Hey, we just wanted to let everyone know what's been going on in the Rise Against camp as of late and keep you in the loop. First off, thanks to all of our fans that we saw this summer on tour. We had a great time and your response to our record has been incredible. We also had a long summer of soul-searching, as we found the invitations to several major labels at our doorstep. This is something that we've been discussing and contemplating quite a bit in the last six months, so I think its fair to share with you some of our thoughts on all of this.

As a band, we feel we have something worth saying. We've been touring and playing our music for people for about three years now. We've been across this country too many times to count, into Canada about five times now, over to Europe twice, and we even got to Japan finally this year. I'm speaking in terms of Rise Against, but if you take a closer look at the band, you'll find four people who've been passionately dedicated to the scene for along time now. Examine our lives in this scene and you will find a decade of dues paid.

I bring this up because it is this time spent in the punk rock scene that we have learned so much and have realized what an impact punk rock and, more personally, our band can have on people. Emails we receive tell us how important our songs mean to some of you. To hear from someone at a show that "you're music has really helped me through some tough times in my life" or " your songs have inspired me to become more aware of the world around me" are some the most validating and rewarding reactions to what we do, and we want to take that impact and multiply it. We have a strong message about standing up for yourself, about caring about the world around you, and about doing something that matters with your life. We are very critical of the nine-to-five/dog-eat-dog system that we live in, our government and its quest for money and power, and the human condition of stepping on other people to get to the top. This is a message that we believe in and want to share with the world on a larger scale then we've been sharing it. We want to reach more than just the believers, we want to reach the scores of non-believers. And we believe we've found someone who can take us and that message to the next level without compromising what we do and who we are.

Dreamworks approached us and let us know that they like what we do and they want to put their resources behind it. They told us that they think we are a band with a very important message, a message that not enough bands are talking about these days. Their faith in what we do and the fact that they cared about stuff we cared about was an eye-opener. Still, not sure how we felt about majors, we said thanks for the call, but we're not looking to do that yet. We spent the summer on Warped Tour with many friends of ours who have aligned their bands with major labels in the last year or so. We spent many a BBQ talking about the differences. It was then that we realized that some of these labels were not there to change anyone or steal bands from their fanbases, but to give them a chance to realize their visions more completely. Don't get me wrong, some of these labels are still evil, but some weren't.

Since then we've been approached by over a dozen labels, each wanting to team up with Rise Against, though none of them really resonated with us. Through meeting these people, we realized the differences between what we are doing and what we could be doing, and who we could be reaching with the songs. It seemed that no one understood Rise Against like the people at Dreamworks. Doing a little research, we realized that our respected and trusted friends in AFI we're very happy with the move and Dreamworks has been completely supportive of their goals as a band. When we realized that this would be a good idea, and that no one else fully realized our vision, we said no thanks to other labels, called Dreamworks, and said lets do this.

I understand that some of you will be angry about this, and that some of you couldn't care less because over half the bands you listen to are on majors anyway. To those who are angry, I assure you we are not abandoning you. There will be no compromising what we do and how we do out. There will only be a bigger push behind what we have to say and how we can say it. You can expect no unnatural changes in Rise Against. We're not going to start including pyrotechnics in our show or start wearing make-up (well, maybe Todd will…). We'll only have more time now to completely dedicate ourselves to what we love to do. We understand the risk that comes with this and decided to do it. We want to devote ourselves to writing songs and playing shows without trying to make ends meet by working between tours at grocery stores and malls. We want to be able to come to your town as often as we can. We want to be able to further the causes that we have aligned ourselves with by taking them with us. Causes like PETA, Punkvoter.com, ARA, Rock Against Bush, Turn It Down (Campaign Against White Power Music), & many more.

Fat Wreck has been completely supportive of our decision. We've been open and honest with our friends at Fat about all of this and have actively sought their advice on this, which they have graciously given us. Rest assured there are no hard feelings between us. Fat Mike is 100% behind our decision and understands our point of view on all of this. We will always consider ourselves a Fat band, and will continue to be a part of the Rock Against Bush campaign as well as future Fat Wreck compilations. We have made too many amazing friendships over at Fat to ever sever them.

In the end, nothing else changes. We will still pursue what we've been pursuing as a band with no alteration. We're gearing up for the "Death Of A Nation Tour" with Anti-Flag, Against Me & None More Black preceded by a brief jaunt across Eastern Canada and a Fat Wreck show in NYC at CMJ this year. We hope to see you sweating it out with us at all these shows!! To those of you who have read this and written us off, so long and thanks for the memories! To those of you who feel Rise Against the way we feel it at every show, with every note and every word, we are still here for you…and we're not going anywhere.

-Rise Against