The Found

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The Found was a multinational alternative pop-rock band that was formerly signed to Blacklight Records. A four piece band, it consisted of Asa Halberstam, the lead singer of the group, Kenneth Ravelson on lead guitar, Bellaire Roxendahl on drums, and Reinholdt P. Stoughton on keyboards and piano. They formed in 2007 when all of them were in college and, in 2011, shortly after they graduated, they began to pursue a professional music career. They disbanded six months after they released their debut single due to internal conflicts within the band.

Career: 2011[edit | edit source]

The band was popular in Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States where they all found chart success with their singles and only album. In March 2011, they released their debut single "The Conflict" which charted at #9 in the UK and was a top ten hit in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada; it charted at #8 on the US Billboard Alternative Songs chart. Their second single brought them more public attention and critical acclaim where it charted at #3 in the UK and was a #2 hit in Australia and New Zealand. In May 2011, the band released their only album titled Models of Symbolism. The album was successful reaching #2 in the UK, #1 in Australia and #5 in New Zealand; it was certified Silver in the UK, Gold in New Zealand, and Platinum in Australia.

The band went through a number of difficulties regarding their management and what they saw were "somewhat" disappointing sales of their album in the UK. The band decided to re-release the album by the end of the year and also decided to release a second album, which was to be titled Passionology, a career move that faced a lot of ambivalence from the general public, their fans, and critics. The band was scheduled to release a number of singles during late summer and autumn of 2011, but all of them kept getting replaced in favor of other singles or were often postponed. Eventually any plans to release any single during that time, at least in the UK, was cancelled.

Managerial problems and internal conflicts[edit | edit source]

The band's conflict with their management kept rising as their career progressed on. After a physical altercation with their manager Chrizhelle Chessacole and band member Bellaire Roxendahl, the band fired Chessacole and hired singer-songwriter Ben Johnston, who had retired from the music industry earlier that year, to replace him. The band had been famous for being big fans of Johnston and convinced him to produce and write more than half of their debut album when they were recording it. Band member Asa Halberstam called him a "father figure", a term which many deemed as "ironic" since the band often sang about daddy issues, and as well as gender inequality and other social issues, on their debut album and for their music material. It would also be the controversial idea of "daddy issues" that would later play some part on the band's demise.

Despite them hiring Johnston, which ended all managerial problems for the band, internal conflicts began to sprout up suddenly between the band members most specifically between Roxendahl and band member Kenneth Ravelson. Halberstam stated that the source of the feud between the two "was on a trip to Canada. We, me and Reinholdt [P. Stoughton], don't know exactly what happened. They went to Canada as the best of friends and then came back with a very rotten attitude towards each other. We don't know exactly what between the two of them and they'll never tell us." The feud between Ravelson and Roxendahl became more evident during a video shoot for, what would be their one out of two of their final singles "Miami Nineteen Eighty Six", when an heated argument between the two erupted on the set of the video, closing it down for one hour so they two boys could calm down from the row. Witnesses stated that if someone didn't interfere, they two boys would've gotten into a physical altercation.

Further conflicts and disbandment[edit | edit source]

The band's formation began to unravel in September 2011 when they suddenly fired Halberstam just moments before the band was to perform on a talk show in Australia. The three remaining members, including the feuding Ravelson and Roxendahl, made a unanimous decision to fire him but let him perform with the band one last time on the talk show where they were to sing their two newest singles "Miami Nineteen Eighty Six" and "The Coming of Age Song". Shortly after the performance, Halberstam walked off the stage and the three remaining members sat down with the host for an interview. When asked about why Halberstam walked off and would not be joining the band, Roxendahl bluntly stated that he had been fired, a revelation which drew a shocked reaction for the audience and made headlines in Australia and New Zealand the next day. Halberstam would not reveal why he had been fired but stated that "he saw it coming. I was not blind-sided. I tried to have them forgive me but they wouldn't. I saw it coming".

One week after Halberstam was fired, the band disbanded, only six months after the release of their debut single. The band's disbandment was not well-known about in the UK and people there thought that they had just "vanished"; the break-up was well-documented and covered heavily by the press and media in Australia and New Zealand. Fans in both countries were devastated by the break-up. The band continued to released their final two singles "Miami Nineteen Eighty Six" and "The Coming of Age Song" which respectively hit #2 and #1 in Australia and were both top three hits in New Zealand. None of the band's final two singles was released anywhere else, including the UK. The re-release to their debut and their sophomore album, Passionology, was indefinitely cancelled and was not released anywhere.

Post-disbandment[edit | edit source]

Halberstam has since returned to the United States and is pursuing a career in education, Roxendahl went back to Canada and joined another band, Ravelson launched his solo career and is currently popular in Japan, Australia, and even India, where he made cameo roles in a couple of Bollywood films, and Stoughton returned to South Africa for the first time in four years, where it was thought that he was been missing and/or abducted. Shortly after Stoughton's return to South Africa, he suffered a brain aneurysm and is currently in intensive hospital care.

The band seems unlikely to reconcile and/or (at least) get back together and reform.

Curriculum, a new group, has often been heavily compared to the band.