The shows are almost here…We are playing at Reggie’s Live in Chicago on Wednesday night with Ha Ha Tonka. Our set time is at 10pm. On Friday, we will be sharing the stage at The House Cafe in DeKalb, IL with The Frantic and The Fold. We play around 10:45pm.

We are really excited for both of these shows! They aren’t our “final shows” per se, but they are definitely going to be the last ones we play for a while and we are looking at them as a symbolic closing of this particular 5 1/2 year chapter in our lives. So please join us for either one or both of these shows. They are going to be a blast and a reminder that Treaty of Paris was created specifically to make music that is fun. Speaking of fun, free music is always a good time…

We recorded this song a while back. It was intended as an intro track to our “Sweet Dreams, Sucker” record but it got cut from the tracklist at the last minute. We used it as intro music one time at a show, but besides that, no one has this song. It’s called “Morning’s Light,” it is one minute long, and you can download it right here:

Morning’s Light (mp3)

You might be wondering why we canceled our tourdates this month. Or why we have been so quiet this summer. Well, here goes nothing (ha-ha?)…

We have decided to put the brakes on Treaty of Paris. We are not breaking up, but we have made the choice to stop touring and recording, and we are going to focus on other things in our lives for now.

Our lives have been this band since January 2005 and since then, a lot has happened and a lot has changed. In five and a half years, we have independently released three EPs, a full album, some live recordings and a few singles. We were signed to an independent label, received the royal treatment out in L.A. where were recorded our debut album, rubbed elbows with rock stars, lived in an amazing beach house for two months and recorded in fancy studios. We toured the U.S. and Canada several times over, played several high profile festivals, headlined packed shows in our hometown of Chicago, shared the bill with bands that we greatly admire, respect and idolize, recorded three music videos, were sponsored by a phone company, wrote lots of songs, heard our music on the radio and met so many amazing people, many of whom we are lucky to call our friends. We have had some really amazing times together.

Other things have happened, too. The music business became a lot smaller while at the same time more saturated with young bands, making the touring business much more competitive and cutthroat. Gas prices soared, making it harder to turn a profit and to even stay on the road. Our record label folded after spending a lot of money to get the word out about our band and hoping for a faster return on their investment in the form of record sales, which were slow. We (WERE KIDNAPPED BY AN EVIL ASTRONAUT), resulting in us having to pay him (10,000 SPACE BUCKS) of our hard-earned money for (A YEAR’S SUPPLY OF CHEESEBURGERS AND POWDERED ASTRONAUT ICE CREAM…HE LOVES SNACKS!), which effectively depleted our bank account and made it near impossible to tour independently (AND BUY CHEESEBURGERS, SINCE THAT EVIL ASTRONAUT HAS THEM ALL NOW). We (HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE) that guy (WITH A FIERY, INTERGALACTIC PASSION). Evil Astronauts will always be out there, so be careful, kids. Of course, that’s just my opinion.

We lost two different management teams. We went through lineup changes, which always set us back a few months at a time while we were looking for and then training a new member. Just when we had suffered a setback and we thought we were back on track towards achieving our goals, it seemed like something else would happen. For Treaty of Paris, it felt like we were standing at the bottom of a mountain, and every time we climbed up it, an avalanche fell on us and buried us. For maybe the first time ever, being in a band felt more like a chore rather than a challenge.

As fun as it has been playing in Treaty of Paris, the reality is that we have been struggling with money over the past two years. Now, we never got into this business to get rich. We got into it with the dream of making a living playing music we love with our best friends. For a while, it seemed like that dream was within our reach, but ultimately, our financial situation forced us to focus our time on other things – finding jobs that pay enough for us to support ourselves and our families, which means less time to write, record and tour.

The key to keeping a band alive is making sure everyone is having fun. And right now, fun for us means playing a few shows here and there – in and around Chicago and the Midwest. It means focusing on other projects – musical or otherwise. And most importantly, it means maintaining our friendships with each other. I can’t speak for what comes next for my bandmates, but I know I will definitely be working on some new music in some form or another.

We do have a few shows coming up in September. We will be playing September 8th at Reggie’s Rock Club’s 3rd Anniversary party with some great bands including our friends Ha Ha Tonka (remember when they played our first EP release show back in 2005 under the name Amsterband?). Check out the Facebook event invite right here. We are also playing Middle West Fest on September 10th at The House Cafe in DeKalb – one of our favorite places to play – with our friends The Frantic, who are one of our favorite bands to play with. Check out the entire Middlewest Fest schedule and ticket info here. We hope to see you out at one of these upcoming shows and come see us do what we do best. After that, who knows? The future is at once an exciting and scary place to anticipate, plan for and be surprised by.

Everything changes. People get older unless they are Simpsons characters. Bands don’t stay around forever unless they are the Rolling Stones. This chapter of our lives has no doubt been our favorite, and now it is time to see what is next. On behalf of Mike, Phil, Alex and Chris, I would like to say THANK YOU. I would also like to say THANK YOU to the United States Constitution for protecting my freedom of speech, and FUCK YOU to all the Evil Astronauts in all of the galaxies!

Love,
Dan Wade
Treaty of Paris

They are releasing a new CD entitled Suburba on August 3 and were nice enough to bring us along for some shows during their album release week. We haven’t played a show with these guys in a few years, and we are so excited to finally be sharing the stage with them once again.

We will be hitting up St. Louis, Grand Rapids, Akron and Columbus. And, just because we love this particular town and its people so much, we will be returning to Minneapolis for two shows in one weekend! See below for all the juicy details:

Sunday, 8/1 • St. Louis, MO • The Firebird
with House of Heroes, Sing Me A Fiction, Equal Squeeze
7:00pm / All-Ages
Click Here For Tickets

Wednesday, 8/4 • Grand Rapids, MI • The Mixtape
with House of Heroes, Number The Stars (CD Release), Audrey
6:30pm / All-Ages
Click Here For Tickets

Friday, 8/6 • Akron, OH • Musica
with House of Heroes, Baby Bear, Dodging Raindrops
8:00pm / All-Ages
Click Here For Tickets

Saturday, 8/7 • Columbus, OH • Skully’s
with House of Heroes, The Receiver
6:30pm / All-Ages
Click Here For Tickets

Friday, 8/13 • Minneapolis, MN • First Ave. 7th Street Entry
with The Phoenix Philosophy (CD Release) • Vaudeville • OFP
9:00pm / 18+
Click Here For Tickets

Saturday, 8/14 • Minneapolis, MN • The 400 Bar
Flow & The Mingos (CD Release) • Ekoflo • Escape Siren
8:30pm / 18+
Click Here For Tickets

Stay tuned for a few more shows around the Midwest…

photo by Sam Ash McHale

Thanks to everyone who came out to our most recent shows, The acoustic show at Welles Park was a perfect evening and we had such a good time working our way through our entire catalog, and Metro was a great show as always.

We are going to be spending the next few weeks writing and demoing new songs, and pursuing some pet projects.  Before Treaty of Paris, Mike and I were in a local band called Empyrean for a few years. We decided the time was right to do a reunion show, and it’s going down at The Beat Kitchen in Chicago on July 24.

Also, before that, Alex will be playing a free show at Angels & Kings in Chicago with his band, The Victory Gins. It’s going to be their last show for a while (seeing as how we stole Alex and all), so don’t miss it! We will all be there raging and getting our ears sauteed by Alex’s guitar shredding skills. I mean…skillz.

On August 28, a few of us will be backing up our good friend Ryan Powers at the House of Blues in Chicago. Ryan is a great singer-songwriter and a close friend.

As for Treaty, we plan on announcing some shows in August, so sit tight and enjoy the upcoming holiday weekend!

Dan

Empyrean on the web:
facebook.com/empyreanchicago

The Victory Gins on the web:
thevictorygins.com

Ryan Powers on the web:
ryanpowersmusic.com

We are playing a free acoustic show at Welles Park in Chicago (near the intersection of Montrose and Western Ave.) this Tuesday, June 29 starting at 6:30pm.

We are going to be playing EVERY TREATY SONG EVER RELEASED over the course of two sets. Some songs will be stripped-down, vocal and guitar affairs, others will be full-band party time acoustic jams. If you have ever gone to a Treaty show and didn’t hear your favorite song, this will be the show to attend, because we will be playing all of them.

Click here for a map of the park!

With our hometown show at Metro just around the corner, we thought we would do something fun like release this new song for free:

http://treatyofparismusic.com/anyonelikeyou.html

This one took a long time to get right. It started off as a rough idea back in late 2007, and we tweaked it and tried lots of different approaches for it. We continued to work on it last year while we were recording/writing for the Currents EP, but due to time/budget constraints, we didn’t finish it until now. We’re happy to finally be able to share it, and we hope you like it! If you do, do us a favor and send it to a friend. Or an enemy. That will really confuse them. But be careful if you send it to a friend that you secretly have a crush on. They might get the wrong idea. Or, the exactly right idea…

Don’t forget to come see us play at the Metro in Chicago next Friday, June 25! (Tickets: $11 or $6 in advance with the promo code “TREATY” / All Ages / Doors: 5:30pm / Show: 6pm / TREATY PLAYS @ 8:15pm)