Bassist JEROEN PAUL THESSELING Sets Record Straight Regarding His Split From OBSCURA

Bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling has taken issue with OBSCURA's claim that he was "fired" from the German progressive death metal group "months ago," insisting that he quit the band due to scheduling conflicts.

In a July 8, 2011 interview with SkullsNBones.com, OBSCURA guitarist/singer Steffen Kummerer stated about Jeroen's departure from the group, "Actually, we actually fired this bassist months ago. His last show was in October last year." He then added that the band was going to announce a replacement bassist after the completion of OBSCURA's North American tour with CHILDREN OF BODOM.

Jeroen Paul Thesseling has released the following statement to BLABBREMOUTH.NET in response to Kummerer's comments:

"So, I was fired by OBSCURA in January 2011? I think my fans deserve to know the truth. But I don't feel like talking negative about OBSCURA.

"First of all, I want to make clear to fans that the band will definitely succeed in continuing their success without me. The main composers Grossmann, Muenzner and Kummerer are still in OBSCURA. They are all amazing musicians and will soon announce a very talented bassist who's surely able to melt his style with their music. It's ridiculous that people react by writing 'they should change their band name'. Maybe I've succeeded in putting my own fretless stamp on the bands material, but that doesn't mean there's no successful future for OBSCURA.

"In January 2011, financial circumstances forced me to go back to a regular job; I couldn't tour anymore for weeks in a row. I even cancelled an important CD presentation on March 6th in Germany. And this meant that OBSCURA had to work again with a session bassist. It was very frustrating for the band and at the same time I felt extremely unhappy to disappoint the guys again.

"In early April, I received an e-mail from OBSCURA, right after my other band PESTILENCE announced a small series of shows in Italy, Spain and Portugal, mainly weekend shows. The guys wrote me that if I would play with PESTILENCE, I could have also joined the European tour with OBSCURA. In other words, playing these single shows with PESTILENCE would mean that I had to leave the band.

"On April 6th I made my decision and wrote the guys by e-mail 'It's better to quit.' This message was answered the next day, written: 'By email?' From that day on I've given OBSCURA months of time to announce their new bass player.

"Meanwhile more and more comments were posted on YouTube and Facebook, like 'Where's Jeroen?', 'Why isn't he playing with OBSCURA?' etc. I received a bunch of e-mails from fans, asking if I was still with the band and why I didn't join their tours. Also PESTILENCE had difficulties to avoid those questions in interviews.

"Twelve weeks after sending my 'It's better to quit' e-mail, I only wanted to avoid more confusion. I wanted to perform with PESTILENCE without people thinking that I was still involved with OBSCURA. Since I wasn't in touch anymore with the guys I wrote our record label two times, asking for their opinion about announcing my departure and/or to discuss this with the band. But I didn't get any response, which finally made me sent out a press release to Blabbermouth on July 7th."

Photo credit: Matthijs Hakfoort (moodphoto.eu)