Walk the Moon, Pop Rock Group Behind ‘Shut Up and Dance,’ Are Going on Hiatus

Walk the Moon, the Ohio pop-rock group behind the 2014 hit “Shut Up and Dance,” announced their “hibernation,” with singer Nicholas Petricca saying, “The time has come for us to take a good long break from touring and making records together.”

In a video shared on YouTube, Petricca suggested it was likely that the band would “reconvene” one day and that when it happens, it “will be a glorious day.” But, he added, “The truth is, we don’t know when that’s gonna be.” 

The band will take care of some business before going on hiatus, including releasing new music. “Something to celebrate our time together and the road ahead,” Petricca said. “So stay tuned for that.”

Walk the Moon also plan to livestream the final show of their tour, which is currently scheduled for Aug. 12 in Arcadia, Wisconsin. 

Additionally, Petricca said that in the coming weeks, Walk the Moon would be digging into the archives and “sharing some art, clips, stories about these last many years.” The frontman also encouraged fans to “share your own stories, so that we can repost.”

And last, Petricca said Walk the Moon would continue to use the band’s social channels to share updates about future projects. For instance, he noted guitarist Eli Maiman has a “new musical collaboration” on the way while also teasing his own “solo project universe.” 

The decision to dissolve Walk the Moon comes a few years after the departure of longtime bassist Kevin Ray. Petricca announced that Ray would leave the group in Dec. 2020, saying at the time they had learned “firsthand information which leads us to conclude that Kevin Ray has acted out of alignment with our values.” (No specifics were given.)

Walk the Moon’s origins date back to the band Petricca founded in 2006 while still a student at Kenyon College. The band’s debut, I Want! I Want!, arrived in 2011, but the lineup’s main iteration didn’t take shape until a year later when Petricca linked up with Maiman, Ray, and drummer Sean Waugaman. Walk the Moon released a self-titled album in 2012, notching minor hits with “Anna Sun” and “Tightrope.” Their breakthrough came two years later with “Shut Up and Dance,” which soared to Number Four on the Billboard Hot 100. The album it appeared on, Talking Is Hard, was certified platinum by the RIAA and peaked at Number 14 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart.

Though Walk the Moon never reached the same heights, they enjoyed success with future singles like “One Foot,” “Timebomb,” “Lost In the Wild,” and “Can You Handle My Love??” They released two more albums after Talking Is Hard, 2017’s What If Nothing and 2021’s Heights. 

As Petricca noted in the video, this summer marks 18 years since he started the band, adding, “For half of my life this band has been the main focus of my creative love and energy. It makes it well over a decade since Sean and Eli were the new guys, and devoted themselves to the cause.And the same is true for each of us: Nothing else on Earth has received more ours of our love and attention than this indie, alt, pop rock and roll band” (Except, maybe Petricca quipped, Maiman’s new baby.)

Petricca closed his video by reading a dedication the band included in the liner notes for the 10th anniversary of 2012’s Walk the Moon: “Walk the Moon is a universe that invites everybody to play along, play full out, play all in. It’s a place where everyone is welcome and participation is everything. And more than that, Walk the Moon has always been and forever will be, what you make of it.”