On No Forest Fires Are Dead, Offer Free Album In Will

Toronto favourites Oh No Forest Fires have decided to call it quits, but not without giving us something to remember them by.

The quartet announced earlier this month that they would be playing their final show this coming weekend, and a recent blog post informs fans they will release their second and final album, Wants To Try Something, for free.

They've also made a new song off that release, "Spontaneous Changes In Isolated Systems," available for listening on their MySpace.

"We had known for a while before we announced it," explains singer/guitarist Rajiv Thavanathan. "I might be going to med school, everyone's busy with their lives. There's commitments in our adult lives that are becoming more important. For me, the school thing is certainly an issue. That would be that explanation."

For anyone who has seen the band, it's abundantly clear that Oh No Forest Fires exist largely as a vehicle for the members to express their lovably belligerent selves on stage. Since the release of their The War On Geometry debut album, the band have gone from a scrappy underdogs to one of Toronto's most energetic and exciting live acts. Characteristically, this hardly fazes any of them, as the band seem to have broken up just as naturally as they came together.

"I'm thinking about the reasons we're stopping, and none of them are, 'We're tired, we're poor,'" says the frontman. "This year was the first year where we broke even and actually made money playing shows. We got flown out twice to play shows, once in Halifax, once in Newfoundland.

"A lot of people say being in a band is like being in a relationship, and it's really the most perfect analogy. We had a serious conversation when we decided to break up, and it was really emotional. You can fall out of love with someone and still not hate someone... Though I have yet to be as lucky with that [laughs]."

Regardless of the breakup, the quartet felt strongly enough about the songs written over the course of the last year that they wanted to record them for their fans.

"A lot of these songs mean a lot to us, and we really love them," Thavanathan concludes. "We're really proud of them.

"If in 3,000 years, some alien race comes down and finds our barren, desolate world, if they find my hard drive, they'll at least be able to listen to my hard drive and hear Oh No Forest Fires one last time. Which is why we did it, to appease these otherworldly creatures. Don't we want to do it for our fans? No. Aliens."

Oh No Forest Fires will play their final show at the Horseshoe Tavern on Jan. 23 with Arietta, The Darcys and Songs From A Room.