From Ritual To Romance

Everything at some point must come to an end. From Ritual to Romance was formed in the fall of 2004 with original members; Ruben Valverde, Macario Guiterrez, David Nieto, Ben Nieto, and David Hootman. They played their first show on march 5th 2005 at the boiler room in Bakersfield, California. On March 25th 2006, FRTR released their first 7 song EP "The Innocent Cause of All The Trouble" with popular songs like "Goodbye Beautiful", "You're a Con-artist if I've Ever Seen One", and "Watch For The Changes and Try To Keep up" amongst others. With that EP they played shows with Yellowcard, Chiodos, Hit the Lights, My American Heart, Head Automatica and more. They even went on to win the Ernie Ball Battle Of the bands in 2007 placing them on the main-stage of the Rock-star Taste of Chaos Tour. On February 20th 2007 FRTR took the stage at the Selland arena in Fresno, CA with The Used, 30 Seconds to Mars, Chiodos, Senses Fail, Saosin, Aiden and Evaline. They played for more than +6000 attendants and got good reviews from both Ernie Ball and Rock-star Energy Drink. From there the band went on to take the local headlining spot on the 2007 Rocking Roots Festival with national headliners being Scary Kids Scaring Kids, Kottonmouth Kings, and others. FRTR played numerous shows up and down the central valley until November 2007 when they took a break to write and record their second record; "Plan A disguised as Plan B" which was released as they headlined the first ever Fest Fest in Bakersfield CA on June 14th 2008, with that CD they played alot of shows all over CA and with bands like Coheed and Cambria, The Fall of Troy, Taking Back Sunday, Anberlin, Saosin, A Skylit Drive, Dance Gavin Dance, and many more. In December 2008 FRTR said goodbye to their original drummer David Hootman (The Guy), he left FRTR for personal reasons but on good terms. With FRTR set to begin a hectic touring schedule in 2009 they picked up Pedro Parra to replace David Hootman. Their first tour was through January and February of 2009 and they toured with Hello Astronaut, they toured up and down the west coast. The tour was so successful it landed them a spot in Alternative Music Press magazine's bands to watch for 2009. The Next tour was the "OMGWTFBBQ" tour with Mozart Season, the tour lasted 6 weeks and visited California, Arizona, Texas, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. FRTR at this point is one of the most successful Unsigned bands in California. Moving on to a 10 week tour beginning in July 2009 FRTR had nowhere to go but up, but the tour was cut short by the van breaking down upon arrival in Oregon, FRTR had to return home, scrap the tour and start over. With the touring van disabled, FRTR decided it would be time to write and record a new record.



Now the bad news, upon Pre-Production for a new record, FRTR realized it would cost approximately $20,000 to do a new record, and get back to touring. They would need to Purchase a new van, recording costs, pressing new CD's, and printing new merch all within a short enough span to not fade as others have. with no financial backing and with personal lives and finances in limbo, and the ever increasing cost of being a musician, FRTR has decided to call it quits.



FRTR is leaving on good terms, everyone has decided to go their separate ways and begin living their own lives.



We want to thank everyone who has supported us these past few years and we hope that everyone will still enjoy the music we have created.



We want to thank all of our friends from all over the USA and all over the world who have helped us in living our dream.



We also want to thank all of our family for supporting us financially and giving us the freedom to do what we love.



Future plans for the members of From Ritual to Romance



Ruben Val Verde (Keyboards, Vocals, Management) - I will be moving to Hollywood and I will be attending the LA Film/Recording School in 2010 to study Audio Engineering, Record Producing and Song Writing. i Will graduate with my BS in Audio Engineering, i will then begin artist development and recording and producing new and up and coming artists.



Macario Gutierrez (Lead Guitar, Vocals)- Maco has moved back to Las Vegas and has begun to start a new life and begun a solo project which he will be releasing 2010



Ben Nieto (Bass) - Ben has enlisted in the United States Air Force and will ship out soon, we wish him well and a safe journey.



David Nieto (Rhythm Guitar)- David is in Bakersfield and will be attending school next year and is working on another music project



Please feel free to leave comments expressing any questions, concerns, or inspiring messages to FRTR, we do check this myspace regularly