Letlive, stylized letlive.,
Letlive released their first Extended play Exhaustion, Salt Water, and Everything in Between in 2003 and their first LP record Speak Like You Talk in 2005. Their second album, Fake History was released in 2010. Upon its re-release on Epitaph in 2011, the album received critical praise and was also added to Rock Sounds 101 Modern Classics.[ letlive. Hit The Cover Of Rock Sound Magazine, Out Wednesday June 19th! | News | Rock Sound. Rocksound.tv. Retrieved on August 6, 2013.] On April 28, 2017, the band announced via social media that they had broken up. In 2024, however, Butler announced plans to revive the band to end it on better terms.
Biography
Early years (2002β2009)
Letlive was formed in Los Angeles in 2002 by vocalist Jason Aalon Butler, drummer Alex Haythorn, guitarist Ben Sharp and bassist Christian Johansen.
In 2003, the band's debut
Extended play Exhaustion, Salt Water, and Everything in Between was released on at One Records. After a line-up change (with only Butler and Sharp remaining), their first album
Speak Like You Talk was released in 2005, also on at One Records. Bassist Ryan Jay Johnson joined the band before the release, but did not perform on the album.
In 2007, Ben Sharp left the band and the band was plagued by subsequent line-up changes and a scrapped album.
Fake History (2009β2013)
After establishing a first stable lineup with guitarists Jean Nascimento and Ryan Johnson, and drummer Anthony Rivera accompanying Butler and Johnson, letlive. toured extensively throughout the US and Canada, and gained momentum. The band signed with Tragic Hero Records in 2009 and released their second album titled
Fake History the next year. The band continued touring and after signing with
Epitaph Records in February 2011, undertook a brief European tour.
They were signed to Epitaph after Bring Me the Horizon frontman
Oliver Sykes contacted label owner
Brett Gurewitz after watching them perform at a single gig in 2008.
Epitaph re-released Fake History in April 2011 with three additional tracks, including two B-sides and one new song produced by Brett Gurewitz.
In October 2012, the band announced they had parted ways with drummer Anthony Rivera.
The Blackest Beautiful and If I'm the Devil... (2013β2017)
On June 4, the single "Banshee (Ghost Fame)" was released. On June 17, the full album was streamed on the
Rock Sound website, three weeks before the scheduled release.
was released on July 9, 2013 to positive critical reception. The writing process surfaced many creative tensions amongst the band members, about which Butler stated, "We set the bar high and everything needed to be approved by everybody else. Eventually we had to become very transparent with each other and just say 'look, I just don't like this' or 'this isn't working for me.'".
In an interview with Fuse, released on July 16, it was confirmed that Loniel Robinson, their touring drummer, as well as drum tech for Of Mice & Men, would become a permanent member.
The album debuted in the United States at number 74 on the
Billboard 200 and number six on Hard Rock Albums,
selling nearly five thousand copies.
In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number 62.
A music video for the song "Younger" was released on September 26, 2013. On January 23, letlive. revealed that they would be releasing "renditions" of songs from The Blackest Beautiful, featuring various artists on remade versions of the songs. The first "rendition" released was a new version of "27 Club", featuring
Keith Buckley of Every Time I Die. On April 23, their second "rendition" released was a new version of "The Dope Beat", featuring Dan "Soupy" Campbell of The Wonder Years.
On February 10, 2015, Jean Nascimento left the band for unknown reasons. In light of his departure, Kenji Chan, former live guitarist for Bruno Mars and former member of Ryan and Jeff's previous band, Best Interest, acted as the band's touring guitarist.
On September 25, 2015, the band posted a tweet confirming that they had completed their fourth album and that it would be released in 2016. On the same day, they also confirmed that further additions to their 'Renditions' project/album would be put on hold to focus on new music.
Split (2017)
On April 28, 2017, the band announced that after 15 years together as a band, "there will be no further activity for the foreseeable future".
In June and July 2017, Butler, former The Chariot guitarist Stephen "Stevis" Harrison, and Night Verses drummer Aric Improta began teasing a new project called The Fever 333 (later shortened to Fever 333).
Fake History 10th anniversary (2020)
On April 13, 2020, the band started using their Instagram account again and teased fans with a 10th anniversary release of
Fake History complete with unreleased songs and demos.
[2]
The Blackest Beautiful 11th anniversary and "sincerely yours," farewell tour (2024-2025)
On April 17, 2024, the band posted an announcement of the remix and remaster of
The Blackest Beautiful and announced they will be performing a farewell tour in 2025. "To our friends that we never got to say goodbye to: we'll see you next year to do so," the statement read. "We'd like suitable spaces around the world for proper farewells."
In October 2024, the band announced the first show of their farewell tour as part of the 2025 When We Were Young line-up.
On February 12, 2025, the band confirmed reunion shows will take place in several dates in the US, UK, Europe and Australia throughout 2025 as part of a tour called "sincerely yours,". They also unveiled the reunion line-up, which would consist of Butler and returning guitarists Jean Francisco Nascimento and Jeff Sahyoun. The live line-up would be completed by touring musicians Sage Webber of
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Musical style
letlive.'s musical style has been described as
post-hardcore as well as experimental rock,
and
metalcore.
Remfry Dedman, writing for
The Independent, described letlive.'s sound as "harnessing the severe, frenetic power of Black Flag and marrying it to the melodic, infectious soul of Michael Jackson"
In a 2011 interview with
Rock Sound, frontman Jason Butler stated that they "want to show people American
punk rock soul music is very much well and alive".
Typical aspects of the band's music include Butler's emotive vocal delivery, duelling guitars and introspective lyrics that cover topics such as
infidelity,
culture,
greed and
corruption.
Members
Current members
-
Jason Aalon Butler β lead vocals (2002β2017, 2024βpresent)
-
Jean Francisco Nascimento β lead guitar, keyboards, auxiliary percussion, backing vocals (2009β2014, 2024βpresent), rhythm guitar (2007β2009)
-
Jeff Sahyoun β rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2009β2017, 2024βpresent), lead guitar, keyboards, auxiliary percussion (2014β2017)
Current touring musicians
-
Sage Webber β drums (2025βpresent)
-
Skyler Acord β bass (2025βpresent)
Former members
-
Keeyan Majdi β rhythm guitar (2002β2003)
-
Alex Haythorn β drums, percussion (2002β2004)
-
Christian Johansen β bass (2002β2005)
-
Ben Sharp β lead guitar (2002β2007)
-
Craig Sanchez β rhythm guitar (2003β2005)
-
Adam Castle β drums, percussion (2004β2007)
-
Omid Majdi β rhythm guitar (2005β2007)
-
Ryan Jay Johnson β bass, backing vocals (2005β2017)
-
Brenden Russel β lead guitar (2007β2009)
-
Anthony Paul Rivera β drums, percussion (2007β2012)
-
Loniel Robinson β drums, percussion (2013β2017)
[ Melody in the Chaos: Letlive.'s Jason Butler on His Troubled Youth and 'The Blackest Beautiful' - Fuse. Fuse.tv (June 20, 2013). Retrieved on 2013-08-06.]
Former touring musicians
-
Aric Improta β drums, percussion (2012β2013)
-
Kenji Chan β guitar, backing vocals (2015)
-
Nick DePirro β guitar (2015β2016)
-
Mishka Bier β guitar (2016β2017)
Former studio musicians
-
Chelsea Warlick β additional vocals (on Fake History)
-
Christopher Crandall β drums, percussion (on The Blackest Beautiful)
Timeline
Discography
- Studio albums
-
Speak Like You Talk (2005)
-
Fake History (2010)
-
The Blackest Beautiful (2013)
-
If I'm the Devil... (2016)
Tours
Supporting
-
2015 Rise Against North American Summer Tour With Killswitch Engage: The tour begins in Chicago, IL at the FirstMerit Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island on July 17 & is scheduled to wrap with a concert in Denver, CO at the Fillmore Auditorium on August 16.
External links
