It saddens me, more than you know, to tell you that I have left Relient K.  Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the last 5 years.  You all made me feel like I was in the band longer than I was.  Thank you all for taking the time and spending the money to come to the shows, allowing me to have a job in music.  Thank you for spending time with me after shows, having good conversation or just saying hello.  I am beyond grateful.  I love being on tour so much and I can’t wait to play for you all again.  I’m currently out with Cold War Kids, guitar teching.  Come on out to a show and say hello!  Trust me when I say, I wish this would have turned out differently.  I tried my very best to not have things get to this point.

God Bless You All.

Ethan Luck

From http://ethanjohnluck.tumblr.com/

To all the amazing fans of RK:

It is with sadness that we write you to say that we will not be touring with Relient K on the upcoming tour dates. This will be the first tour that the Jo(h)n’s have missed in over eight years, and the first that Ethan has missed since he joined the band in 2008. We will miss seeing you all on the road this year, and we want to thank you for always being there for us. Hope to see you soon.

John Warne, Jon Schneck, Ethan Luck.

April 15

Just to clarify a few things about Relient K. (From our previous post)

1. We will be doing the upcoming tour as a full band, and we are very excited about it! Dan Gartley and Tom Breyfogle will be performing on bass and drums respectively. They are both amazing friends (from Canton, OH), and incredibly talented musicians.

2. We are all still friends, and only want the best for each other.

3. Our new album “Collapsible Lung” is finished and will be coming out soon. It was made by all five of us. We apologize for the delays thus far. We are so excited about it and can’t wait for you to hear it!

When Matt and I started this band in high school, we could have never imagined where it was headed, and it has continued to be a blessing and an amazing experience throughout the years. Thank you for sticking with us, hanging out with us, singing with us, and being a part of our lives.

Life happens. It is difficult to balance families, financial responsibilities, relationships, and the rest of life. Time won’t slow down, and we are all on a journey, becoming the people we are going to be, and figuring out how to live.

The Jo(h)ns and Ethan are not able to do this upcoming tour. We hope to continue to make records and play shows together in the future.

We do plan to continue to play shows and make records. We would only ask at this point for your continued support. These types of things can tend to seem more dramatic than they actually are, and we urge you to not spread speculation about what may be going on. We would ask that you would support us and hope for the best for us individually and collectively.

- From Facebook

04/19 – Spring Arbor, MI @ Spring Arbor University
04/24 – Birmingham, AL @ Zydeco
04/25 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
04/26 – Orlando, FL @ Beacham Theatre
04/27 – St Petersburg, FL @ The State Theatre
04/28 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Culture Room
04/30 – Knoxville, TN @ Bijou Theatre
05/01 – Charlotte, NC @ Amos’ Southend
05/02 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
05/03 – Nashville, TN @ Rocketown
05/04 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel<
05/05 – Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head Live
05/07 – Boston, MA @ Royale Boston
05/08 – Patchogue, NY @ The Emporium
05/10 – New York, NY @ Highline Ballroom
05/11 – Atlantic City, NJ @ Showboat Atlantic City – House of Blues
05/12 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Altar Bar
05/14 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
05/15 – Pontiac, MI @ The Crofoot
05/16 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave II
05/17 – Minneapolis, MN @ Mill City Lights
05/18 – Des Moines, IA @ Wooly’s
05/19 – Chicago, IL @ House of Blues
07/03 – Noblesville, IN @ Klipsch Music Center
07/18 – Cleveland, OH @ Blossom Music Center
07/24 – St Louis, MO @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheater

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230870040211

12/8 – Canton, OH @ The Auricle

12/9 – Canton, OH @ The Auricle

12/15 – Nashville, TN @ Rocketown

We have two of these left — Thinking of putting them on eBay. Would anyone bid? Might come with some goodies stowed away in the case. You never know.

If the answer is no, I am going to build a seafoam green canoe and use them as oars. Either way works for me, just thought I’d offer.

JS

Source: http://www.facebook.com/relientk

Knowing he possessed a great eye, we asked him to share his images documenting Relient K’s latest time on the road. As a musician in the band, he offers the ultimate ‘behind the scenes’ perspective in his imagery, all shot on an iPhone and processed with VSCO Cam.

Before hitting the road, Relient K spent some time in the studio. What do you enjoy more, recording or touring?

I’ve been asked this question a lot over the years. It’s easy to answer this with “I like them both equally!” That sounds generic, but it’s true. There are many different reasons for loving the studio atmosphere as well as tour life. I absolutely love being in the studio. I could record all year round, if possible. Even when I’m not tracking my parts, I love being around the creation of music. I do my best to be in the studio while everyone is recording. It’s so fun to hear songs come to life and take a new direction with every note played. When I’m recording drum parts for Relient K, I can’t wait to get back in the control room and watch the layering begin!

I am also completely in love with touring. I have been touring, with different bands, for about 15 years now. I’ve seen a lot of people tire of being on the road and get burnt out. It’s not for everybody, especially when you pass the 10 year mark! I really enjoy playing music for people, getting tighter each night with my band, meeting new people everyday & getting to see the world. It’s easy to grow tired of the tour life, and I try and remind myself that I get to play music for a living! Wait a second…THIS IS MY JOB?! As a kid, I never thought that I would ever go this far in music and get to see so many amazing places around the world. I am truly thankful.

What does time on the tour bus look like?

For the most part, our bus is pretty boring.  By boring, I mean nerdy.  You’ll usually find me editing photos or video, our guitar player reading comics, someone solving a Rubik’s Cube, others watching sports & the most nerdy, our bass player is usually coding a website.  We will always have other folks from the tour come on and hang.  We are a pretty social band and enjoy the company.  Sometimes, our bass player and I get REALLY crazy and watch Breaking Bad in the back lounge, while consuming chips.  It’s easy to confuse us with Motley Crue in the 80’s.

Are both music and photography interests you’ve had from a young age? Are the two usually complimentary?

I have had these interests since a pretty young age, especially music. I started playing music when I was 10. I started on guitar, which I learned from my Dad, and over the years picked up a few other instruments. I got interested in photography when I first started touring 15 years ago. I always brought a camera on tour. I didn’t really know what I was doing back then, but I knew I wanted to document what I was doing and where I was going. The two interests really collided about 5 years ago. I finally thought to myself, “I can do both of these things. Why not?” Since then, on every tour, I have all my camera gear with me. I shoot other bands, people, scenery and just everyday life on tour. Initially, that’s really how I built up a good sized client list. Being in a touring band and doing photography couldn’t be more perfect. You have countless subjects and things to shoot everyday!

You have a fantastic documentary style eye for photography. What about a scene makes you want to ‘click’ and hold onto that memory?

Documentary is the key word here.  When it’s up to me, everything will be in black & white.  I like my non-setup photos to look and feel like a still from a documentary.  Even if the shot isn’t perfect, maybe the moment is.  I wanna make sure great moments and memories aren’t something I just talk about.  I wanna be able to look at a photo and say, “That’s exactly how I remember it!”  Often times, I’ll just have VSCO Cam open if there’s a lot of stuff going on.  Hopefully, you’ll see what I mean in these photos!

Please tell us about your experience documenting the tour with VSCO Cam.

VSCO Cam is, hands down, the best photo app out there.  I’m not just saying that because of this interview.  I got the app before I even knew about VSCO Film, VSCO’s Journal & their amazingly clean site.  Once I figured out the app, I stopped using all my other photo apps.  I wanted to use VSCO Cam to document our tour, because I had to show people what this $1 app is really capable of.  It’s mind blowing sometimes.  I’ll look back at photos from the app and think, “This was from an iPhone?!”  It’s a great tool for achieving a look I see in my head.  I try and turn people on to VSCO Cam any chance I get!

What show or city did you most enjoy on the tour?

I always have my favorite cities to play, especially for food!  I’m vegan, so I have a mental list of places I love to hit up.  San Francisco, Seattle & Portland are always great.  On this tour we just did, I was most excited to be in Albuquerque, NM.  I have a friend who took some of us on a “Breaking Bad Tour” of Albuquerque.  It’s one of my favorite shows, and we hit up 6 filming locations!  That’s a “must do” in Albuquerque!

Do you ever get homesick when you’re touring?

I think a few of our guys get more homesick than others, because they have a few kids.  I always miss my wife when we leave for tour, but she’s beyond supportive and comes out on the road pretty often.  Usually, when you’re getting to the last week of a tour, you get pretty anxious to go home and get back to normal domesticated life.  After about a week at home, I’m ready to do it again!

// Check out Ethan’s awesome photos from the original article:  http://visualsupply.co/features/vsco-cam-ethan-luck