We’re sad to inform you guys that Fundamental Elements have decided to bring things to a close.  We’ve taken the last couple months off and have come to the conclusion that it’s time for us to move on to new adventures.  This was a very difficult decision for us to make, as we’ve poured our hearts and souls into this endeavor for the last 7 years.  There have been many sacrifices made, and we’ve endured so much together, not to mention the amazing memories, friendships and good times we’ve had along the way.  The band members have become best of friends, and that alone makes this a very difficult transition for us personally.  Indeed, we’ll all miss this.  A lot.

Let us assure you that we are all on good terms and that this decision wasn’t one based on ugly drama or disagreements.  That makes it that much tougher to say goodbye to FE, but we’re thankful that we will continue to be great friends and hopefully continue to have opportunities to work and create together.  It’s been an incredible 7 years and our time in FE has been amazing, but the time just seems right for us to move onto a new chapter in life, and we’re excited to see where each of our paths lead.

As we look back, we can’t help but think of so many people, places, bands, towns, and venues we’ve interacted with regularly and have come to know and love.  We are so thankful for all of you and your support and for making this such a worthwhile adventure for us.  We’ve enjoyed such a great community of FE Fans and Friends, and we especially want to thank people and places that we’ve grown very close with over the years, and shared some amazing experiences with.  Thank you all so much.  We’ll miss running into you on the road and sharing good times together!  Thanks for everything – for welcoming us into your homes, making us meals, letting us crash on your guest beds and couches, buying us drinks, paying cover charges and buying everything on our CD tables!

Acknowledgements:
We have the most amazing families, and are so thankful to have an amazing support system.  Thanks to our wives and kids, moms, dads, siblings and close friends for all your support, through all the ups and downs.  We literally could not have done this without you!  Special thanks to all those who played with FE and contributed to the legacy of the band, namely Ben Kesler, Simon Gugala, Mark Oates and Joe McGill.  Also to Alex Ray, Johnny Matthews, Kris Hoover, Tony Esterly and Vince Kirk for all your help on the road.  Special thanks to Scratch Track, Dishwater Blonde, JR, Scott Ivey, Brandon Gibbs Band, the War, and the many other bands that we’ve enjoyed sharing the stage with.  Special thanks to Stephen & Lauri Leiweke, Jorge Casas, Kat Davis, Jenn DePaula, Gary Pearson and all the individuals who have been such a vital part of our team and support system.  Thanks to our faithful hometown fans and friends in the St. Louis area, and to Little Rock, Burlington, Nashville, Knoxville, Fayetteville, Norman, Ames, Columbia, and all the other places that have become homes away from home for us.  Finally, thanks to Missy, Jeff, Barrett and all our friends at Mocha Club for all your support, and to all our Mocha Club fans who have linked arms with us to help make a difference in the world.  We have been so blessed by the opportunity to have the coolest job ever: to travel around the country and create music and share it with the coolest people ever.  Thanks to you all for making this incredible an adventure.  We hope you’ll continue to listen to our music for years to come, and we hope and pray that FE has made a lasting, positive impact on your lives in the same way you have blessed us.

At least for the meantime, we’ll try to keep you all informed (mostly via Facebook and our blog) of various opportunities to support the guys’ new creative endeavors as we jam with other bands, work on side projects, and move into new stages our creative careers, so keep checking in from time to time to see what the guys are up to – we would love to continue to have your support!

Thank you again to all of you, we can’t say that enough.  This has been such an amazing journey, and it’s not easy to say goodbye.  Much love and blessings to all of you.  We’ll miss you and hope to cross paths with you again!

With thanks and much love,

Dustin, Luke, Mark & Russ
Fundamental Elements

With that, we’ll leave you with some pics of FE through the years and a pretty amazingly funny video of some of the greatest FE tour footage ever captured…

“May your days be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be white.”  Enjoy!

Many of you ask me about my many hats I wear on and off stage… well, my boy Josh designs most of the hats in my collection.  He’s a designer for Paramount Apparel, Inc. and designs hats and a few other products for designer brands like True Religion and Ben Sherman USA.  He was representing at the show, so I have to give him a big shout out…

Be sure to leave us a comment and say hello!

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope we’ll see you on the road soon…

P.S.  Special thanks to our amazing “tech nerd,” Mr. Johnny-Johnny Matthews for helping us build the new site.  Looks great, Johnny!

I’ll start from the top. On our way to Nashville we had got a flat tire in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere, Kentucky.  This was our second blowout in as many weeks.  The last one sent us flying into the median, almost rolling the van until being nudged back on all 4 wheels by the steel cable fence we mowed down.  This time was a little calmer, but in the dark of night out in the country.  Minutes after we called a couple towing companies given to us by the KY highway hotline, a Lincoln Continental pulled up.  A hilarious older gentleman got out of the car, introducing himself as “Rev Rap,” also noting his CB handle was “the Life Saver.”  He popped his trunk, pulled out all kinds of gear, tools and a reflector vest and started to get to work.  Minutes later a local cop pulled over and offered to call one of his buddies in the small town about 20 minutes away to tow us.  While we waited for the tow, Rev Rap (turns out he’s a Methodist preacher on his way home from Bible study) informed us he was the first ever Christian rapper. He promptly pulled out his CD, “Rappin’ 4 Jesus,” a handful of Sharpies and signed one to us.  Then he pulled a harmonica off his belt (he always carries one… never know when you’re gonna need to bust it out) and gave us a little live jam session there on the side of the highway.  It was way too dark to get quality video, but here’s just a taste of him teaching us one of his songs….

The rest of the weekend was spent in the southeast, tooling around with our great buddies Dishwater Blonde from Knoxville, TN.  We can’t tell you how much fun those guys are and how much we love hanging with them, jamming, shopping at Wal-Mart, shooting hoops, you name it.  Here’s one of my highlights of our time together: a 2-band, 11-member jam session broke out Friday night at Barley’s Taproom and it all started with this:

*More to come this week about the new album and more…. stay tuned and stop by regularly to see what’s up.  We’ll also be giving the website a little face lift in the coming days.  Stay tuned……