“Higanbana” hits deep, exploring the feelings that come with facing a sudden health crisis. It talks about accepting that moving on is a natural and beautiful part of life, but also feeling the sadness of dreams left behind. Instead of seeing it as the end, “Higanbana” celebrates crossing over as the beginning of a new journey.

Yet, even in the darkest of hours, we can make a difference in the world.

Song by Tears for the Dying (Stembridge/Broughton/Payne)
Originally released 2024 via “In the Shadow of the Midnight Sun”
Audio mixed and mastered by Jason Nesmith
Video Director: Blake Pipes
Video Assistant Director: Franky Villanueva
Video Editor: Blake Pipes

Cody and I are finally back home in Athens after our East Coast tour supporting Vision Video and Aurelio Voltaire. We are tending to our human and plant babies respectively, and getting much needed rest. What an incredible set of shows!!

Today we are filled with gratitude and thanks for everyone who came out to dance and scream with us these past two weeks. Your energy was felt and heard, and we appreciated each and every one of you 🖤

Real talk, I was powering through Tour Crud ᵗᵐ on the road. I was barely able to talk by the time we rolled into Atlanta, let alone sing. I picked up the bass and gave everything I had.

The energy Atlanta brought gave us was off the charts and helped us so fucking much. We love all of our audiences, but last night was special.

ngl I probably also cried a little while talking with lovely fans after our homecoming show at @masquerade_atl last night. There were so many of you, and I wish we’d had more time to spend together. I was overwhelmed in a very good kind of way with all of your stories. Thank you so much for being you.

Queer and trans visibility is so fucking important, and ESPECIALLY in these times we live today.

If it’s okay for an aging deathrocker to say, I feel utterly blessed today. Thank you all.

I mean the ONLY thing that coulda been better would’ve been if @dollyparton happened to show up at @canneryhallnashville to hop up and sing our goth cover of her song. I hope Uncle Chip was filled with pride as he watched our performance from the great beyond, wherever and whatever that is.

Thank you so much for welcoming us into your cities and clubs. It was an amazing time and we look forward to seeing you all again soon!

Special thanks to @visionvideoband Dusty, Emily, Ryan, and Chris the merch guy and sound tech – ya’ll are inspirational and work so fucking hard at every show – @aureliovoltaire, @thencomessilence Alex, Jonas and Hugo – all of ya’ll rocked so hard these past couple of weeks! Also, thanks to Andrew, Joady and Jack at @rockyroadtouring for helping coordinate all of this for us!

#athensga #athensgamusic #goth #postpunk #deathrock #gothmusician #eastcoasttour #tour #transvisibility #autisticmusician #gratitude #dollyparton

This past Sunday we performed in Brooklyn for the first time, supporting Aurelio Voltaire and Vision Video along with Then Comes Silence. Brooklyn had a hard, seasoned edge to it, and the fans were lovely. It was super nice meeting Sean Templar from Red Party NY, as well as Alice Temple of Post-Punk.com and a host of other scene notables. We played a short and tight set of:

• We Are the Darkness
• Dagger in God’s Back
• Go Die
• Heterochromia
• Bottle
• Bloat
• Kaiju
• Dead Girl Dancing
• Jolene

Monday was a little challenging with a slightly long drive from Brooklyn and some of the worst traffic we’ve seen yet on tour. A highlight of the drive down was traversing over the 4 mile long and 186 ft tall Bay Bridge. It was a little scary thinking how high we were above the water, just weeks after the Francis Scott King bridge issue a few weeks ago. The view was nice though!

We got to Richmond Music Hall on time and started our set at 7:30 (we love early show times!). After NYC we weren’t sure what to expect on a weeknight. The crowd was super loud and supportive – big pops after every song! Our merch table was quite busy – we sold way more than I thought possible for the night. It really helps all touring bands for fans to support us this way.

Our set in Richmond:

• We Are the Darkness
• Dagger in God’s Back
• Go Die
• Heterochromia
• Bottle
• Bloat
• Kaiju
• Dead Girl Dancing
• Jolene

Today we have a little easier drive down to Durham, NC for our show at The Pinhook with Vision Video. See you soon!

We had and amazing time in Baltimore at Metro gallery last night. The audience was bonkers and showed all the bands a lot of love ❤️

Yesterday I drove 9 hours by myself from Detroit to Baltimore, got there minutes before we were supposed to play. Cody had just got off a flight from Los Angeles a few hours before. It was a little stressful, but we pulled through and played at our scheduled time.

Pennsylvania is probably the most scenic state that I’ve driven through in my adult life. The misty gray and dark green mountains were soothing and beautiful all at once.

Cody and I are on our way to Connecticut for tonight’s show at Space Ballroom.

See y’all soon!

We visited Detroit for the first time last night. The proud was amazing, the sound and staff at smalls were exceptional.

We are off to Baltimore to play the Metro gallery. See you soon!!

I would encourage anyone wanting to play goth music to find what works best for you and make the most of it. These tutorials are simply a way to guide people, especially newer players, to a specific bass tone that is fairly common and goth and post punk, however you do not need to play chorus pedal to play goth music on your bass, or even a traditional bass guitar!

Had a great time at our 4/20 show in Bogart Georgia at Spaceball Bazaar this past weekend, getting warmed up for our upcoming East Coast tour!

Unlike Spotify, Bandcamp is the best way for fans, artists and musicians to avoid corporate graft. Today is Bandcamp Friday, so 100% of sales go directly to artists.

We just restocked our Midnight Sun shirt, Bats logo shirt, and just got our second run of Midnight Sun CDs! We have a few vinyl copies as well!

If you would like anything autographed we would be happy to do that for you just let us know when you order, no extra charge!

Order today at https://tearsforthedying.bandcamp.com/

Folks in Europe should use Bat Cave Productions for ordering the Midnight Sun and Epitaph CDs: https://www.batcaveproductions.pl/product-tag/tears-for-the-dying/

A brand new club is opening up on the West Side of Athens. Bogart to be pedantic. It’s called Spaceball Bazaar and they’ve already held a handful of shows – with many more booked.

Word on the street is that we are making a special appearance there to help break shit in, on 4/20/24. It’s a fun space with art – and TELESCOPES. Yeah, like honest real life space telescopes. The owners are enthusiasts and will have at least one of them set up for viewing that night.

https://www.facebook.com/spaceballbazaar

Spaceball Bazaar
130 N Church St, Bogart, GA 30622

Our old site was originally written way back in 2004, I custom made the rollover navigation layout by hand probably using Dreamweaver or some shit. For big lols I restored the OG site in 2020, knowing I’d eventually have to update it. That day has come!

So pour one out for the original Tears website, it’s now in the archives!