Ex-The Word Alive Drummer Speaks

Tony Aguilera, The former drummer for The Word Alive has spoken out about his departure from the band.

Click read more to read his statement


"I figured that before any fake explanations are made or rumors are started, I'll explain myself. Before I attempt to explain why I'm not in the word alive anymore, let me give you a breif history of the band, the word alive. ORIGINAL MEMBERS Craig Mabbitt, Tony Aguilera, Tony Pizutti, Zack Hansen, and Dusty Riach. Craig and I were in a band together when we were 15 and 16 years old called the casanova rodeo. Many years later craig called me to start a new band like we'd always talked about, and Zack, who he'd played many shows with back in the day. Zack brought in Tony P who didn't want to be in a pop band anymore, and Nick, who was in that pop band as well. My good friend Dusty and I were in two previous bands together and made music together on a daily basis, we called our project band THE WORD ALIVE, so I brought him into the band. One day we all met up and the word alive was formed. We jammed in our practice room, finished two songs in our first two practices, recorded them, put them online and blew up faster than we ever thought we would. We quickly became better and closer friends and recorded a 5 song ep. Before we knew it we were getting label offers left and right. We wanted to be signed and tour, but we couldn't do that with Craig as our singer because he was already signed to a label so a "group" decision was made to look for a new singer. Fearless records sounded the best to us. One of the reasons being that they wanted to sign us without even having a permanent singer yet. A couple people tried out and we picked the one who we thought would work out the best. So Telle came into the band. Even though he was sick when he tried out, we decided he had potential so we gave him the chance. He played bass in Greeley Estates at the time, but he quit because he wanted to be a frontman. We then took the opportunity, drove up to Cali and sat down with Fearless records and made a promise to the label that this was the band that was going to be together until the end. We all gave up everything we had, I dropped out of college, even though I only had 3 more quarters to go til I had my degree, quit our jobs, etc. Shortly after we signed, we recorded an ep in Florida with Andrew Wade. We then went on to do several tours with bigger and bigger bands. Sky Eats Airplane, In Fear and Faith, We Came as Romans, Silverstein, Madina Lake, Alesana, From First to Last. Unfortunately Telle was sick on every one of these tours, and over the course of the past year he was sick about 97% of the time. We even had to cancel the end of a tour, and play shows without him because he couldn't sing. It became an inside joke about how bad he sounded live. But none of us are perfect live, we all have had our moments where we've messed up a little part here or there, especially that guitar solo in how to build an empire, but we all continued to improve. On our last tour I messed up when the click track I play to off of an ipod nano started a click late and an 808 was off. Apparently those little mistakes were enough because I was told shortly after we got home from our last tour that they were going to be looking for a new drummer. I had no idea this was going to happen, and had no warning that I was in danger of being kicked out and prior to being told this I would have called them my best friends. I had no problems with anyone in the band, and based on what I thought we were all still good friends and were stoked to write our upcoming full length together. Even though we hadn't practiced or jammed together a single time since before we recorded our cd in March, over 10 months ago, (we played over a hundred shows since then) I am not going to be given the opportunity to show my talent and improvement on the new cd, and even though I've done all the work as a drummer to get them where they are. (Warped Tour, Bamboozle, whatever other tours they've gotten) I guess I can't suck THAT bad..right? So to sum it up this all goes to getting fucked over by the few friends I thought I had. Even though I was best friends with one of them for years before this band started, let him live with me in my first house and helped talk his way into the band when he had only been playing his instrument for a couple months, even though I let another move into my house for several months (rent free for most of those months) when he had nowhere else to go, and even though I was alongside everyone else when we made the promise that this was the band that was going to be together until the end, that wasn't enough to secure my spot as a permanent member in the band because the "group" decision has been made, which is one or two members who convinced the rest that this is how it has to be. I guess being in the band isn't about making music with your friends anymore, it's about doing anything you possibly can to try to further your "musical career" in the slightest bit, even if that means completely screwing over someone who was there from the start and someone you called a good friend, or just sitting back and not saying anything because you don't want to get in the way. I'm sorry if you actually are upset about me not being in the band anymore. If you need, you can head over to myspace.com/frontmantelle and I'm sure he'll have a blog that'll be sure to enlighten you.

I especially wanted to take the time to thank every single person who came up and talked to me at one of our shows, and everyone who supported the band while I was in it, and all the friends I made in the bands I toured with. I've already talked to many of you. You guys are all awesome, and made everything worth while. I made many friends along the way and I really am sad that I won't be able to see most of you again. Feel free to write me anytime you'd like, it'd be nice to hear from some of you guys. Just know that I will not be done with music, I've been talking with some oldddd friends about a project that will be very similar to how TWA was originally created. (if ya get my drift...) I'll keep you posted! If you've enjoyed watching the update videos we posted while I was in the band then I am glad because I was responsible for creating all of those. I'll keep making videos and posting them, wether it's of a new musical project or just a random videos for your entertainment. It's not the end of the world for me. It's been very nice hanging with some real friends again. I'm excited to continue my photography career and will be posting many new photos soon, I'm in the process of making my website (www.tonyaguileraphoto.com) booking photoshoots, and tryin to live, Keep lookin' out!

If anyone thinks I made any of this up, or this isn't the complete truth, then please, ask the band at one of their upcoming shows what happened, and maybe they can give you a better explanation, cause I wasn't given too clear of a reason either. I didn't write this to start drama, I just think everyone deserves to know it how it is.

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

Keep it real kids!

-Tony Aguilera"