NASUM Bassist Explains Decision To Leave The Band

NASUM bassist Jesper Liveröd has issued a statement explaining his decision to leave the group to concentrate on his other band, BURST.

Liveröd's statement reads as follows:

"I don't really know how to start this, so I'm just going to come right out and say it:

"As of the end of the summer of 2003, I, Jesper, will not be a part of NASUM anymore. No more tours or interviews or appearances with or for NASUM will be conducted by me thereafter. I'm quitting, jumping ship, moving on, biting the bullet, leaving the building, parting ways.

"With NASUM.

"This decision is all mine, and I want to start my little story by saying that in NO way is there any bad blood involved here. Me, Anders and Mieszko are still the friends we were, no harsh feelings or resentment lie between us, and this is something for which I am ever so grateful. Grateful because taking the decision to leave the band which has given me a lifetime of experiences and fulfillment of almost every goal I've ever had in music was all but easy.

"When Anders and Mieszko asked me to be the bassplayer in NASUM back in 1999, I had to think about it for about a nanosecond — of course I wanted to be a part of one of my favourite grindcore bands! One thing led to another, and all of a sudden I found myself having toured the United States, toured Europe with NAPALM DEATH, been on Swedish TV, been to Japan, been a part of making 'Human 2.0', been to England, done thousands of interviews, making friends with millions of bands, toured Scandinavia, meeting people who call themselves 'fans' of our music, slept in nice hotels and shitty vans, been a part of recording a bunch of 7"'s, made friends and enemies with music biz folk, talked with people from Poland, Australia, Brazil, U.S.A. and every imaginable country on Earth, been a part of creating 'Helvete', partied, slammed, grinded, headbanged, pogoed, and what not. And most of all I have, together with the two gentlemen of grind, Anders and Mieszko, fucking blasted shit to bits! How immensely fucking cool can life get for a half Norwegian kid from smalltown, Sweden?!

"During these years and these experiences I have also tried to maintain a life beyond music, just as Anders and Mieszko also have. While Mieszko has his studio and Anders does his webdesigning, I have been at school trying to tell myself that I have been in need of higher learning, all the while trying to keep a job. I have also, just as I have for the last ten years, been a part of a band called BURST, which has lied kind of dormant until lately when things have really started to move. Put this together with the fact that I live some distance from everyone else (which means a loooot of travelling),and you might get a feeling of how hectic my life has constantly been the last couple of years.

"I am a person who has an ability to handle stress pretty good, and I am used to having a million things to do at once. However, this last year, or at least these last months, I have felt that stress has taken over more and more, resulting in me not handling anything particularly well, and frankly, not enjoying things so much. Not least within NASUM. Everybody and everything suffers when too many things happen at once, and so I decided that I have to put my focus on a few projects instead of a hundred. Amongst these I realized that I could no more be a functioning member of two very active bands, and so I was faced with the choice of either BURST or NASUM.

"BURST consists of me and some of my childhood friends, and the music we make therein, although entirely different from the grindcore madness of NASUM, really means a lot to me. So out of two great and meaningful bands, I chose BURST. Sooner or later things would have collided, and I don't want one band to suffer because I choose to go with the other one that particular time, or any of the bands suffer because I don't have time to give them my full attention.

"It is definitely not without melancholy I leave the mighty NASUM. As I stated earlier, this band has made me legions of new friends and allowed me to be a part of experiences every fucking underground kid dreams of. A lot of you I will hopefully meet in future collaborations with BURST, some of you I might not see again. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who has written me, worked with me, talked to me, moshed with us, partied with me, and basically anyone who has been supportive of me and NASUM. You mean a lot to NASUM, and to me personally.

"Lastly I want to extend my deepest gratitude and admiration for Mieszko and Anders. Thanks for grinding with me, for keeping me awake with snoring on tourbuses, for sightseeing with me, for fighting about ridiculously unimportant shit, for being visionaries, for being great musicians, for being cocky, humble, irritating, generous, arrogant, and most of all for being understanding about my decision. I wish nothing but the best of luck for the future of NASUM. I also want to say good luck to my eventual replacement, and also to newcomer guitarist and nice guy extraordinaire Urban. Fuck shit up for me.

"I'm gonna stop now before all this sentimental stuff makes people puke.

"Thanks everyone.

"Jesper is dead! Long live N A S U M!!"

In other news, NASUM have added a second guitarist in the shape of REGURTITATE axeman Urban Skytt. "Expect a much heavier sound," the band write on their official web site. "For the first time the songs will sound like on the records!"

Upcoming NASUM tour dates:

May 24 – Örebro, SWE @ Contan
Jun. 14 – Hultsfred, SWE @ Hultsfred Festival