Driven Far Off

The latest on the indie, alternative, and rock music scene including news, music, contest, interviews, and more. Best described as your favorite place to find new bands.

Vocalist Leaves Lydia

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Mindy White, vocalist and keyboardist for Lydia, has announced her departure from the band. A message from White was posted on her Tumblr.

Hi all,

I’m writing to announce something that seems to have been slowly circling around the last few weeks. To those who’ve been wondering; I am, in fact, parting ways from Lydia. I have to say how INCREDIBLY hard this is for me to do. It feels more like losing my own child than just an occupation, but when you have such a passion for something and the path you’re on to pursue that is filled with difficult obstacles, or has no heart behind it, you have to question it. I must say that there are no hurt feelings between the band and I. Those guys are like my brothers and honestly, I can’t wait to see the things they will go on to do.

I am GENUINELY sorry to those friends who might be upset about this, but please do understand that it’s something I merely have to do at this time. I hope you can moreso go on to support this decision and know that you guys are the only reason I’ve even made it this long. I can also assure you that I am not, by any means, done playing music! I guess everything eventually runs it’s course, and for me with Lydia, that time has come.

I love you all more than I can even explain.
Mindy

New Lydia Tour Dates

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Lydia has announced a new set of tour dates.

2/19/2009 The Launchpad Albuquerque, NM
2/20/2009 The Loft Colorado Springs, CO
2/21/2009 Larimer Lounge Denver, CO
2/24/2009 The Waiting Room Omaha, NE
2/25/2009 Vaudeville Mews Des Moines, IA
2/26/2009 Station 4 St. Paul, MN
2/27/2009 The Annex Madison, WI
2/28/2009 AV-Aerie Chicago, IL
3/1/2009 Purdue University West Lafayette, IN
3/2/2009 The Grog Shop Cleveland Heights, OH
3/3/2009 The Barbary Philadelphia, PA
3/4/2009 Middle East Cambridge, Massachusetts
3/5/2009 Mercury Lounge New York, NY
3/6/2009 Maxwells Hoboken, NJ

Update on Leighton’s Condition

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Here is a little update from Lydia:

if you would like to send leighton a get well card
Body: or anything else to cheer him up.
im sure he would love that.
they just moved him out of icu and now he can recieve anything that is sent to him.
here is his info

Mt Carmel West
6001 e broad street
columbus,ohio 43213
Leighton antelman
6 power Rm 27

thanks so much
love
.lydia.

Lydia Update Number 2

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Here is a little update of Leighton’s (Lydia) condition.

hello friends,
here is a small update on leightons situation.

the internal bleeding is being caused by 3 ulcers inside is stomach, and the damage to the asophagus from the massive amounts of throwing up and dry heaving he was doing.
early friday morning one of the ulcers burst and he had to go into emergency surgery to get it fixed up, he is now back in icu and last i heard is currently in stable condition. i wish i knew a little more, but his parents phones dont work in the hospital so we take the updates when we can get them. as soon as i hear more i will let you know. once again, thanks so much for all your support, thoughts and prayers, it really does mean the world to him and us.
love
.lydia.

A message to Lydia fans

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Below is an update about why Lydia had to cancel their current tour with The Spill Canvas.

hello dear friends

I don’t know what to say right now really. I’m writing this from my sidekick in the middle of nowhere illinois. We are driving home from ohio, halfway through an amazing tour with our friends the spill canvas. Extremely bummed right now to say the least. The last few days leighton has picked up some sort of a stomach virus flu type of sicknessand has been incredibly sick, but manned up and played the shows even thought he was not feeling up to it at all.

Then last night he started to feel a bit worse and went to urgent care before our show, they said it was just an upset stomach and he should take it easy, but he came back to try and play the show anyways. As we took the stage to a sold out crowd, more stoked than ever to play, 20 seconds into the first song he passed out cold on stage and we ended the set there, tried to get him to the hospital again but opted to sleep at the hotel and shake it off.

This morning he woke up feeling even worse and we talked about maybe taking the day off and letting him get better. On his walk out to the van, he passed out cold once again and hit the concrete going into convulsions, we called 911 and got him the hospital immediately to find
out that the “upset stomach” was internal bleeding for the past 3 days and a torn esophagus and if we waited any longer who knows what could have happened. Leighton will spend the next 5 days to a week in the columbus, mt carmel hospital with his parents while the doctors try to
determine how this happened and get him all fixed up and we will be driving 28 hours home over the next day or two.

This is definitely Something far more serious than any of us could ever imagine and we are
so incredibly bummed that we won’t be able to make it to these shows. Things have never been better with the band and we have some really amazing things coming up in the future, so please, Please keep leighton in your prayers. And I promise we will be back out on the road and
making new music as soon as possible.

So much love from us. Loren.
Evan. Steve. Leighton