The Amity Affliction truly needs no introduction to Australian audiences. For nearly two decades the band has produced world-class, mosh friendly metalcore, taking their breakdowns and catchy hooks from backcountry Australia to the world stage.
However, as frontman Joel Birch tells us, they’ve never lost sight of where they came from, as evidenced by the bands’ recently completed regional tour, which saw them playing country centers around the entire nation.
“It’s cool for us – it’s sort of a trip down memory lane” muses Birch, taking the time to chat whilst juggling toddler duties.
“When we started out we did a lot of regional touring, just so we could stay on the road. We’ve stopped in every possible location from Cairns to Melbourne, to Loxton – we’ve spent a lot of time in regional Australia and it’s something that we like to do every few years.”
The Amity Affliction – ‘Drag The Lake’
While Australia certainly doesn’t offer the level of audience that can be found across continental Europe or America, playing the smaller ‘fly-over’ towns of the country only strengthens the imprint of metal – something Birch himself is acutely aware of.
“I’ve spoken to our manager about this – we hope that doing runs like that, the stuff Northlane do, Polaris can probably do it as well – I hope that bands doing it opens up the market more”, he says.
“I hope then international bands do it as well – I don’t see why we can’t push for international acts to do that kind of stuff, or something similar.”
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Read: Amity Affliction and Underoath interview each other
With the platform the band has carved out for themselves, they’re certainly leading by example when it comes to putting in the hard yards – something that’s set to continue to with the band’s new LP Everyone Loves You…Once You Leave Them, a record on which the band proclaims marks their rediscovery of their love for heavy music.
“We did a full cycle of Misery, and realised it was more fun playing the heavier, faster stuff”, laughs Joel.
“We love it (Misery) – most bands at that point in their career want to give something a crack – we took all the good things from it that worked for us, and applied that to the new record, along with the previous parts of our style that worked. We’ve found a much better balance, and I reckon next time we’ll refine it even more.”
So what can fans expect will make a reappearance this time around? For one thing, don’t expect to hear Birch cracking out any clean vocal lines.
“I don’t think that I need to be singing,” says Birch bluntly. It’s good we tried it, I’m glad we did it, it’s nice to know I can hold a tune, but when you have Ahren Stringer in the band – after so many years of listening to Ahren night after night, I just sound like a weird version of him – he calls it ‘bizarro – Ahren.’
Amity return to their heavy roots with the lead single All My Friends Are Dead
It’s not just the performance of the bands trademark clean lines that are solely Ahren’s domain now, with Birch noting that the band has now clearly compartmentalised their writing process.
“Dan (guitar) is a really prolific song-writer, and Ahren – that’s his gift, putting melodies over the music and making it super catchy straight off the bat.
“He’s also really good at putting my lyrics to the songs – I don’t know how he does it, but he listens to a demo and finds the right one straight away.”
“As for me, I write here and there – I mainly write on the road, because when I’m at home I’m pretty content – I have my family and my toddler that you can hear in the background. Also, writing with a toddler is fairly impossible!”
Check out these amazing photos of Amity’s huge stage show
Being in one of the world’s most heavily touring acts whilst balancing fatherhood duties is no doubt a stressful hand of cards for anyone – but as Birch notes, becoming a father is literally a life-saver.
“It’s made me much more aware of the future and has been really grounding for me. It’s helped me to not kill myself, as dark as that sounds” he says.
“My family is counting on me, so it’s overwhelmingly a positive experience. It makes going away much harder, but coming home all the more rewarding.”
With another huge batch of dates imminent, it’s no doubt going to be a stressful but exhilarating 2020 for Amity.
With the surge in biopics and documentaries about life on the road (see: Parkway Drive) we close our interview by asking whether we might see a new Amity road doco in the future.
“I’d be keen on it, but Ahren doesn’t think people will care. I did say though that when you’re not in the situation it’s very interesting.”
It’s hard to think what could be more interesting than a sneak peek inside the life of one of Australia’s biggest heavy exports – but for now, at least we have a new record to keep us happy.
Everybody Loves You…Once You Leave Them drops February 21st. Check out new single Soak Me In Bleach below.
The Amity Affliction – ‘Soak Me In Bleach’
