The hard-rocking Dublin indie band Sprints spent half a decade building up to their stellar debut album Letter To Self, which was our first Album Of The Week of 2024. Now that they’ve ascended, they’re going to have to make a significant adjustment. Sprints announced today that guitarist Colm O’Reilly is leaving the band, having opted to retreat from public life and pursue his own personal passions. His departure is effective immediately, meaning that Sprints will need to use a procession of guest guitarists to finish out their tour dates before regrouping with a more permanent replacement.

Here’s the statement the band shared about O’Reilly leaving:

After five incredible years together we are heartbroken to announce that our dear friend and brother, Colm O’Reilly, will be leaving SPRINTS.

Life on the road can be tough — mentally, emotionally, and physically, and does not always allow us to pursue our ambitions and dreams in our personal lives. Colm has expressed a desire to retreat from public performance and full time touring to pursue his own passions and we fully support his decision.

Colm has and always will be an integral part of the SPRINTS family and we are excited to see how both our journeys unfold.

SPRINTS will continue with Karla, Jack and Sam and we will be joined by guest guitarists across our live dates. All live commitments will be honoured and full of classic SPRINTS energy. We are excited to enter this new chapter and continue to grow.

Thank you for all the support so far and please join us in wishing Colm all the best.

All our love,
Karla, Jack and Sam x

Now I am really regretting not making the trek across Austin to see the original lineup of Sprints perform at a brewery for an unofficial SXSW week gig last March. Hopefully their new guitarist will keep that same energy (or perhaps, somehow, an even better energy).

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