The band revealed their 'hibernation' in a message shared online over the weekend.
Walk the Moon are taking a hike. The group shared an 11-minute goodbye video to Instagram on Friday, and revealed they are going on an indefinite hiatus.
"The time has come for us to take a good, long break from touring and making records together," the band's frontman and original founder Nicholas Petricca shared in the heartfelt message to fans. "When we do reconvene, that will be a glorious day. And the truth is, we don't know when that's gonna be."
Petricca said he and his bandmates -- guitarist Eli Maiman and drummer Sean Waugaman -- are "filled with love, gratitude, appreciation, and heartache" as they announce the news of their hiatus.
The singer reflected on how this summer "will mark 18 years since I started the band that would change its name to Walk the Moon -- half my life ago."
"For half of my life, this band has been the main focus of my creative love and energy," he continued. "It is an enormous act of love to carefully lift something like this from the center of our lives and place it gently to the side, out of focus, and let it rest for a moment."
"It's a choice we make powerfully, to follow our truth, to make space for new creations, for family, to serve our well-being, and in the long run, even serve the well-being of Walk the Moon," Petricca added. "Like hibernation! So that hopefully you come back one day stronger than before. And honestly, it's a choice that's been bringing up deep emotions for all of us."
He echoed the sentiments the caption, writing, "Hello WALK THE MOON family, we invite you to tune into this message with an open heart. we are announcing: our hibernation."
"Our gratitude for this adventure + this connection with you is much grander than a caption can say," he added, in part. "There are a few things to celebrate together before we hibernate, including: we have NEW MUSIC for you. something to celebrate our time together, coming in August! [And] we will be streaming the last show of our 10th Anniversary Tour as a premiere event on YouTube, to chat live and watch together with you. details to come."
Petricca also teased in the video that he planned on branching out into creating his own "solo project universe," and that other projects would soon becoming from his fellow bandmates.
"Walk the Moon has been the greatest gift to me," Petricca said. "This vehicle through which my pain and joy and memories and experiences have been transmitted to millions of other human beings in this magical way that gets their bodies, hearts, brains, minds, souls moving... the fact that any one of you has gotten something good and nourishing and nutritious out of that -- that gives us life."
Petricca started Walk the Moon while in college in 2006. After numerous shakeups with bandmates, the band released their debut album, I Want! I Want!, in 2010. Another band shakeup lead to Maiman, Waugaman and former member Kevin Ray joining in 2011, when the band signed with RCA Records.
Their 2011 single "Anna Sun" became the band's first hit in the alt-indie world, and their follow-up album, Talking Is Hard, featured the band's biggest hit, "Shut Up and Dance."
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