Further Seems Forever is an American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band formed in 1998 in

Pompano Beach, Florida Pompano Beach ( ) is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. It is located along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, just north of Fort Lauderdale. The nearby Hillsboro Inlet forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. As of the 2020 ...

. Over its initial eight-year run the band experienced several lineup changes, resulting in a different lead

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

performing on each of their first three studio albums. Original singer Chris Carrabba recorded ''

The Moon Is Down ''The Moon Is Down'' is a novel by American writer John Steinbeck. Fashioned for adaptation for the theatre and for which Steinbeck received the Norwegian King Haakon VII Freedom Cross, it was published by Viking Press in March 1942. The story ...

'' (2001) with the group before leaving to start

Dashboard Confessional Dashboard Confessional is an American rock band from Boca Raton, Florida, led by singer Chris Carrabba. The name of the band is derived from the songThe Sharp Hint of New Tears off their debut album, '' The Swiss Army Romance''. History Early ...

. He was replaced by Jason Gleason, who performed on '' How to Start a Fire'' (2003) but left the band the following year. Former

Sense Field Sense Field was an American post-hardcore band from Southern California, formed in 1990. Originally consisting of vocalist Jon Bunch, guitarist Chris Evenson, guitarist Rodney Sellars, bassist John Stockberger, and drummer Scott McPherson, the ...

vocalist Jon Bunch joined Further Seems Forever for '' Hide Nothing'' (2004). The band broke up in 2006 but reunited four years later with Carrabba on vocals. Their fourth studio album, ''

Penny Black The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. It was first issued in the United Kingdom (referred to in philatelic circles as Great Britain), on 1 May 1840, but was not valid for use until 6 May. ...

'', was released in 2012. The band's music is often classified as

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

and is frequently associated with the

emo Emo is a rock music genre characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of and hardcore punk from the Washington D.C. hardcore punk scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore and pioneered b ...

genre. They have also been classified as a

Christian rock Christian rock is a form of rock music that features lyrics focusing on matters of Christian faith, often with an emphasis on Jesus, typically performed by self-proclaimed Christian individuals. The extent to which their lyrics are explicitly Ch ...

act due to the individual band members' religious beliefs, frequent themes of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

in their lyrics, their association with the predominantly Christian

Tooth & Nail Records Tooth & Nail Records is a Christian rock record label founded by Brandon Ebel in California in November 1993. The label later moved to Seattle, Washington where it is situated today. It is home to many well-known musical acts, including Underoat ...

label, and their performances at Christian-themed festivals such as

Cornerstone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over time ...

and

Furnace Fest Furnace Fest is an American music festival held over three days at the Sloss Furnaces National Historical Landmark in Birmingham, Alabama. It ran annually each August from 2000–2003, and has since resumed each September since 2021. As of 2022 ...

. Despite these associations, the group has claimed not to be an explicitly Christian band, but rather a rock band with Christian members.

History

1998–2001: Formation, Chris Carrabba, and ''The Moon Is Down''

The band formed in 1998 in

after the breakup of the

Christian hardcore Christian hardcore or Christcore is a subcategory of hardcore punk bands which promote Christian belief. The method and extent of doing so varies between bands. Christian hardcore bands have often openly stated their beliefs and employ Christia ...

band

Strongarm The StrongARM is a family of computer microprocessors developed by Digital Equipment Corporation and manufactured in the late 1990s which implemented the ARM v4 instruction set architecture. It was later acquired by Intel in 1997 from DEC's o ...

. Strongarm

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

s Josh Colbert and Nick Dominguez,

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

Chad Neptune, and

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

Steve Kleisath Steven Lee Kleisath is an American musician and has been a drummer for PULL, Strongarm, Shai Hulud, Further Seems Forever, and En Masse. The band PULL was originally called Friend or Foe. He also currently plays drums for the band The Darling F ...

recruited former Vacant Andys and Red Letter Day

Chris Carrabba to form Further Seems Forever. The first song the new band released was "Vengeance Factor" on the

Deep Elm Records Deep Elm Records is an independent record label releasing albums by bands such as Lights & Motion, The Appleseed Cast, Brandtson, The White Octave, and Planes Mistaken for Stars. It also released the compilation series ''The Emo Diaries''. H ...

compilation '' An Ocean of Doubt: The Emo Diaries, Chapter Four'', which contributed to the band's association with the

genre. Their first release was a split EP with fellow Floridians Recess Theory entitled ''

From the 27th State ''From the 27th State'' is an EP by the Pompano Beach, Florida rock bands Further Seems Forever and Recess Theory released on July 4, 1999 by Takehold Records. It was the debut release from both bands. Recess Theory later changed their name to ...

'', released by Takehold Records, and soon the band had signed a recording contract with

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

-based

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

label

Tooth and Nail Records Tooth & Nail Records is a Christian rock record label founded by Brandon Ebel in California in November 1993. The label later moved to Seattle, Washington where it is situated today. It is home to many well-known musical acts, including Underoat ...

. By 2000, however, Carrabba had begun working on his own project

and recorded the album ''

The Swiss Army Romance ''The Swiss Army Romance'' is the debut studio album by American band Dashboard Confessional, released in March 2000 by Fiddler Records. Release It was released through Fiddler Records in March 2000, limited to 1,000 copies. A decision was made s ...

'', essentially a solo release which he considered too personal for Further Seems Forever. At this time the band struggled with interpersonal squabbles and difficulties touring, as Dominguez had a young family and was reluctant to tour outside the state. This forced the group to search for several fill-in guitarists to replace him on tour. After returning from a solo tour in August 2000 Carrabba announced that he was leaving the group in order to focus on Dashboard Confessional full-time:

"I knew the only chance I had to make it in the music scene was go out there and do all the legwork to push yourself and make yourself known...I was willing to do that and they weren't. They were playing music around their jobs, not as their jobs. It was like, if we're gonna be a band, let's be a band. This isn't going to happen by itself."

Despite this decision, Carrabba joined the band the following month to record their debut album ''

'', released in 2001 by Tooth & Nail. Relations between him and the other band members remained amicable, and Further Seems Forever would later open for Dashboard Confessional on several occasions.

2001–2004: Jason Gleason and ''How to Start a Fire''

After Carrabba's departure the band recruited Jason Gleason of Affinity as their new vocalist. With Gleason they re-recorded their cover version of "

Say It Ain't So "Say It Ain't So" is a song by the American rock band Weezer. It was released as the third and final single from the band's self-titled 1994 debut album. Written by frontman Rivers Cuomo, the song came to be after he had all the music finishe ...

" for the compilation '' Rock Music: A Tribute to Weezer'' with Gleason's version appearing on the CD and Carraba's version appearing as a vinyl only bonus track. They also recorded a cover of "

Bye Bye Bye "Bye Bye Bye" is a song by the American boy band NSYNC. It was released on January 17, 2000, as the lead single from their third studio album ''No Strings Attached (NSYNC album), No Strings Attached''. The song was written and produced by Kristi ...

" for the compilation ''

Punk Goes Pop ''Punk Goes Pop'' is the second album in the '' Punk Goes...'' series and the first installment in the long running ''Punk Goes Pop'' series created by Fearless Records. It contains a collection of songs by various artists performing covers of p ...

''. In August 2001, the band played

, and next embarked on a tour of the United States' East Coast and Midwest with Ultimate Fakebook,

As Friends Rust As Friends Rust is an American melodic hardcore band based in Gainesville, Florida. The original line-up, which included vocalist Damien Moyal, guitarist Henry Olmino, bass guitarist Jeronimo Gomez and drummer Matthew Crum, formed in Davie, ...

and Keepsake in August and September 2001. The tour was cut short, however, following the

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

in New York City. Further Seems Forever and As Friends Rust cancelled the last five dates of the tour as a result, since they were playing in the vicinity of New York, culminating in New York City itself on September 14, 2001. In December 2001, they toured around Florida with

The Rocking Horse Winner "The Rocking-Horse Winner" is a short story by D. H. Lawrence. It was first published in July 1926, in ''Harper's Bazaar'' and subsequently appeared in the first volume of Lawrence's collected short stories. It was made into a full-length film di ...

, Fairweather and

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

as part of the ''Pompano on the Go Tour''. In 2003, Dominguez then left the group to pursue a record label venture, Pop Up Record. He ran the label with Derick Cordoba, who replaced him in Further Seems Forever. This lineup recorded the band's second album '' How to Start a Fire'', released in 2003, and supported it with a national touring schedule. In February 2003, the band toured with Elliott,

The Early November The Early November is an American rock band from New Jersey, United States. The group formed in 2001 and signed with Drive-Thru Records in 2002. , they have released two EPs: ''For All of This'' (2002) and '' The Acoustic EP'' (2005). They have ...

and Salem. In 2003, Further Seems Forever signed with

Undecided Records Undecided Records was an American independent record label established in 1998 by Clifford Wiener and Alexander Kenny. The record company was founded in Loxahatchee, Florida but its headquarters moved around in various parts of Palm Beach Coun ...

to finance their own imprint record label Pompano Basic, with plans to release a compilation of rare and unreleased material. The release took much longer to complete and was ultimately released bundled with a live DVD as '' The Final Curtain'' in April 2007, by which time Undecided Records had changed name to 567 Records. In early 2004, as work on a third album was beginning, the group had a falling out with Gleason which resulted in his departure. In a 2006 interview he blamed the split on "completely irrational behavior on a daily basis. Mistrust. Fights. Anger. Jealousy. A very unhealthy relationship." Gleason went on to form ActionReaction in 2005 with his wife Crissie "Bella" Verhagen and released the album ''Three is the Magic Number'' in 2006.

2004–2006: Jon Bunch, ''Hide Nothing'', and breakup

To replace Gleason the band recruited vocalist Jon Bunch of the recently disbanded

. With Bunch, they released the album '' Hide Nothing'' (2004) and continued to tour internationally. The band teamed up with

Brandtson Brandtson was an American rock band from Cleveland, Ohio. History The band formed in 1996 and first recorded for a Stead Fast Records compilation entitled ''Radiowaves and Gibberish'' in 1997. Soon after the group signed with Deep Elm Records, a ...

The Kicks ''The Kicks'' is an American teen sitcom created by Alex Morgan and David Babcock. Babcock also serves as executive producer alongside James Frey. The pilot premiered on Amazon Prime Video on June 26, 2015. Synopsis Twelve-year-old soccer player ...

Moments in Grace Moments in Grace (formerly known as Postcard Audio) was an alternative rock/post-hardcore band from St. Augustine, Florida, active from December 2001 to March 2005. In its final days, the band relocated to Burbank, California and its line-up in ...

and Salem for the " Hide Nothing Tour", which spanned from August 22 to October 4, 2004. The tour took the bands through the United States' West Coast (including a date in Western Canada), the Midwest and the East Coast. The band next partnered with

Sparta Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referre ...

, Copeland and Sunshine for another American and Canadian tour which spanned from November 5 to December 6, 2004. fsfpract9

From February 15 to March 14, 2005, the band toured the United States with

The Starting Line The Starting Line is an American pop punk band based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that formed in 1999. History Early years (1999–2001) In 1999, the band that would become The Starting Line was initiated in Churchville, Pennsylvania via an ...

Days Away Days Away was an American indie rock band based in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, formed in 1998. Biography Days Away formed in 1998 in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. When first formed, the group consisted of Keith Goodwin (vocals/guitar), Matt Austin (guit ...

and

JamisonParker JamisonParker were an American emo duo in the early to mid-2000s, consisting of singer/guitarist Jamison Covington and guitarist/bassist/drummer Parker Case. While active, they released an EP titled ''Notes & Photographs'' (2003) and an album ti ...

. On April 5, 2005, the band released the acoustic EP ''Hope Against Hope''. On April 30, 2005, the band played a reunion show with the original members, including Carrabba and Dominguez, at

The Bamboozle The Bamboozle is an annual three-day music festival which was held in New Jersey from 2003 to 2012, and is scheduled for a 2023 revival by its founder. Every year, new bands competed for spots during the two days. The event evolved out of the ...

, at which they performed ''The Moon Is Down'' in its entirety. With Bunch back on vocals, Further Seems Forever toured Europe during May and June 2005, joined by bass guitarist Thomas Rankine (formerly of

and Salem). In November 2005, they announced a hiatus, which was followed by an announcement in January 2006 that their upcoming tour of the United States and Canada with Bunch would be their final performances, as the members' families and other commitments had eclipsed their interests in the band. As Neptune stated:

"As I sit here reflecting back on my time with FSF, saying to myself 'what happens when your dreams have come true already?' Well my answer is 'it probably wasn't my dream all along.' Sure maybe it was part of my calling but the truth is that making a family has been the goal ever since I can remember. My family is what I live for now and I am very glad to do so."

Tooth & Nail released a "best of" retrospective album that April entitled '' Hope This Finds You Well'', and the band's farewell performance occurred June 17, 2006 at The Masquerade in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. This performance was recorded and released as a live album and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

by 567 Records in April 2007, entitled '' The Final Curtain''.

2007–2010: Post-breakup activity

Following the band's breakup Bunch and Cordoba formed Fields Forever, a duo project performing acoustic renditions of Further Seems Forever and Sense Field songs which toured across Europe. Other members went on to other projects, with Kleisath joined a group called En Masse in early 2006 and Cordoba joining Kicked Out Heel Drag in early 2007.

2010–present: Reunion with Carrabba

Further Seems Forever reunited with original singer Chris Carrabba in August 2010. Further Seems Forever and Dashboard Confessional both played the

Groezrock Groezrock was an annual music festival that took place in Meerhout, Belgium. It started as a small rock and pop festival with one stage and a few hundred people attending, but evolved into a large punk rock/hardcore punk festival, with attend ...

festival in April 2011. The band's fourth studio album, ''

'', was released in October 2012 through Rise Records. In August 2015, it was announced that Gleason had rejoined the band. Former frontman Jon Bunch died on January 31, 2016, in Irvine, California at the age of 45. In the Fall of 2021, the band played the Furnace Festival with the Gleason-era lineup. On February 2, 2022, it was announced that Further Seems Forever would reunite with the original lineup to celebrate 20 years of ''The Moon Is Down'' at the Breakfast in Franklin, Tennessee.

Personnel

;Current members * Chris Carrabba – lead vocals, keyboards, piano , backing vocals *Josh Colbert – lead guitar *Nick Dominguez – rhythm guitar , lead guitar *Chad Neptune – bass guitar *

– drums ;Former members *Jason Gleason – lead vocals , backing vocals *Derick Cordoba - rhythm guitar, lead guitar *Jake Clark - bass * Thomas Rankine - bass *Tom English - guitars *Ian Sirianni - guitars (touring) *Brandon Swanson - guitars (touring) *

Ian Fowles Ian Fowles is an American musician, author, and actor, best known as the current guitarist for the Orange County rock band The Aquabats, in which he performs under the stage name and persona of EagleBones Falconhawk (originally Eagle "Bones" Fa ...

- guitars (touring) * Jon Bunch – lead vocals ;Timeline

Discography

The

discography Discography is the study and cataloging of published sound recordings, often by specified artists or within identified music genres. The exact information included varies depending on the type and scope of the discography, but a discography entry ...

of Further Seems Forever consists of four

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

s, one

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

, one

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

, one EP, one

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

, and four

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

Extended plays

Singles

Music videos

Other appearances

The following Further Seems Forever songs were released on compilation albums. This is not an exhaustive list; songs that were first released on the band's albums, EPs, and singles are not included.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Emo musical groups from Florida Christian rock groups from Florida Musical groups established in 1998 Musical groups disestablished in 2006 Musical groups reestablished in 2010 Tooth & Nail Records artists Undecided Records artists Musical groups from Pompano Beach, Florida