The Dear Hunter
is a full-time project of Casey Crescenzo, formerly of post-hardcore band The Receiving End of Sirens. The band's sound is not unlike that of Casey's former band, but with more alternative and progressive rock tendencies and a wider variety of instrumentation.
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THE DEAR HUNTER TICKETS
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History
The band began as a side project of Casey Crescenzo when he was full time member of Boston band The Receiving End of Sirens. It was originally intended as a vehicle for music Casey had written that didn't fit with the heavier sound of The Receiving End of Sirens. In the winter of 2005 Casey recorded the
Dear Ms. Leading
demos. He created 10 copies of the demos on burned CDs intended for the ears of friends, and they began circulation. At the time he did not plan to pursue The Dear Hunter full time and allowed the demos to be placed online for download. On
February 2,
2006, The Dear Hunter played its first show with The Receiving End of Sirens as the backing band.
In May 2006, Casey was kicked out of The Receiving End of Sirens
[1] and began work on The Dear Hunter's first studio album. He expanded the scope of the project to a six-album
[2] story set at the dawn of the 20th century about the birth, life, and abrupt death of a boy, known only in the story as "The Dear Hunter."
[3] In a 2007 interview with music website
Absolutepunk.net,
Casey stated that he already has the overall story of The Dear Hunter mapped out, with each act in 1–3 page treatments. Casey produced and recorded the EP by himself with only of the help of his brother on drums and mother on backing vocals.
Act I: The Lake South, The River North
was released in September 2006 on
Triple Crown Records.
Shortly after the EP's release, Casey recruited Luke Dent of the recently split band Faraway for vocals and keyboards and Erick Serna as a second guitarist. Luke brought in his brother Sam on drums and Erick brought long-time friend Josh Rheault in to play bass. The complete band entered the studio in late 2006 to record the follow-up to
Act I
. Recording finished in early 2007, during which time, the band was featured in
Alternative Press' "100 Bands You Need to Know in 2007."
[4]
Act II: The Meaning of, and All Things Regarding Ms. Leading
was released
May 22,
2007, only eight months after the band's previous release. Originally, the band had written almost 2 hours of music for the album,
but managed to trim the run time down to 80 minutes, the maximum allowed on a compact disc.
Act II
reached #39 on the
Billboard Heatseekers chart.
[5] Since the album's release, the band has toured with
As Tall As Lions,
Saves the Day,
Say Anything,
Chris Conley,
The Format,
Scary Kids Scaring Kids and
Boys Night Out along with some headlining dates. In November 2007, the band embarked on a tour with
Circa Survive,
Ours, and
Fear Before the March of Flames.
The band filmed a music video for the song "The Church and the Dime". They have also announced that they are currently working on nine albums, each of which is inspired by a different color of the
visible spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet), with black and white added as bookends.
[6] They will include many guest appearances, and will span many different genres of music. Casey has said that the band's main focus will still be the
Act
albums and music, but that each of the color albums will be from 30 to 60 minutes in length.
A book based on the story of
Act II
is currently in the works. Artist Kent St. John was selected to do the illustrations. Some of the preliminary artwork can be seen on St. John's website.
[7]
Prior to a string of dates with
Circa Survive, Josh Rheault and brothers Sam and Luke Dent all left the band.
[8] Temporary replacements for the following tour dates included Cliff Sarcona and Julio Tavarez of
As Tall As Lions, Chris Tagliaferro of Wave Down the Planes, and Andy Wildrick of
The Junior Varsity. Wildrick would later join the band as a permanent member, along with Sagan Jacobsen of Crown Atlantic on bass and Casey's brother Nick on drums.
The band embarked on their first headlining tour in mid-2008 with
Lydia,
Eye Alaska, and
You, Me, and Everyone We Know. After the tour, the band entered the studio to record
Act III
. The album was set for release on the 23rd of June 2009.
[9]
On December 9, 2008, it was announced that Nate Patterson, Casey's former band mate in The Receiving End of Sirens, would begin playing bass for the band, as Sagan Jacobsen had left.
The band's latest full length,
Act III: Life and Death
was released on the 23rd of June 2009 on Triple Crown Records.
As of June 8th, 2009, Former Bassist Josh Rheault announced on tour that he had rejoined The Dear Hunter on acoustic guitar, backing vocals, and keyboards.
Members
- Casey Crescenzo – Vocals, Piano, Guitar, Arrangements, Direction
- Erick Serna – Guitar, Vocals
- Nate Patterson – Bass, Vocals
- Andy Wildrick – Guitar, Keyboard, Vocals
- Nick Crescenzo – Drums, Percussion, Vocals
- Josh Rheault – Acoustic guitar, Keyboard, Vocals
Former Members
- Sagan Jacobson – Bass, Vocals
- Sam Dent – Drums
- Luke Dent – Keyboard, Vocals, Guitar, Auxiliary Percussion
Discography
- Dear Ms. Leading
(2005, misc. demos)
- Act I: The Lake South, The River North
(2006)
- Act II: The Meaning of, and All Things Regarding Ms. Leading
(2007)
- Random EP #1
(2007)
- Random EP #2
(2008)
- Act III: Life and Death
(2009) [10]
References
- AP.net chat: The Dear Hunter. Absolutepunk.net. June 3, 2009.
- Interview with Absolutepunk.net. April 28, 2007.
- Band Bio, Triple Crown Records website. Retrieved June 18, 2007.
- "100 Bands You Need to Know in 2007," Alternative Press, Issue #225, April 2007.
- Billboard, Allmusic
- "The Dear Hunter to Release Nine Color-Based Albums". Absolutepunk.net. September 20, 2007.
- Kent St. John's website
- "The Dear Hunter lose 60 percent of their members." Punknews.org. October 19, 2007.
- III release date." Absolutepunk.net. april 5, 2009.
- http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=1015082