The Amity Affliction Postpone European Tour To Work On Mental Health

The Amity Affliction have announced the postponement of their forthcoming European tour. The group explained in a statement that the dates have been pushed back so that multiple members can “seek help for their mental health.”

The announcement was made approximately one month before the Queensland band were scheduled to begin a lengthy tour of the UK and Europe. “For anyone who has been following our band over the past 18 years it will come as no surprise that we as a band have had ongoing struggles with our mental health,” they wrote.

The Amity Affliction members seek mental health care

“We have never cancelled a tour. Ever,” said the band’s lead vocalist Joel Birch. “We have played almost dead, we have played crippled, we have played when I have been close to killing myself, and not once have we ever pumped the brakes when we definitely should have.”

The band, who are currently in the midst of a tour of the US, explained that while they had committed to the extended run of shows, they now realise they couldn’t “consciously embark safely” on both tours.

“Some members of the band need to seek help for their mental health, issues that were only compounded during the worst of Covid,” said the band’s statement. “We are at a point where if we were to force them to continue our European tour as it stands, directly after the US tour, we would risk having to face a situation far worse than a cancelled tour, and that’s not a risk we are willing – nor should anyone be willing – to take.”

Elsewhere in their statement, the group took the opportunity to once again shine a light on the music industry itself, underlining the impact of the extreme expectations and “brutal” schedules artists are forced to adhere to.

“Sadly, within the music industry – and indeed the larger entertainment and hospitality industries within which we coexist – the schedules that artists are expected to keep maintaining to remain relevant are brutal,” The Amity Affliction said. “This has created a culture and an atmosphere that almost rewards abuse, which leads to extremely poor mental health issues that mostly roll on disregarded.

“The music industry is a behemoth that moves on without the artists it spits out, and so if we were to ignore this situation and abandon the love we have for our friends, EXPECTING them to embark on a timeline of touring that would very likely destroy them and us, life would go on, just not for us. Not for our band. Not for all the people who love them, and not for you, our extremely loyal and beloved fans.”

The group – who are on the lineup for this year’s Good Things festival – concluded the statement by noting that their forthcoming European dates would move to the start of 2023, before hinting towards a busy couple of years, including the arrival of a new album and tenth anniversary celebrations for 2014’s Let The Ocean Take Me.

“We want to make sure we are moving into the next two years the strongest we can possibly be as a band, and that means that we need to be prescient and acknowledge that acting pre-emptively instead of reacting to possible tragedy is the right thing to do,” they added.