The Academy Is’ fanbase was left heartbroken and crushed last week when the band announced their official split after being together for several years. Many fans were shocked and many fans were caught completely off guard by the break up. When the band initially announced the break up, The Academy Is… didn’t even give a reason why the band broke up – just a simple message on Facebook allowing for their fans to know of the news. Fans were left heartbroken and shocked, but most of all with many unanswered questions. William Beckett – the former front man of The Academy Is…sat down with Alternative Press to talk about the break up, which you can read here. Here are some of the stand outs from the interview, which may take you by surprise!

On Why They Broke Up: “The three of us—me, Mike [Carden] and Adam [Siska]—have all been growing distant [with] less emphasis on friendship, and it’s pretty much all taken over into the stress of the record. Our friendships had definitely been taking a toll, and to be perfectly honest, it was never really peaches and cream. Mike and I are definitely an interesting pair, and our dynamic worked for a while, but not without great struggle and internal battles and demons. For me, I feel like it’s the right time to move on, to move forward, and to do something I can champion on my own and be in control of—and feel better about my decisions, my record and how it’s going to pan out. Whereas Mike and I started drifting, as far as our vision for the band and what we wanted it to be…I just couldn’t do it anymore.”

On How The Break Up Can About: ”I mean, there have been eight-month periods when we didn’t even speak on tour, at all. This is dating all the way back to writing Santi. It’s definitely not something that’s happened overnight, and it’s been something I’ve thought about before, but I was too afraid to do it. But at this point in my life, I’ve honestly never felt better being able to have control of my life, feeling like, if I succeed it’s on me—and if I fail, it’s on me. And I’m okay with that; I’m welcoming that.”

About His Next Project: ”I’ve got some friends and I’ve got some people that are going to be included in the process. This is still a fresh wound, so I’m still trying to conceptualize exactly what it’s going to be. I know it’s going to be me, completely, as far as the identity of it. I’m really excited about it.”

What He’ll Miss Most About TAI: “Probably hanging out with Adam, and maybe playing a lot of those songs. It’s almost too soon to know exactly, but I’m very comfortable moving forward. Doing it this way is a way that we can—or personally, I can look at what we did and what we accomplished and be proud of it, and be happy that we did what we did, and we made the choices that we did. We got to see the world together time and time again which was amazing. And I hope to do that again with my new project.”

What do YOU think about TAI break up? Still heartbroken? Did you gain any closure from hearing what Beckett said?