by: Keith Lanigan

"The band has not broken up," said Steve Gustafson, bass player for the rock band 10,000 Maniacs.

Lead singer Natalie Merchant announced she was leaving the band last week, but "we're going to be making more records. Just without Natalie," Gustafson told The Post-Journal this morning.

"We're just going to start writing music, and see what happens," he said. Merchant's "leaving is no surprise. Actually her staying around for 12 years is a surprise," said Gustafson. He said, however, there were "no hard feelings at all" about her going her separate way.

The departure of Merchant from the Jamestown-born band was in fact expected and just knowing the news made for a more "relaxed" and "no-pressure" tour, said Gustafson. The band ended its most recent coast-to-coast tour with a July concert at Chautauqua Institution.

So as not to make a major production out of Merchant's leaving, the band thought it would be best not to treat it as a farewell tour, he said.

Merchant mentioned she might leave the band in 1991, prior to recording the band's most recent album Our Time In Eden. She said it would probably be the last studio record with the band, and "we just dropped it" after that, because "we had a record and tour to do, and we weren't going to let it get in the way of the job at hand," he said.

That attitude produced a 1.2 million selling album, and a tour where the band "enjoyed each other's time," said Gustafson, who still resides in the area.

Gustafson admits there were moments "in our career that were rocky," but "these were during times when we weren't communicating with each other." The band worked "very hard on communicating" before making the record. "We discussed our feelings," and "it made for a much better working environment," said Gustafson.

Life, and music, will indeed go on without Merchant. Gustafson and bandmate Dennis Drew are still grinding their way through the Federal Communications Commission's radio station application process, in hopes of obtaining a station license for the Jamestown area. "Right now we, as are the other four applicants, are waiting for the FCC," said Gustafson.

The plan now is to write songs and continue making records over the next year or so, "until we see what happens with the radio station. I'm sure the band will go on," said Drew, the band's keyboardist who also still lives in the area.

The FCC has yet to set a hearing date for the station applicants and Gustafson doesn't foresee any action until late this year and into 1994.

The applicant that does get picked by the FCC won't see air time until at least the summer of 1995 or winter of 1996, said Drew.

Drew, who is also applying for the license with his wife, thinks their chances are good. "With our experience in and out of the media, and our ties to the community I think we would probably be the best at providing a radio station that would be in the public interest," said Drew. "I think we're both family-orientated people, and in the long run it will be something for families," he said.

In the meantime, Gustafson and Drew are investigating possible station programming. Besides creating syndicated programs, "we want to put on a really good radio station with music not available in this area," said Gustafson. "We'd like to see a radio station that brings Jamestown into the 21st Century," said Drew.

Gustafson expects their main competitor in this area to be television. "It's not going to be easy, but we're certainly prepared to do a good job," he said.

The rest of the band, Rob Buck and Jerome Augustyniak, are both working on separate projects.

Gustafson extended his thanks for all the support the band has received, and said the band will push forward.