Pinegrove have announced a hiatus, as well as the departure of drummer and founding member Zack Levine – marking “the end of an era”.
The band have announced that they will be going on an indefinite hiatus “on a more casual basis”, with each member focusing on different side projects. Frontman Evan Stephens Hall shared in a lengthy Instagram post that “Pinegrove is not over, but it seems this era is.”
“After a lot of touring in ’22 you may have noticed we’ve been taking some time to regroup,” Hall wrote. “In the midst of this, our drummer & ultimate bud Zack has decided his time with PG has come to a close. We know this wasn’t an easy decision for him & we support him 100 per cent.”
Levine founded Pinegrove with Hall in 2010, and has performed with the band throughout multiple lineup changes since then.
He continued: “There’s still a fair amount of studio stuff we’re working on & at some point soon we’ll release some of it. but for now, PG will be on a more casual basis than you may have come to expect. I might do solo performances here & there. but we have no plans to perform as a band right now.”
“But for now, PG will be on a more casual basis than you may have come to expect. I might do solo performances here & there. But we have no plans to perform as a band right now. we’re gonna chill a bit, take some time to finish up odds & ends.”
The post also revealed that Hall will be attending grad school for English, bassist Megan Benavente has been working at an LGBTQ youth centre while also creating her own music and that guitarist Sam Skinner will be transitioning into full-time studio work as a producer and recordist.
The band’s most recent album was their fifth full-length LP ‘11:11′, from 2022.
In 2017, the band took a year-long hiatus after Hall acknowledged he’d been accused of “sexual coercion” by someone he “was involved with for a short but intense period of time”.
Hall later revealed that he came to a private resolution with an alleged victim via a mediator later that year. The victim also asked the band to take a year off touring and for Hall to enter into therapy. “We wanted to honour that,” Hall told Pitchfork. “She recognised that we’ve honoured it, and has since approved our plan to release an album and play some shows later on this year.”