The Found

The Found is a multinational pop-rock/electronica band. The band originally consisted of Asa Halberstam, Kenneth Ravelson, Bellaire Roxendahl, and Reinholdt P. Stoughton with them exhibiting an alternative pop-rock sound while they all played their own instruments. They formed in 2007 and in 2011, shortly after they all graduated from college, began to pursue a professional music career which proved to be moderately successful. Their debut album Models of Symbolism was released in 2011 and spawned the singles "The Conflict" and "Boys Don't Dance To Disco" which were both commercially successful and brought the band to international success. The band quick ran into various issues regarding their manager and internal conflicts which led them to break up six months after their debut single was released.

Formation: 2007 - 2011
The original members formed on the campus of New York University in 2007, when they were all in their sophomore year. Halberstam and Ravelson were already roommates when they met Roxendahl and Stoughton, following a three-way car accident. Realizing they all had a shared love for music, they formed as a band. In 2010, after they all graduated from New York University, they all began to pursue a career in the music industry. Late in the year, they all moved to the UK in hopes to make it big there.

All of the band members come different countries and backgrounds: Halberstam was born to a rich family in New York City, Ravelson was born in Australia but spent some years in Japan when his biological parents gave him up for adoption before he was eventually by a Jewish American couple, Roxendahl is Canadian, and Stoughton was from South Africa. Stoughton left the family home without telling his parents that he was going to live in America which caused him to unknowingly caused him to be a national scandal in South Africa as they all thought that he went missing or was kidnapped. In 2011, when it was found out that he was in The Found, he was no longer declared missing.

Models of Symbolism and conflicts with manager: 2011
In March 2011, they released their debut single "The Conflict" which charted at #9 in the UK and was a top ten hit in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada; it charted at #34 on the US Billboard Alternative Songs chart. Their second single, "Boys Don't Dance To Disco", brought them more public attention and critical acclaim where it charted at #3 in the UK and was a #2 hit in Australia and New Zealand. In May 2011, the band released their only album titled Models of Symbolism. The album was successful reaching #2 in the UK, #1 in Australia and New Zealand; it was certified Silver in the UK and multi-platinum in New Zealand and Australia.

The band went through a number of difficulties regarding their management and what they saw were "somewhat" disappointing sales of their album in the UK. The band decided to re-release the album by the end of the year and also decided to release a second album, which was to be titled Passionology, a career move that faced a lot of ambivalence from the general public, their fans, and critics. The band was scheduled to release a number of singles during late summer and autumn of 2011, but all of them kept getting replaced in favor of other singles or were often postponed. Eventually any plans to release any single during that time, at least in the UK, was cancelled.

The band went through a number of conflicts with their manager, who made some ill-executed career moves on their behalves, such as attempting to re-release "Models of Symbolism" while also releasing a brand new album which they had planned to title Passionology. A number of singles were scheduled to be released throughout the rest of 2011 but they were constantly cancelled or "postponed" by their manager. Eventually, following a heated physical altercation between their manager and band member Roxendahl, their manager was fired and they hired their favorite artist/idol Ben Johnston as their manager.

Passionology/scrapped second album, internal conflicts, and initial disbandment: 2011
Though they hadn't planned on releasing a second album since it was their original manager's idea, the group decided it would be a good idea to continue forward with a new album and decided to release Passionology, only months after they had released their debut Models of Symbolism, which they still decided to re-release as well. To move forward with the project, the band decided that they were going to release a double A-sided single "Miami Nineteen Eighty Six" and "The Coming of Age Song".

Though they had resolved their managerial issues, the band was now suffering from internal conflicts in which a feud spontaneously arose between Roxendahl and Ravelson. The feud, which possibly sparked while the two decided to take a road trip together to Canada, turned explosive on the set of the band's video for "Miami Nineteen Eighty Six" in which the two got into a heated verbal argument, which caused the video set to be shut down for two hours before it resumed. The rift between Roxendahl and Ravelson worsened and it affected the group's ability to properly promote their re-release of Models of Symbolism or the release of Passionology to the point where both albums had to be postponed. They also temporarily shelved the release of "Miami Nineteen Eighty Six" and "The Coming of Age Song" in the UK, North America, Japan, focusing only to release those singles in Oceania.

In September 2011, moments before the band was supposed to perform on a popular talk show in Australia, due to the feud between Roxendahl and Ravelson which caused them both to quit, and Halberstam being fed up by the disharmony between the group members, the band decided to break-up. They still performed on the talk show but when it came time to sit down and talk to the host, Halberstam walked off saddened by the disbandment of the group. When the remaining members were asked by the host why Halberstam walked, Roxendahl bluntly told the host and the audience that the group just broke up. With the group highly popular in Australia and New Zealand, their disbandment was front page news all over the two countries and fans were saddened and outraged by them breaking up. The band's last two singles "Miami Nineteen Eighty Six" and "The Coming of Age Song" both reached #1 in Australia and New Zealand. The band's breakup was not well publicized elsewhere it was thought that they "just up and disappeared into thin air". None of the band's then-final two singles were released outside of Oceania countries and both the re-release of Models of Symbolism and the release of their second album Passionology were both cancelled for good.