It’s official: The Amity Affliction will continue without Ahren Stringer in the lineup.
For the first time, the Australia post-hardcore band has issued a statement on its “completely broken down” relationship with Stringer, the talismanic bass player and clean vocalist who has openly battled with substance abuse and mental health issues.
“Ahren will no longer be touring or recording with The Amity Affliction,” reads the message posted Friday night, February 14th to the group’s socials.
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In the message, signed off by continuing band members Joel Birch, Dan Brown and Joe Longobardi, The Amity Affliction insists that the problems are beyond repair.
“We acknowledge that we have all had our fair share of issues over the years. But sadly, over time the relationship between Ahren and the band has completely broken down while he has been dealing with challenging elements of his personal life,” the statement continues.
“The band have had to cancel tours and pass on many opportunities in hopes of supporting Ahren, but moving forward we find it impossible to continue to tolerate certain behaviours that have been directed at ourselves and those close to us. Ahren has made it very clear on numerous occasions that he does not enjoy or want to continue touring.”
It’s a sad split, announced on Valentine’s Day.
For fans tracking the band, those issues have been impossible to ignore. The leadup to the chart-topping Gympie, Queensland act’s 2024 European tour was anything but steady, with Stringer initially insisting he was in the touring camp, when he had earlier been sidelined. It turned out, he was benched.
Both parties spoke on the situation, though the separate versions of events didn’t match up.
Before that, AA and Stringer abruptly parted ways whilst touring North America, with True North’s Tim Beken recruited into the group as cover for their remaining dates.
Stringer dropped a heavy hint last month when he wrote that his solo career was about to get underway. “Way better music and it’s all written by me,” Stringer wrote on social media. “Debut album coming real soon, and by soon I mean real soon.” The 38-year-old musician is credited as co-songwriter and composer on many AA works.
On January 30th, Stringer fired off another missive, pointing out that “I’m not touring with the band I started, ‘the Amity Affliction’. I asked the band to advertise to ya’ll that I ain’t gonna be there. Apologies to everyone that was not communicated by the band.”
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AA is one of the most popular acts in their lane. Last October, The Amity Affliction blasted to No. 7 on the ARIA Albums Chart with Let The Ocean Take Me (Redux), a 10th anniversary re-recorded version. The original spent one week at No. 1 in 2014, one of their four leaders alongside Chasing Ghosts (in 2012), This Could Be Heartbreak (2016) and Misery (2018).
The band is booked for another tour of the United States, a month-long run kicking off February 28th at San Diego’s SOM. Earlier this week, The Amity Affliction was announced to the bill for Darwin’s BASSINTHEGRASS festival, set for May 17th.
Read The Amity Affliction’s full statement below:
