Joe Jonas has opened up about the Jonas Brothers' recent split, detailing the screaming match he had with his siblings and confessing the group was "breaking them up as a family".

In October (13), Joe, Nick and Kevin Jonas confirmed they would be parting ways as a band after scrapping their North American tour, and now Joe has opened up about the demise of the group, recalling how a heated argument made him realise how volatile their chemistry had become.

He tells New York Magazine, "The Jonas Brothers' breakup was going on for a lot longer than a lot of people thought. We hit a place where we just weren't jelling on the same things, and we didn't want to become a band that was worried about the fact that people didn't understand how cool we were. The whole situation was breaking us up as a family, and we ultimately felt like we were holding each other back.

"Things came to a head when we had a meeting where we thought we were going to talk about how to release our new music and it ended up shifting into this huge fight. That was the first time we were really honest with one another about a lot of stuff we weren't happy with. The fight got loud. I was screaming."

He continues, "When Nick presented the idea of closing a chapter and moving on, I freaked out. I didn't know whether to pick up and leave or just punch something, because I was furious. I'd spent so long working with my brothers on this band, and in my mind, it felt like we were just giving up. It didn't make sense to me.

"But once I started peeling back the layers, I understood. There were a lot of dysfunctional things going on... It would have been really tough for me to go on a last-hurrah tour. I didn't care about the money; I just wanted to figure out the right, healthy way for us to be good as a family."

The Jonas Brothers were signed as a trio by Columbia Records in 2005 and found fame with Disney movie Camp Rock in 2008, going on to win the Breakthrough Artist title at the American Music Awards later that year.