SECRETS Stolen Trailer
Donation protected
So here we are guys.
We never imagined it would come to this and have been trying to fight asking for help for a while now, but now while at our most vulnerable, the time has come where we come to you.
Nearly 2 years ago, we had just ended a fall tour and traveled back to Southern California where we and our van and trailer with all of our equipment would reside. Everything was normal; we were all excited to be home, and were all very eager to start writing what would become our fourth studio album. It would remain that way for about 2 weeks until Connor discovered that our trailer had been stolen when he was picking up gear. Everything that we (SECRETS) had ever owned, everything we needed to be able to play and live on the road, and many, many personal items were all gone including the trailer itself. This came as quite a shock to everyone, and we couldn’t help being in denial, even while physically staring at a van without the trailer.
What are we supposed to do now? How are we going to keep this band going? How are we supposed to play? Where in the hell are we going to get money to pay for new gear? How are we supposed to write our new album? A million questions would continue to run through our brains for the next few days until we tried to temporarily fix the situation.
Over the next following weeks, we searched through all of our files and gathered insurance information on what gear we had owned and every form of physical evidence of purchases we had made. We kept our eyes online (Craigslist, etc.) and contacted every Guitar Center in Southern California to see if we could find our gear posted anywhere, but as time went on we never found anything and it seemed like we were at a complete loss. We had our management on the situation as well who coordinated a sit down with an Insurance Claim Investigator so that we could present everything we had insured and to try and get our stuff back. It seemed like a light in the dark at the time, but we would only come to find out later it was still dark.
After months and months had gone by with us writing/recording an album without a single piece of our own gear and not being able to tour due to the fact that we didn't have anything to perform with, we finally got a call from insurance and we were all very eager to hear what they were able to do for us. Well, it wasn't nearly as much as we had hoped, summing up to a little less than a quarter of the value of the stolen gear. This was devastating and very hard to cope with knowing we still had no idea how the hell we were gonna be able to pull anything we do off with the amount of money that we were getting back. We ended up buying the most minimal amount of gear possible at the cheapest prices possible. We were very fortunate to have the help of a few great companies that we work with (Positive Grid, Kiesel Guitars, Darkglass Electronics) that understood the situation at hand, and they were able to get us show ready, but we were still operating at a very low budget and having to pull/borrow money to try and get back to the normal show we’re used to performing. To this day, we have only managed to recover our Warped Tour tent, which was found pitched in someone’s backyard 6 months after the incident. Even with that possible lead, the only help we’ve received from the police has been simply approaching that house and returning our tent back to us, not following this lead in any way to look into the whereabouts of the rest of our belongings.
The past almost 2 years have shown VERY VERY difficult times for us in Secrets. Every tour, show, shirt, CD, and we sell or anything profitable that we do has been going straight to back into paying someone / something back that we owed from this situation. All the while, we’d see even more outrageous expenses hitting us such as our van breaking down multiple times us, having to put almost triple the amount of money into it as we paid for it, our new trailer’s axle breaking 2 separate times in the middle of a tour, a rental vehicle car accident; the list goes on and on and never really seems to end.
Although it may not seem this way to you guys when we get on stage or talk to us at the merch table after the shows, but all of us have definitely had quite a few doubts of the band’s future and at multiple points thought that disbanding and letting the band go could be far easier than continuing on and constantly battling a debt that seems to never go away.
So with that being said, we have all talked on this situation and here’s what we got out of it.
We all endlessly love music.
We love playing shows, we love traveling, we love creating, we love art, we love expressing ourselves through our art, and most of all, WE LOVE YOU GUYS. We do this for not only us, but more importantly for you. You may not know it or think it, but when you approach us and tell us how we made an impact on your life, it reminds us why we are here and why we do what we do. Whether it be a lyric we wrote that goes hand in hand with your life, seeing a Secrets related tattoo on your body, telling us that we were the reason you picked up a guitar or started getting into music more, we love it all and we don't wanna stop giving back to you.
The part that weighs us down is the financial side. We are still, to this day fighting thousands and thousands of dollars in debt and we rarely rarely ever take money from the band for our personal lives to live. We all have small side jobs that we try and manage to make money from while touring which is very hard, and a lot of our personal money has even gone back into repaying these debts so that we can try to continue doing what we love. Sadly, it has come to a point where we have begun weighing the pros and cons of continuing on with SECRETS and it starting to just seem out of reach to us. Let us stress though that none of us want to stop at all. We all want to pursue this band as long as we possibly can. So, for the first time, we have decided to ask for YOUR HELP.
Anything we make from doing this is going straight back into the band. from paying off those debts, getting our proper gear back, fixing our touring van, paying off credit card debt, helping us get back into the studio (cause we no longer have a label to pay for it) and get more music and content out for you guys
We have included a list of all the gear that we lost (personal items not included) and the total amount so you can see everything. Anything helps and we just wanna say thank you in advance for everything, and a huge thank you for all the continued support you’ve shown us over the years. Without you, this band would not be here today.
- Richard, Wade, & Connor
SECRETS
We never imagined it would come to this and have been trying to fight asking for help for a while now, but now while at our most vulnerable, the time has come where we come to you.
Nearly 2 years ago, we had just ended a fall tour and traveled back to Southern California where we and our van and trailer with all of our equipment would reside. Everything was normal; we were all excited to be home, and were all very eager to start writing what would become our fourth studio album. It would remain that way for about 2 weeks until Connor discovered that our trailer had been stolen when he was picking up gear. Everything that we (SECRETS) had ever owned, everything we needed to be able to play and live on the road, and many, many personal items were all gone including the trailer itself. This came as quite a shock to everyone, and we couldn’t help being in denial, even while physically staring at a van without the trailer.
What are we supposed to do now? How are we going to keep this band going? How are we supposed to play? Where in the hell are we going to get money to pay for new gear? How are we supposed to write our new album? A million questions would continue to run through our brains for the next few days until we tried to temporarily fix the situation.
Over the next following weeks, we searched through all of our files and gathered insurance information on what gear we had owned and every form of physical evidence of purchases we had made. We kept our eyes online (Craigslist, etc.) and contacted every Guitar Center in Southern California to see if we could find our gear posted anywhere, but as time went on we never found anything and it seemed like we were at a complete loss. We had our management on the situation as well who coordinated a sit down with an Insurance Claim Investigator so that we could present everything we had insured and to try and get our stuff back. It seemed like a light in the dark at the time, but we would only come to find out later it was still dark.
After months and months had gone by with us writing/recording an album without a single piece of our own gear and not being able to tour due to the fact that we didn't have anything to perform with, we finally got a call from insurance and we were all very eager to hear what they were able to do for us. Well, it wasn't nearly as much as we had hoped, summing up to a little less than a quarter of the value of the stolen gear. This was devastating and very hard to cope with knowing we still had no idea how the hell we were gonna be able to pull anything we do off with the amount of money that we were getting back. We ended up buying the most minimal amount of gear possible at the cheapest prices possible. We were very fortunate to have the help of a few great companies that we work with (Positive Grid, Kiesel Guitars, Darkglass Electronics) that understood the situation at hand, and they were able to get us show ready, but we were still operating at a very low budget and having to pull/borrow money to try and get back to the normal show we’re used to performing. To this day, we have only managed to recover our Warped Tour tent, which was found pitched in someone’s backyard 6 months after the incident. Even with that possible lead, the only help we’ve received from the police has been simply approaching that house and returning our tent back to us, not following this lead in any way to look into the whereabouts of the rest of our belongings.
The past almost 2 years have shown VERY VERY difficult times for us in Secrets. Every tour, show, shirt, CD, and we sell or anything profitable that we do has been going straight to back into paying someone / something back that we owed from this situation. All the while, we’d see even more outrageous expenses hitting us such as our van breaking down multiple times us, having to put almost triple the amount of money into it as we paid for it, our new trailer’s axle breaking 2 separate times in the middle of a tour, a rental vehicle car accident; the list goes on and on and never really seems to end.
Although it may not seem this way to you guys when we get on stage or talk to us at the merch table after the shows, but all of us have definitely had quite a few doubts of the band’s future and at multiple points thought that disbanding and letting the band go could be far easier than continuing on and constantly battling a debt that seems to never go away.
So with that being said, we have all talked on this situation and here’s what we got out of it.
We all endlessly love music.
We love playing shows, we love traveling, we love creating, we love art, we love expressing ourselves through our art, and most of all, WE LOVE YOU GUYS. We do this for not only us, but more importantly for you. You may not know it or think it, but when you approach us and tell us how we made an impact on your life, it reminds us why we are here and why we do what we do. Whether it be a lyric we wrote that goes hand in hand with your life, seeing a Secrets related tattoo on your body, telling us that we were the reason you picked up a guitar or started getting into music more, we love it all and we don't wanna stop giving back to you.
The part that weighs us down is the financial side. We are still, to this day fighting thousands and thousands of dollars in debt and we rarely rarely ever take money from the band for our personal lives to live. We all have small side jobs that we try and manage to make money from while touring which is very hard, and a lot of our personal money has even gone back into repaying these debts so that we can try to continue doing what we love. Sadly, it has come to a point where we have begun weighing the pros and cons of continuing on with SECRETS and it starting to just seem out of reach to us. Let us stress though that none of us want to stop at all. We all want to pursue this band as long as we possibly can. So, for the first time, we have decided to ask for YOUR HELP.
Anything we make from doing this is going straight back into the band. from paying off those debts, getting our proper gear back, fixing our touring van, paying off credit card debt, helping us get back into the studio (cause we no longer have a label to pay for it) and get more music and content out for you guys
We have included a list of all the gear that we lost (personal items not included) and the total amount so you can see everything. Anything helps and we just wanna say thank you in advance for everything, and a huge thank you for all the continued support you’ve shown us over the years. Without you, this band would not be here today.
- Richard, Wade, & Connor
SECRETS
Organizer
SECRETS BAND
Organizer
San Diego, CA