VALUE PAC BREAKS UP AGAIN:

Value Pac has broken up again following Sean's leaving the band and Ryan's desire to delve into secular music. Sean admitted that creative differences existed, though he cited the main reason for leaving as due to his desire to put his family first. Sean stated, "This was a hard decision to make. I really wanted to continue on with the band but I have a family with two kids and I really felt that I needed to spend time with them and provide for them. Value Pac would not allow for that, due to all the touring that was necessary. Plus the fact that financially, things have been hard on the band during the past few years. I felt that it was time for me to take a job opportunity that has come my way and allow the band to move on".

Sean will play the remaining VP dates through the end of March. For now, the Official Value Pac website will remain off-line until the remaining members decide what their next move will be. Vocalist Ryan Sheely is thinking about moving to Hollywood to pursue a mainstream music career. No word yet if he plans to continue the use of the Value Pac name or whether he and drummer Jason Feltman will play under a new name. Plans for a future Value Pac record on Four Door have been put on hold.

BAND INFO:

This band is as hard to pin down musically and career-wise. Starting in 1995, this band made itself known despite the fact that they lived in Orange County California, the musical hotspot of the nation.

After two very successful albums, this band officially disbanded in September 1998 following Ben's leaving the band in order to go to college and the death of Ryan's mother, Value Pac was a three man punk band from Orange County, California. Breaking the band on good terms, Ryan, Sean and Ben ended this band's wonderful career with their last show, on September 6, 1998.

Ben Cater (drums) had always planned to play for the band for two years and then decide on whether to stay in the band or to break with the band and go to college. So, time passed and after two albums and two years, Ben was faced with the hard choice. As his father wanted him to and he had promised, he decided to go to college.

Ryan Sheely's (lead guitar & lead vocals) mother Stephanie Sheely, 44, passed away on April 10, 1998. She had cancer and had been fighting it a while and her death was really hard on Ryan.

Value Pac has a very rare punk sound: their sound is punkish yet it has upbeat, happy melodies which seperate it from other punk rawk. I've never heard a punk sound anything like Value Pacs'. Ryan has really strong vocals which really blend in with the music, for an awesome sound.

They have three albums out. First came a self-titled debut, which was characterized by straight-out punk and a lot of funky bass lines to very Christian lyrics. With their second album 'Jalenpeno', Value Pac took a step away from the straight out punk to a more mature, pop-punk sound. A few songs keep the more punk sound, but they mix up the sound a lot, adding a little more of a pop-punk sound along with a little bit of ska on one song. They have an original punk sound which is very hard to find in punk bands. On this album, the lyrics made religious references but didn't evangelize like the first album did.

Since 'Jalepeno' was released, the band has been criticized for going away from the preachy 'turn or burn' evangelistic lyrics they had on their first album. Their are a few reasons why they have changed the style in their lyrics. First of all, when they were writing their debut, Ryan had only been saved a year and was so excited that he just wanted to preach to everyone, not taking into perspective that fact that most of the people that would hear their albums would already be saved. So, in the second album, he chose to blend the lyrics with every day life, giving everyone (Christians and non-Christians) something to get out of it. The lyrics are about things that happen in our everyday lives, and then he goes to bring out the fact that he would never want to go through life without Christ. He blends in God's principles and how God helps us through everything into our lives giving everone something he can get from it. He didn't just want to attract the church crowd but he wanted to attract the people that didn't know the Lord. It doesn't sound like his love for the Lord or his principles have died, but that he has grown stronger and made a mature decision in his lyrical direction and people need to slow down before they judge a band's motives.

An exciting event took place at the end of 1999. Sean and Ryan reunited with a temporary drummer (Ethan from the Dingees) and made one last tour for their fans, called the Bittersweet Dreams Tour last summer. But, thanks to the response they got from their fans, they decided to give it another go. So, they took a ton of the material they already had written and decided to record it. They left BEC Recordings and signed with online-based record company Four Door Entertainment, which is owned by a former drummer Chuck Cummings. Ryan had taken time off and had partially gotten over the death of his mother, which had made him angry and bitter. But now, the Pac came back. Going into the studio at the beginning of the year, Value Pac recorded another album, entitled 'Incognito'. Several sound clips are available on the Four Door Entertainment website. The album was one of the first to be released exclusively online. In the album, Value Pac played several different styles. There are the straight-up punk songs, the pop-punk songs, the rock and the slow rock songs. About half of the album does rock, but the other half of material is reminiscent of the very repetitious boring rock band Social Distortion.

[ Value Pac Audio ]

since 2.26.99

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