Future Ghosts have changed their name to Unifier after receiving a cease and desist letter from a band of the same name out of Chicago, IL, who also had the band's social media sites removed (Facebook, Reverbnation, Bandcamp, etc.). The newly renamed Unifer sent over these statements about the dispute and the name change: The Chicago band trademarked the name "Future Ghosts" back in April 2012, despite not have been active since 2006 and despite the fact that Greensboro's Future Ghosts had already released an EP (Oh, Great City) back in 2011. Only recently did the Chicago band decide to reform and release a new record this year.
The timing couldn't be worse as Greensboro's Future Ghosts are preparing to release their debut LP Colorado on February 12, 2013 via the indie labels Autumn + Colour Records (Sick/Sea, Sleepy Turtles) and Round Kid Records (Terra Terra Terra, Averman). Colorado was recorded at Cannon Found Soundation Recording Studios (Man Overboard, Basement, Transit) with producer Jesse Cannon (The Cure, Saves The Day, The Menzingers.)
In a jointly-released statement Greensboro's Future Ghosts (now Unifier) says, "We are, and have been aware that we shared a name with other bands. Most bands do, at one point or another, and usually everyone is pretty relaxed about it. We were just glad that when we got started we only shared it with two or three others. We always knew the possibility was there that one of them would take off and we'd be the ones who had to change our name, but for it to happen like this feels like betrayal. Not only did the other band make no attempt to work it out with us before asking us to cease and desist, they aggressively pursued the purging of our web presence at the same time. It's one thing to make a formal request and give someone a chance to either comply or respond, but we were just left scrambling in the few hours we had to make sure people knew what was going on before all the sites went down."
On Monday, the band announced that they have changed their name to Unifier and sent out this statement: Due to the unfortunate events surrounding the name Future Ghosts in the past week, we have elected to seek out a new name and brand for ourselves. We had originally hoped to come to some sort of understanding in a timely manner that would allow us to retrieve our sites and move forward. However, it became clear to us that there would be no quick or easy resolution, and also seemed apparent that we would not be taken to court over the issue.
Our only focus as a band should be to write, play and release music - goals which this situation was seriously obstructing. All of our plans for the release of the new album were being strained, and we did not want to push the date back any longer. Rather than waste any more time, we began work to find a new name, alter artwork, create new websites, and remove the sour taste from our mouths.
We present to you today a song called "Shadows" from our upcoming full-length Colorado, along with some footage of us doing the things we love. (free download here) We felt the theme of the song was somewhat fitting, and hope that you will take advantage of the free download we are offering for it until the album's release. We will also be offering a free download of our EP "Oh, Great City" in it's entirety for the week here.
Thank you all so much for the support you showed us during this last week. All of the input, whether positive or not, was ultimately appreciated and has brought us to an even more determined place as a band. As a name, Future Ghosts will forever tie us to an unsettling event in our careers, one that we do not wish to be solely known for. It simply does not hold the same personal meaning for us that it once did, so we want to distance ourselves from that relationship and move past it.
That being said, we have chosen to adopt the new name Unifier. Not only is it a powerful word in and of itself, it has taken on a special meaning to us now as well. Looking past the situation's negative nature at all of the support we received, we see a result which is much more positive than we ever could have hoped for. Unifier pays homage to the new unity of the four of us as a band, as well as what we hope will become a greater unity of our fans and our home state's music scene.
We ask that you continue to bear with us as we wait to hear back from a few of our remaining websites about name and URL changes, which we will of course keep you updated on. Again, thank you all endlessly.
-Unifier
