Cast out

Jacob Brennan calls it quits

by Carly Carioli

In a move that came as something of a shock to the local music community -- not to mention the band themselves -- Cast Iron Hike played their last show on December 14, on the last day of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones' five-day "Hometown Throwdown" at the Middle East, in Cambridge. It brought to a sudden close a four-year run during which the Worcester/Boston-based band distinguished themselves as a deeply moving live act, and one of the brighter hopes for hardcore at home and abroad. Singer/lyricist Jacob Brennan gave notice on December 12 that he was leaving the band. The remaining members -- drummer David Green, guitarist (and principal songwriter) Christian Pupecki, and guitarist Michael Gallagher -- have vowed to continue on together, though in what form and under what name has yet to be determined. Brennan is also pursuing other musical avenues, though he's hinted they won't involve hardcore.

Cast Iron Hike cast their lot with the widely respected and well-distributed hardcore label Victory Records in late 1996, and released one album, Let It Burn, earlier this year (a personal favorite here at the Phoenix). Sales figures have been estimated anywhere between five and ten thousand copies. The band seemed off to a promising start. They toured extensively with Snapcase, Strife, Vision of Disorder, Ignite, and Weston, as well as played with Fugazi, the Bosstones, and at this summer's Warped Tour. And though the band had been without a permanent bassist since sacking Pete DeGraaf after the release of Burn (Six Going On Seven's Josh English and Groovasaurus's Ian Kennedy had been filling in on tour), CIH had just come off a week of dates with Sick of It All and had been offered separate European tours with Shelter and Helicopter.

So Brennan's decision to pack it in caught the rest of the band off guard. "Jake came to rehearsal [on Friday] and said that [the band] just wasn't doing it for him anymore," says Green. "Something we agreed on long before was that we never wanted to get to the point where we were faking it. He felt he'd taken it as far as he could, and so there was nothing we could really do. It came as a real shock. But the thing [the remaining members] agreed on is that we want to continue in the same vein we've been going on. It's definitely gonna be a big setback, but I think we just wanna keep up this momentum."

Brennan offered his public farewell about halfway through Sunday's set. "I said something to the effect of how this band was my life for the past four years, and I'm leaving, and I have some shit to sort out, and I think that was about it," says Brennan. "The last three months there's been an unsettling feeling in my stomach. And I traced it to the fact that I just didn't believe in my role in Cast Iron Hike anymore. I feel I'm better suited to approach things differently than I did with Cast Iron Hike. There's a [different] group of people I've been playing with for the past three months. And playing with other people put a lot of things in perspective, and made me realize that if I'm going to throw all of myself into something, I have to be 100 percent into it rather than faking it and going into it half-heartedly. And rather than watching the personal relationships [in CIH] suffer, I'd rather end it while things are on an up note.

"I feel like there's a weight off my shoulders because I've been agonizing over [whether or not to leave] for three months," Brennan continues. "At first I felt relief for somewhat selfish reasons, but in the past couple days it's been grief and sadness for the other guys in the band, because CIH was everything for them -- as it was for me -- and they're still closely emotionally involved, whereas I'm not anymore. It broke my heart."

No obvious bad blood was evident after Sunday's swan song -- Brennan, Green, Gallagher, and Victory rep Jon Regan were seen hanging out over beers, and Pupecki came by to give Brennan a farewell hug. Still, Green and Gallagher admitted they were still reeling. After Brennan dropped the bomb on Friday, says Green, "the first stage was just shock, and that lasted about 45 minutes, and no one said anything. It was difficult to get our minds around the implications of what was going on. But after digesting it and thinking about it -- pretty much the way I feel personally is that I've put so much of myself into this thing, [Jacob leaving] is not a good enough reason to leave it behind. This isn't the end by a long shot.

"At the same time we're all at this point, kinda grateful to have a break," he adds. "We've been working so hard, it's been the focus of all our lives for the past four years, so any kind of vacation is nice. We're going to concentrate on getting out of all the debt we've accrued over the last four years and try to relax."

Still up in the air is the band's relationship with Victory. Brennan says CIH never officially signed a contract with the label and were still in negotiations when things fell apart -- which makes it unlikely they'll ever see any royalties from Burn. Still, Green says, the label has been supportive and is interested in hearing three new songs the band have written, but for which Brennan had yet to write lyrics. And as for whether they'll continue as Cast Iron Hike, "We still haven't really quite decided yet," says Green. "Originally I was hell-bent on keeping it -- like I said, I didn't want to lose the momentum -- but at the same time, more and more we're leaning more towards changing the name. It'd be almost sacrilegious to continue with it. It's not the same band; it can't be without Jake."