The rumors behind the LCD Soundsystem reunion have been circulating ever since Consequence of Sound announced that a source had leaked the information to them and were promptly refuted by the band’s label. Now, with the Coachella headlining slot confirmed and a 2016 tour teased, LCD frontman James Murphy has shared a heartfelt letter to the band’s fans, explaining the whole reunion situation and promising a new album from the group soon.

Murphy took to LCD Soundsystem’s website to voice his side of the story in a lengthy post. In it, Murphy talks about having so many songs in his head that he felt it necessary to make an album. Eventually, he called in LCD’s Pat Mahoney and Nancy Whang and decided that a new record with the band was the best route, despite the inevitable fallout from critics and fans (Murphy calls these responses “‘oh fuck that guy’ over-it stuff”).

After apologizing and sympathizing with the LCD fans who feel cheated that the band’s 2011 Madison Square Garden show was supposed to be their final goodbye, Murphy goes on to sum up the group’s plans for their comeback in a way that only he can. Read the end of the letter below, and view the full post here.

in other, more pedantic news: we’re not just playing coachella. we’re playing all over. we’re not just having some reunion tour. we’re releasing a record (sometime this year—still working on it, actually), so this isn’t a victory lap or anything, which wouldn’t be of much interest to us. this is just the bus full of substitute teachers back from their coffee break with new music and the same weird gear—or as much of it as we still have (it’s very interesting to re-buy the same gear, and in some cases buy gear BACK from people you sold it to), and rambling around trying to be louder than everyone else. thank fuck we were never skinny and young. or at least i wasn’t. that always happens with bands… they aren’t fat when they come back, typically, just, i don’t know, thicker. i was lucky to start this band kind of fat and old, so there’s no, like “look how YOUNG they were!” shit to even find on the internet. i mean, we were younger and everything, but we weren’t young, if you know what i mean.

one last note: thank you to everyone who has been absurdly kind to us over the past 14 (!) years. if you have moved on and don’t like us anymore, that’s obviously ok, too. but please, if we ever gave you any joy, just find something new and good that blows you away, and post it on our facebook page or something with, like, “hey fuck you guys! this is the REAL shit!” so we can hear new good stuff. that would be the best for all of us.

It should also be noted that in the comments to this post, Murphy was called out for his label’s response to the original COS article leaking the reunion, and Murphy responded by taking full responsibility for the response, saying the label “had no idea” that the reunion was happening.