While Charles Bissell of New Jersey indie rock band the Wrens used his Facebook page today (March 16) to give fans a bit of an update on the group's long-in-the-works new album, he also used his social media presence to address a more serious concern. A lengthy post has him explaining that he's currently undergoing treatment for multiple myeloma, a rare form of cancer that attacks the plasma cells in bone marrow.
It's explained in the Facebook post that Bissell was diagnosed with cancer late last year, after he had been in and out of hospital while battling pneumonia.
He noted that the disease, which targets plasma cells, is more commonly found in the elderly, and offered that since he is in better shape than most victims, and owing to advancements in medical science, "my prognosis is almost certainly not as dire as googling might make it seem."
He did, however, note that multiple myeloma is "not 'curable' per se."
"Here it means more that you're stuck with a longish weekly hospital commute for meds/chemo from here on out (with sooner/later, possibly/probably a bone marrow transplant (not as crazy as it sounds, more on that also below))," he wrote, adding, "So really almost more like a chronic condition like say, diabetes. If diabetes came with free bone marrow."
As for the Wrens' next record, it has reportedly been done since 2014, but still has yet to receive a due date. The details are still slim, but Bissell's current condition means he's likely not hopping in the tour van any time soon to play shows.
He added: "I don't know to what extent things will be different with this next record because of all this (i.e. mostly touring stuff, I guess) the whole thing has definitely re-shuffled my priority deck. And for a record that's largely about time, how one spend's what time one has, how I specifically cooked through a half-decade-plus ironically making an album about allotting one's time at the sacrifice of...well, actually living it, I'm at this point even less inclined to hop in a tour van on the multi-week plan."
You'll find Bissell's message in full over here.
While the Wrens have not issued a full-length since 2003's The Meadowlands, they offered up a limited-edition cassette last year. You'll find that mini-release's "Three Types of Reading Ambiguity" down below.
It's explained in the Facebook post that Bissell was diagnosed with cancer late last year, after he had been in and out of hospital while battling pneumonia.
He noted that the disease, which targets plasma cells, is more commonly found in the elderly, and offered that since he is in better shape than most victims, and owing to advancements in medical science, "my prognosis is almost certainly not as dire as googling might make it seem."
He did, however, note that multiple myeloma is "not 'curable' per se."
"Here it means more that you're stuck with a longish weekly hospital commute for meds/chemo from here on out (with sooner/later, possibly/probably a bone marrow transplant (not as crazy as it sounds, more on that also below))," he wrote, adding, "So really almost more like a chronic condition like say, diabetes. If diabetes came with free bone marrow."
As for the Wrens' next record, it has reportedly been done since 2014, but still has yet to receive a due date. The details are still slim, but Bissell's current condition means he's likely not hopping in the tour van any time soon to play shows.
He added: "I don't know to what extent things will be different with this next record because of all this (i.e. mostly touring stuff, I guess) the whole thing has definitely re-shuffled my priority deck. And for a record that's largely about time, how one spend's what time one has, how I specifically cooked through a half-decade-plus ironically making an album about allotting one's time at the sacrifice of...well, actually living it, I'm at this point even less inclined to hop in a tour van on the multi-week plan."
You'll find Bissell's message in full over here.
While the Wrens have not issued a full-length since 2003's The Meadowlands, they offered up a limited-edition cassette last year. You'll find that mini-release's "Three Types of Reading Ambiguity" down below.
