Your Band Could Be Your Life

“Be yourself” has long been the rallying cry of a hardcore band. But what happens when being in a band runs away with your sense of self?

The Texas is the Reason break-up letter, dated April 23, 1997—almost exactly one year from the day we released our only album.

I.

I struggled all week with whether or not to talk about this. But I’ve decided that not talking about these things is part of the problem.

Back in the summer of 1996, Texas is the Reason and Sense Field left together for a comprehensive tour of the country. Both bands were riding high: Sense Field had just released Building—which would eventually be upstreamed through Warner Bros. as part of a recently signed record deal—and Texas had just released our debut album for Revelation that April, which was already being well-received beyond our expectations. The shows were selling out, the energy around us was electric, and both bands seemed to be on the precipice of something.

At one point on tour, our band came up with a plan to trade one member of Sense Field for one member of Texas is the Reason to ride in each other’s vans over every long-distance drive. Camarade…