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Jul 31, 2020 By Jennifer Irving Hoops

In an Instagram post yesterday evening, Indiana indie pop band Hoops announced the dissolution of the group. The band’s statement came from frontman Drew Auscherman, and cited sexual abuse allegations against a former member as well as his “own personal issues of emotional abuse towards partners and friends” as the driving factors. The band was set to release a new album, Halo, on October 2 via Fat Possum, but after reaching out to a representative, the band’s publicist has confirmed to Under the Radar that Hoops have broken up and will not be releasing their new album.

Here’s Auscherman’s full statement:

“CW: Sexual Abuse

This is Drew speaking.

We’ve been seeing some pretty terrible things on Twitter over the past week involving a former member of the band. I feel it’s necessary to say that we as people and as a band abhor that kind of behavior and do not tolerate sexual abuse in any form. To the victim, we offer our sincerest apologies, and welcome any discussion needed to sort through this traumatic process.

The former member in question has been out of the band since 2017, and as we understood it, their decision to leave was for reasons unrelated to this situation. A while after the band had broken up, I was made aware of this former member’s actions. I made the mistake of not pursuing the matters further with the band and the former member, which I now realize only extended and amplified the victim’s suffering.

Additionally, I think it is worth adding that I have not been transparent enough in the reasoning behind the band’s initial breakup. I think that Hoops came back too soon while I was still working through my own personal issues of emotional abuse towards partners and friends. These are things I’m still working through and at the moment takes precedence over all things music related. That being said, we have come to the conclusion that it is no longer acceptable for us to continue as a band with this sort of platform.

It’s been made clear to us that we need to step it up in terms of accountability, to each other in the band and to the people around us. We have a responsibility to be honest and call out toxic behavior where we see it. We’ll continue to work at improving ourselves, but clearly in these cases we fell short. We’re grateful to those who have helped us understand that more fully, and remorseful that it took us this long to reexamine how we communicate with one another.”

Hoops most recent lineup was Drew Auscherman (vox, guitar), Kevin Krauter (vox, bass), and Keagan Beresford (vox, keys, guitar).

Halo was to be the band’s sophomore album, the follow-up to their 2017 debut, Routines. Later in 2017 the band announced they were going on an indefinite hiatus to focus on other projects outside of the band. But then last November they returned with the new song “They Say,” which was to be featured on Halo. “They Say” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then when the album was announced Hoops shared another single from it, “The Fall” (which was also one of our Songs of the Week). That was followed by “Glad You Stayed,” the album’s third single (and perhaps the band’s last ever release). “Glad You Stayed” also made our Songs of the Week list.

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