Longtime Better Than Ezra drummer Travis McNabb announced recently that he’ll be parting ways with the band to pursue other opportunities in music. McNabb has been playing drums for the band Sugarland on their current tour. “We will miss Travis dearly and wish him nothing but success and happiness in the years to come,” the band said on a recent post on their website. “It’s bittersweet, we’re still good friends, and there are no hard feelings. We’ll miss him, but this is an opportunity he needed to take.” McNabb’s replacement will be New Orleans-based drummer Michael Jerome formerly of the band Pleasure Club. “We’ve been friends with Michael for awhile and have been a fan of his drumming. He brings with him a great musical sensibility and an explosive live show.” The band also announced that their long awaited seventh studio album, to be entitled Paper Empire, will hit stores May 12th. The first single “Absolutely Still” hitting radio and iTunes on March 17, but you can preview the track below: In November of 2008, Better Than Ezra lead singer Kevin Griffin talked to Alternative Addiction about writing music for the new album. “I start off the process by saying I can’t repeat myself musically or lyrically. I have to do something different. You really overexamine and can tend to second guess what you are doing,” Griffin said. “I kinda went in with the mindset that I’m just going to write a song without thinking too much, because in the end that’s just sort of hindering the process.” Details for summer tour in support of Paper Empire are expected to be announced soon.