Together, they recorded a 5 track demo in Enders' basement and sent it, along with a poorly edited videotape to only one label: Drive-Thru Records.
A couple of months passed while both Sacco and Anello had to budge for more skilled replacements, Steve Nakovich (guitar) and Mike Klemash (bass), until the band got in touch with Richard Reines of Drive-Thru, who luckily was visiting their hometown and agreed to meet with the band to give advice.
Stunned by what he had heard, Reines returned to California to discuss a possible signing with Drive-Thru co-owner Stefanie Reines. A few weeks and yet another line-up change later (Joe Marro joined for Nakovich), Drive-Thru signed The Early November and put them, despite their practically non-existent on stage experience, on 2002's Skate and Surf Fest and on selected dates of the Warped Tour.
Klemash and Marro left the band before the recording of their debut EP For All of This. Anello re-joined on bass, while a temporary second guitarist was found in John Dubitsky. The CD came out on Drive-Thru Records in early November 2002. Enders recorded The Acoustic EP on his own, featuring acoustic versions of most songs off their debut EP, which was released a mere two months later. Simultaneously, guitarist Marro had re-joined the band in exchange for Dubitsky.
Throughout 2003, the band continued to tour and write songs in preparation for their first full-length CD The Room's Too Cold, which was released in fall of that year. Soon afterwards, Enders recorded a solo record under the name I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody's Business. The CD was almost scrapped due to Enders wanting to focus on The Early November after Kummer left the band in summer 2004 and re-joined two weeks later.
While in the long and grueling process of recording their second full-length, the band had their guitar tech Bill Lugg aka UltraBill join, and the triple disc entitled The Mother, the Mechanic and the Path was released on July 11, 2006.
On March 13th, 2007, TEN announced that they would be going on an indefinite hiatus after they complete their current tour. They announced this both online and at their show at the Meridian in Houston that night. They played their last show at the Bamboozle Festival in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on May 6th, 2007, and left open the possibility of one day returning to the stage but were grateful for everyone who supported them throughout the past 6 years.
An official statement from the band:
We would like to announce that at end of our upcoming headlining tour, The Early November will be taking an indefinite hiatus.
Throughout the past six years we have released two LP’s, two EP’s, played over one thousand shows, seen six wonderful countries, have met thousands of great people, made life-long friends, and have broken countless amounts of instruments. We have done more than we have ever thought possible for a small rock band out of southern New Jersey. We are very proud and very grateful of every moment we have spent as The Early November.
In case any of you are wondering, this is not a result of anything one can consider negative. No fighting, no one hates each other, no one has a substance abuse problem… none of the typical baggage that is usually carried along with rock bands taking a hiatus. The situation is actually much the opposite. We all love and care for on another tremendously. We’re as close of friends as we have ever been and, as long as the five of us exist, we will continue to be so. This “hiatus” or “break” is just a result of time and life. As we grow older, priorities change. We’ve decided we need to take some time and see that life isn’t all dirty rock clubs, rest stops at 2 am, and long distance phone calls. We have to be where we haven’t been in the past six years; with our friends, family, and loved ones.
We hope this isn’t completely somber news to anyone of you. We want to view it almost in the same way many cultures view the passing of a friend or loved one. Not to mourn but to celebrate their life and memory. In our small way, we’d like to do the same. We invite you to come and send off something that has meant so much to the five of us for so long. We may or may not be coming back. Who knows. But for now, all we can say is “Thank You.” “Thank You,” to everyone who was or has been a part of making our dreams a reality. Most importantly, “Thank You” to every single TEN fan. We hope you guys understand. We truly love all of you.
- Ace, Joe, Jeff, Serg, Bill
The Early November
Ace carried on writing his solo project and released The World We Know in 2010.
Since then, the band have announced their reunion 2011, and have done a full US tour in 2012. Their first album since the break is set to be released Summer 2012.
Session 08 Part II
The Early November Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The harder my father would try to get me to stop seeing her.
It was like he didn't want me to be happy for something.
Not like he would ever do that, right?
He would tell me I was wasting my time with her,
I should concentrate on where I'm going to college.
You know, I didn't want to go to college.
So when graduation came around,
The side I always knew was there.
He would say that I was going to throw away my life
And I was going to make a terrible mistake.
I guess something he was familiar with.
He would tell me I was going to be a loser
And people wouldn't respect me.
That was also the day he told me about the mistake he made, me.
I guess that was supposed to scare me straight. Oh well.)
"No, you're just being selfish kid"
Selfish? You didn't even raise me.
You dumped me off so you could go and make something of yourself
And care about no one but yourself.
"You don't have any idea what my life was like.
When I was eighteen I was on my own.
Supporting myself and your mother,
Working two jobs and going to school.
You know how hard it was to watch someone else raise my son.
You think it's easy to live with that decision."
Shut up, at least you were able to make a decision.
"You want to make a decision. What are you going to do? Huh?
You're not going to get anywhere playing patty cake all day with that girlfriend of yours.
You wouldn't be able to survive one day in the real world.
You have no money, have no job, no common sense.
You have no idea what it takes to survive on your own."
The lyrics of Session 08 Part II are deeply personal and introspective. The song is a dialogue between a son and his estranged father who seems to have never been supportive of his son's choices. The son struggles to understand his father's opposition to his girlfriend and his unwillingness to acknowledge his happiness. The father, on the other hand, tries to assert his authority and control over his son's life by belittling his choices and questioning his ability to survive on his own.
The underlying theme of the song is the conflict between a parent's expectations and a child's aspirations. The son resents his father's attempts to mold him into a certain mold and wants to break free from his controlling nature. His father, however, sees him as naïve and impractical, and wants him to conform to his expectations. The song depicts the struggle of two individuals with different ideologies trying to understand each other and find common ground. In the end, the son's defiance and his father's rigidity come to a head, leaving us with an unfinished story of a broken relationship.
Line by Line Meaning
But for some reason, the closer I got with her,
As I got closer to the girl I loved, things started to go awry with my father.
The harder my father would try to get me to stop seeing her.
My father would become more forceful in trying to convince me to stop seeing my girlfriend.
It was like he didn't want me to be happy for something.
It seemed like my father didn't want me to find happiness in my relationship with my girlfriend.
Not like he would ever do that, right?
It was like my father was being two-faced, pretending to care about my happiness while doing the opposite.
He would tell me I was wasting my time with her,
My father attempted to convince me that my time spent with my girlfriend was wasted and unproductive.
I should concentrate on where I'm going to college.
My father believed that my focus should be on college rather than my relationship.
You know, I didn't want to go to college.
I had no desire to attend college, despite my father's wishes.
So when graduation came around,
As I approached graduation, things came to a head with my father.
I saw a completely different side of him.
I witnessed a side of my father I had not seen before, revealing his true feelings towards me and my choices.
The side I always knew was there.
Despite not having seen this side of him before, I was not surprised that he held these beliefs.
He would say that I was going to throw away my life
My father warned me that my choices would lead to a wasted life.
And I was going to make a terrible mistake.
He believed that my actions would result in a disastrous outcome for me.
I guess something he was familiar with.
Perhaps my father had personal experience with making bad choices and suffering the consequences.
He would tell me I was going to be a loser
My father used derogatory language to describe the person he believed I would become.
And people wouldn't respect me.
My father believed that my choices would cause me to lose the respect of others.
That was also the day he told me about the mistake he made, me.
On that day, my father revealed that he viewed my very existence as a mistake.
I guess that was supposed to scare me straight. Oh well.
My father likely intended to frighten me into changing my ways, but I was unaffected by his words and attitude.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
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