Kevin Martin of Candlebox is not only breaking up the band, he is quitting music. The new Candlebox album is the last Candlebox album. It was released exactly 30 years after the release of the multiplatinum Candlebox debut which sold over 4 million copies in America.
“I am putting music away,” Kevin Martin tells Noise11.com. “I will only do charity events. If I am asked to perform at a charity event I will do that. If I do anything it will be ‘Kevin Martin formerly of Candlebox’. I don’t have any plans to make any music. I don’t love the process of recording music anymore. I am very burned out on it. I think I put everything I had into this last record. It is 35 minutes of digital release of my most beautiful and heartbreaking memories. I’m done with it. I don’t love music anymore. It doesn’t give me what it used to and that may be because of me. Maybe it’s because I’ve released four records since being on a major label that I don’t think anyone has heard and I am tired of putting out records that nobody listens to. I certainly don’t want to be a musician who phones it in”.
The new and last Candlebox album is called ‘The Long Goodbye’. Kevin went into the studio to make this record knowing it will be his last. “I committed to this decision during Covid. I did the same with the guys in the band. I was very upfront. I said ‘I am enjoying my time at home. I am liking not seeing anyone. I don’t like being in a tour bus. This might be the end of things. And if this is the case we should make a record and it should come out on the 30th anniversary of our debut album which would be in 2023. I said ‘are you guys cool with that’ and they all said ‘that would be great’. We went into this with ending the band and wrapping things up in mind. I think that every song on the record represents everything in my life that led up to this decision. Covid was either very clarifying for some people or very foggy for some people. For me it was clarifying. I realised how much I had missed of my son’s life and my wife Natalie. I needed to commit to that in my heart and I did. It wasn’t easy. The conversations she and I had were hours in length. She met me as a touring musician. She met me as a recording musician and now all of a sudden I’m going to be home 24/7. That was something for her to take in and me as well. I hadn’t spent this much time at home since I was in my early 20s. It was something I had to grapple with a little bit and here we are and its bittersweet.
Candlebox have never toured Australia until the 2024 dates. It will be the first and last tour ever of Australia.
TOUR DATES
Wednesday, January 10, The Triffid, Brisbane
Friday, January 12: Metro Theatre, Sydney
Saturday, January 13: Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Sunday, January 14: Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide
https://www.candleboxrocks.com/tour
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