WARSHIP, the new band featuring Francis Mark (vocals, drums) and Rob Lauritsen (guitar, bass) of From Autumn To Ashes, is currently in a New York studio recording their debut release with producer Andrew Schneider (Made Out Of Babies, Cave In, Pelican, Unsane). The as-yet-untitled disc is due out on Vagrant later this fall.

Fans can hear a brand newt track, “Toil”, on MySpace. The track will also be featured on the Vagrant ’08 Summer Sampler that will be available for free at the Vagrant tent at this summer’s Vans Warped Tour.

“At this point I feel that we have accomplished everything we could have hoped for with FATA,” Fran Mark says in a statement to fans on the band’s MySpace page. “It doesn’t feel much like a break up. Just feels like the end. It’s complete. I would say that we are going on indefinite hiatus because the term breakup suggests a more negative circumstance. There have been no quarrels between band members. It is also not a question of fan support because we are lucky to have some of the most loyal and impassioned friends a band could ask for. Thank you again for the overwhelming support of our last album. I’ve dedicated almost 9 years to FATA and it’s become something of a security for me. I’m looking forward to feeling uncertain and the freedom of starting a new band that has no definition. We don’t have any expectations or specific goals with Warship. We just want to play loud, have fun and share some positive music with our friends.”

“The name Warship comes from a time last year when I was making worship candles (the tall, skinny glass jar candles you get in Brooklyn dollar stores and bodegas),” continues Mark. “They have paintings of saints on one side and a prayer on the opposite. I was buying blank candles and doing my own paintings on them. A friend asked me on a phone call what had I been up to and when I said “making worship candles”, she thought that I meant candles with actual warships on them. This led me to thinking about the relationship between the two. How discouraging it is when ‘worship’ begets ‘warships’. ”

Late summer touring plans for Warship will be announced shortly.

From Autumn To Ashes most recent release, Live At Looney Tunes, will be released next Tuesday, June 17th.