The Blue Sky Addicts’ drummer drama

People quit bands all the time. Big deal.

What made the departure of the Blue Sky Addicts’ drummer interesting to me was how tactless and unneccesarily dramatic it was. That’s why I wrote about it in my article about the band in this week’s issue of The Uniter.

The article doesn’t contain his side of the story, though. So here it is.

“[Being in the band] felt fake. It was fun on that fake level, but I can’t read Derrida and Deleuze and have psychedlic experiences and then not question why I’m trying to refine this music into a product to be bought and sold.”

That’s what 20-year-old Landon Hildebrandt had to say when asked why he left the group. Early last month, Hildebrandt exited the band by posting a message on BSA’s Facebook fan page. The Internet notice was the first his bandmates heard of his intentions.

Speaking by phone last week, Hildebrandt said he quit because he was turned off by discussions the five members were having about royalties, and how to split any money the band might make off its music. Hildebrandt added that he wasn’t able to express himself fully in the band and wanted to play music for the fun of it—not as a business endeavour.

“I’m a creative, experimental person and I seek the limits and boundaries—I think that’s what creativity is about,” he said. “I felt oppressed [in Blue Sky Addicts]. It’s not their fault. That was just the situation.”

Hildebrandt chose to break the news of his departure on Facebook because “it wasn’t something I could privately tell the band.” Facebook was the most public way he figured he could announce the news.

“It was a public situation [because] Blue Sky Addicts is something the public enjoys,” he said.

Hildebrandt is now focusing his musical efforts on his solo project, Doom Bulge. You can check them out online at www.myspace.com/dualtwice.