Embracer Discusses Their Decision to End the Band

After playing for more than 10 years, Charleston-based indie-alternative band Embracer chose The Loud—a local Huntington club—for its farewell show last weekend. Band members Jordan Bradley, Dylan Constinteen and Zakk Garcia said during a break in their performance on Friday that COVID-related hassles as well as changing career paths are largely responsible for the breakup 

“With COVID forcing us to take a break from touring we all just kind of got sent off on our different paths,” Costinteen said. “Jordan’s on school now and working really hard and focusing on that. Zakk has kind of worked himself into a new career path and I’ve been focusing on brewing beer and seeing where that will take me. Not to mention that touring is really taxing on your body. Lots of long drives, loading and unloading heavy music gear and sleeping in not always the optimal scenarios—lots of hardwood/concrete floors occasionally sleeping in the van etc. While it is such an amazing experience and so much fun, it’s also a lot of hard work and you feel it after the fact for sure.” 

The band is incredibly thankful for all of the love and support that they have received from their fans over the years. Expressing their immense gratitude for all of the people that showed them support and admiration really means a lot to the band. 

“Thank you so much,” Costinteen said. “We love you! We appreciate you! Without people willing to give us a chance and giving a no-one band from WV a listen, we wouldn’t have been able to do so many of the things that we were so lucky to do. And we are so grateful to everyone that’s opened their doors to us. Gave us a place to play, a place to crash after a show or on the way to one, or a home cooked meal while we were out. Everyone that bought a shirt, a CD or streamed out music helped us achieve dreams we never would’ve thought possible. We got to see the whole country, play with bands we idolized as kids and make friends all over the country and even some across the world.” 

Costinteen also said he wants to be involved with music again in the future. 

“Personally, I definitely do,” he said. “I’ve already talked to a few friends about getting something new together. Playing music—especially live shows—has been an enormous, therapeutic experience for me and I think that I’ll always crave that. I don’t think it’ll be as serious as what Embracer [has] done, but definitely want to have something like that as a fun outlet. Zakk, I know, has talked about filling in for some friends of ours that might be in need of a drummer sometime. But unfortunately, I think Jordan feels that his time with music has passed, at least for now. He’s talked about just being drained of musical inspiration and just wanting to focus on school for now, which Zakk and I both can totally respect. Embracer has given us so much and been so special to us, but it’s time to close this chapter of our lives and see what excitement our futures hold elsewhere.”