Legendary Reno straight edge / punk band 7 Seconds have announced their official break up. The band, originally formed in 1980, helped to ignite the youth crew movement with their debut EP The Crew, released in 1984.
From frontman Kevin Seconds:
I had hoped to never ever have to make this announcement.
In fact, I vowed to never do it because, in my heart of hearts, I figured that, as long as Steve, Troy, Bobby and I love playing our songs for people and as long as we are physically and mentally healthy, 7 Seconds would probably just go on forever until we couldn’t anymore.
None of us ever wanted to make a ‘we quit’ announcement to our friends and fans. None of us ever wanted to do reunion tours or comeback albums.
Well shit.... I’m here to very sadly and regretfully announce that the band is officially calling it a day and will not be doing any more playing shows or touring in the future.
First and foremost, our brother and drummer Troy Mowat has a fractured C-6 vertebrae and a torn rotator cuff and has struggled with some nerve damage in his neck and wrists for some time.
All of this causes him tremendous pain and greatly affects his stamina and mobility.
He basically needs to stop playing drums, at least, for the foreseeable future.
Besides that, our brother and bassist Steve Youth continues to struggle with his own medical issues, most notably, blindness in his left eye due to cataracts which has contributed to bouts [of] depression and anxiety and is affecting every aspect of his personal life.
He has also greatly struggled to maintain his sobriety since the death of he and I’s mother in December 2016 and is currently seeking detox/recovery help.
So basically, we’re a great big and old punk rock mess and the 4 of us can’t really find a way to clean ourselves up or work around the rubble enough to play out as a live band.... Those who have worked closely with us or who have followed us throughout our 38 years know how dysfunctional we can be but we always managed to pull our shit together at just the right time.
This time around, the reality of being middle-aged, working class, not terribly relevant and not being able to bounce back from injuries and personal problems has become a weight just too great for us to bear and all signs finally point to retirement....
