more than ever to help build each other up.
We've never heard or seen Dave make anything, artistically or musically in the 4 years he was in our band, so we're just as excited to see what he does make as you are. We've had enough time to lick our wounds and can truly say we wish him the best, but we don't want any of our fans to think he was at the heart of what made Crown – Crown. I don't think you'll see him say anything different. Yes, – the “members” as you know it of Crown The Empire were not the primary song writers, but to us, our best friend Brendan, has basically always been in our band, and wrote with us from the very first song. An architect can't say he's made a house without someone to actually build it. It's not like some random person that we pay and say “hey make us famüs” he's literally a brother of the band, and that has not changed. We will continue on as we have, together, tighter, more creative, and more excited, amicable and finally free of negativity than we've ever been. Dave is an incredible talent that we'll never be able to replace in our sound, but we're excited to build an identity around Andy as the singer of this band once more, and we can't wait to bring our creations to you.
Because at the end of the day, anything we create is ultimately not for us. It's for a point in time in the world and the people in it. Thank you all for being participants in our fucked up little universe so far, and we hope that you all will stick around to see how it evolves.
With Love,
Andy, Brandon, Taddie, Tree”
Watch more: Crown The Empire’s Andy Leo talks about the band’s new album and how they’ve grown as artists
