Guitarist Gavin Harper has announced his departure from the Scottish folk/power metallers Alestorm. He commented his decision:

"While I'm a bit shocked that this was announced before the record label knew and anyone in the band had actually talked to me about it... that and after being a founding member, i had to find out about my resignation becoming official from the Myspace page.

In my time in this band, from doing the first ever recording to not appearing on the latest one...I have always strived to make Alestorm my priority and put it ahead of many other things in life that have been more important to me in order to help Alestorm be as big as it is now.

In this time, and in my attempts to keep my band members thriving in the music industry and taking advantage of everything, i have nearly bankrupted myself, been pushing new levels of unhappiness and had countless sleepless nights trying to plan routes for the guys within the budgets we have received.I have been struggling with personal differences with some members for a while and just feel that it is for the best if i make way for someone willing to put up with this.

I have recently taken up residence in a new country and have a lot of new responsibilities as well as a lot of new opportunities and i feel that it is now time to follow what i want rather than constantly struggle and sacrifice that which belongs not only to myself, but to all the loved ones that i have had to borrow from and rely on to keep Alestorm in the music business.

I will be back with new projects, signed or not, it's now time that music becomes fun again and i will be making a lot of music in the near future!"

Source:	blog.myspace.com
Band profile:	Alestorm