A sad day for De La Hoya

: For anyone who has heard De La Hoya, you know how great of a band they will always be, that's why it's definately a sad thing to hear about this news. Here's the post from Aaron on their newsletter.

After 4 great years of playing and writing music with De La Hoya, Oscar has decided to leave the band. I will dearly miss his talent, his energy, and his laughter....

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"My decision to leave the band did not come about lightly or quickly, I had been thinking about it for quite some time. As everyone else, we've had a rough past couple of months, and that forced me to reconsider a lot about my life and my priorities. De La Hoya's own matters (band members coming and going and haphazard planning between the band and the people we work with among other things) did not help out the situation. Being in DLH was always about having fun, and we had always agreed that the minute De La Hoya stopped being fun for anyone, then it was time to stop. The last few months in the band for me were rather stressful, and quite simply, gave me more headaches than smiles. I know I've made the right decision, I feel good about it. I wish Aaron the best of luck (good times!), and to everyone that I encountered during my time in the band, thanks for the wild ride and happy memories."

Because Oscar was so integral to the life of De La Hoya, the future of the band is unclear. I have not decided whether to pursue De La Hoya further with a new line-up or to move on to a new project. Regardless, Oscar and I wanted to give our fans and ourselves one more recording of De La Hoya songs, so Oscar has agreed to record De La Hoya's next E.P., and to play a weekend of farewell shows in the late spring, hopefully in conjunction with the release of the E.P. Whether these will be the last shows for just Oscar or for De La Hoya as well is uncertain, but they will surely be special. We will not be playing shows between now and then. I wish Oscar luck and encourage you to check out his other band (and my great friends), Nakatomi Plaza.

- Aaron DLH