Life has not been easy for Long Island’s pop-rock quartet Persona. The band was formed in 2011, but even before the formation, the members spent nearly a decade developing their craft, and becoming one with the exact character, reality, and imagination that all makes the band what they are today. The band uses their personal struggles as inspiration, and often write music about overcoming these struggles.

Musicians writing about struggles isn’t necessarily a new concept, but it’s the type of struggles that Persona’s members have endured that makes for a devastating story. In past years, a car accident nearly took bassist Sam Trestman’s life, and a fire destroyed guitarist Costa Themistocleous’ home, as well as the band’s home recording studio. “The ups and downs of life in general have solidified a strong and sacred bond between us that has reflected in our music,” explains Themistocleous

All of this culminate into Persona’s debut EP, Take Me to the Moon, which was released back in 2012 and found the band focusing on their harmonies and crafting nostalgic melodies. Shortly after, the band hit the studio with producer Gary Cioffi (Transit, Four Year Strong) and began work on their second EP, Mayday, We Crashed. Symbolically enough, it was after this release that Persona decided to “crash” and disappear for a while.

“After we got home from touring and the release of “Mayday, We Crashed” we burnt out, we all felt it would be best to take a few weeks to ourselves, little did we know how long that few weeks would turn out to be” explains vocalist Tom Spartinos on the band’s state after Mayday, We Crashed.

After some time away, Persona re-emerged in the spring of 2017 with the release of “Say What You Say,” and ultimately was followed by former bassist Will Suraci departing the band and drummer CJ Kostaras (Giants at Large) joining. The new-lineup then spent the rest of that summer release new singles – each accompanies by a music video – once a month.“We want to impact people with our music. We want to make people reflect and ponder, and we want to spread a positive message. There is always room for positive vibes and good feeling, especially in the world we live in today,” adds Spartinos.

All of that brings us today,  where we are proud to be premiering the music video for their new single, “Ready to Leave,” which features AJ Perdomo of The Dangerous Summer. On working with Perdomo, Themistocleous states that “I have always been a big fan of The Dangerous Summer and having AJ sing on this song is a huge honor. He was really easy to go back and forth and work with. We got his parts for the song and video done real quick! Truly a blessing to have him on this song.”

Perdomo himself even mentions that “Working on the song with Persona was awesome. I recorded my vocal part in Nashville in between writing music with my band. I also was able to shoot my part of the video in Richmond while traveling. I’m excited to be a part of it!”

We could write a million words about Persona and this new single “Ready to Leave,” but you can ultimately check it out for yourself at the top of this post. It has everything you want and desire for a band like this, and is more than worth a listen. “‘Ready to Leave’ is about getting over a breakup you just can’t get over. It is about the emotions you feel about yearning for your relationship, although it has ended and both parties have moved on,” Themistocleous explains on the track. “‘Ready to Leave’ is about the communication between you and your ex and finally having a night together again to just wake up and realize ‘No. I can’t have this anymore.’ It is literally closing a chapter and leaving. It was a lot of fun writing and recording this song.”

Moving forward and back in the full swing of things, Persona is set to release three new singles and videos before returning to the studio in November to record their third EP. In addition, they are planning numerous local and national tour dates for 2018 and even beyond.

If “Ready to Leave” is any indication of where Persona is headed, we’re all lucky to be a part of it.

Pick up a digital copy of the “Ready to Leave” here.