Toronto band Witchrot is capitalizing on its viral announcement last month of an “extended hiatus.”
Peter Turik’s Facebook post claiming the band was taking a break “due to the unfortunate reality of our guitarist f**king my girlfriend of almost 7 years” made headlines around the world. It was accompanied by a photo of a smashed guitar laying in garbage.
In a wink to Spinal Tap, he added: “Also our drummer died…”
On Tuesday, Turik said the band is going to continue “full force” – with girlfriend Lea on vocals. (“The both of us talked it over,” he explained.) He said he will take over on guitar (“That way the guitar will finally sound the way it’s supposed to”).
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Turik said he is “floored” by the attention his Facebook post got. “The amount of positive feedback people expressed, with regards to my situation along with the praise for our music, was touching to say the least,” he said, in a release. “I thought maybe a couple people in Europe might care or ‘like’ the post but instead it reached nearly every news source on the planet.”
The musician admitted his drummer didn’t die – he quit – but said the infidelity part of his post was true. “Two people I cared about stabbed me a trillion times in the heart with betrayal and that resentment scars like hell fire,” he wrote. “It obviously left me feeling wretched.”
Turik said the band has booked studio time and will play Dec. 28 at Lee’s Palace in Toronto.
“Of course, now we have big plans to tour extensively in the near future,” he wrote. “No sense in waiting around.”