London post-punk band Black Country, New Road are releasing their second album, Ants From Up There, this Friday, 4th February. However, days out from the album’s release, vocalist and lead guitarist, Isaac Wood, has announced his immediate departure from the band.
Wood broke the news in a statement shared on social media.
“Hello everyone, I have bad news which is that I have been feeling sad and afraid too,” he wrote. “And I have tried to make this not true but it is the kind of sad and afraid feeling that makes it hard to play guitar and sing at the same time.”
He continued: “Together we have been writing songs and then performing them, which at times has been an incredible doing, but more now everything happens that I am feeling not so great and it means from now I won’t be a member of the group anymore.”
Wood clarified that his decision has nothing to do with intra-band conflicts. “This is completely in spite of six of the greatest people I know, who were and are wonderful in a sparkling way,” he wrote. “It has been a great pleasure and I would like to say the words ‘THANK YOU’ to everyone.”
The band has cancelled all of its upcoming UK and US tour dates, but the remaining six members promise to press on without Wood. “The rest of us will be continuing to make music together as Black Country, New Road,” they said. “In fact, we’ve already started working on it.”
Ants From Up There arrives exactly 12 months the band’s debut album, For the First Time, which was nominated for the 2021 Mercury Music Prize.
