The Stills call it quits

April 15th, 2011

Canadian music has suffered another blow today. After You Say Party announced they’re going on an indefinite hiatus yesterday, Montreal’s The Stills have now announced an amicable end to their ten-year run.

The Stills formed in 2001 and spent a period in New York City honing their sound. Vice Records snatched them up and released their debut album, Logic Will Break Your Heart, in 2003. The band found international success, touring with the likes of Interpol, The Strokes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, while being one of the key bands to put both Montreal and Canada on the musical map.

The band shifted around its line-up before releasing 2006′s Without Feathers, which saw them move away from the darker, post-punk influence into a more straight-up rock sound. After a tour with Broken Social Scene, they signed to Arts & Crafts to release their third album, Oceans
Will Rise in 2008. That album won them Junos for Best New Group and Alternative Album of the Year, as well as a tour opening for Kings of Leon.

The band issued a statement bidding farewell to fans:

Dearest Friends of The Stills,

How does one go about writing a message like this? I don’t know, but I will do my best.
We have been silent for many months now, discussing amongst ourselves how and when to announce this news, as we’ve needed some time to think it over and let the dust settle, so we hope you can understand our silence.

After the better part of a decade together, several months ago we sat down and decided to disband The Stills and part ways. Simply put, The Stills have broken up.

We love each other, we have taught each other, and we’ve grown up together, through all kinds of madness and years and twists and turns, and we spent the better part of the last year trying to keep it going for each other, out of love for one another and out of respect for our long past together. But ultimately, the best decision for each one of us, and in order for each of us to live fully, creatively, and freely, being true to our hearts, this had to happen.

Perhaps the most difficult part of all this is announcing it to you – I hesitate to say ‘fans’ – Our Friends. We’ve been extremely lucky to have shared this time with you, and for the love you’ve shown us, we are humbled, moved and thankful beyond words. You held us up, you encouraged us, and you made this a profound and deeply meaningful journey for each of us. Please know in your hearts that we felt your love and will always keep it with us in our own hearts as we move on through life.

To all who helped us through the years, encouraged us, supported us, worked with us, put up with us, put our records out, toured with us, loved us, and beyond – we are forever touched by you.

We were creating our own story as we went. It’s not easy to know when the best ending is, but we found ours, and it’s one that allows us to look back on all we’ve achieved with great pride and a sense of real accomplishment. Now that the book closes, we can look on the journey and see it as one trip, from beginning to end; one complete and perfectly imperfect universe.

And now our music and what it means rests in your hands. It belongs fully to the world out there, and especially to you. Make it all you wish it to be, in whichever way you most want to.

May your lives be filled with joy and happiness,

The Stills

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