The Amity Affliction bass player Ahren Stringer is now permanently out of the band.
The Queensland band has had ongoing issues with Stringer dating back to 24 May 2024 when they announced he would no longer be participating in the North American tour.
We are aware our fans have been waiting for us to comment on the situation between Ahren and the band.
In September 2024 Stringer announced he would be taking a hiatus from the band. That was expanded in January 2025 when it was announced he would no longer be touring with The Amity Affliction in the foreseeable future.
That all came to a head on Friday 14 February when it was announced that Stringer was out of the band and that The Amity Affliction would continue was a three piece.
The split will make an interesting case as Stringer and singer Joel Birch were the only two early members around since the first album ‘Severed Ties’ in 2008. Dan Brown, the current lead guitarist joined in 2013 and Joe Longobardi on drums joined in 2018. How this spilt takes place financially is likely going to be controlled by lawyers.
The band issued the following statement:
This will be our only statement.
We have been choosing to stay silent until now, as we wanted to handle this privately with respect to all involved. Unfortunately, it has become clear to us that this is no longer possible and we owe it to you, our fans, to comment.
Ahren will no longer be touring or recording with The Amity Affliction.
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 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.
We still have a lot to give as a band and we’re excited to continue touring and sharing new music with you. We also understand that we need to prove ourselves to you all, and thank you for sticking with us.
The music we’ve created with Ahren will forever bind us and we are thankful for the good times we had together. We wish Ahren all the best in his personal and professional future.
We look forward to seeing you all on tour.
Joel, Dan and Joe
In a further statement Joel Birch posted:
I’m extremely disappointed that I even have to write this, but here we are. I find the sharing of my personal life online to be disgusting and so this will only be a short post, I won’t be discussing anything about anyone else but myself, it’s not who I am.
Nine years ago almost to the day I was confronted by my ugliness in the grips of alcoholism. I chose to seek therapy over the course of the next couple of years, spend a year in Alcoholics Anonymous, and completely turn my life around and stop drinking. I am still an alcoholic. I still can’t drink, but the person I left behind nine years ago is not the person I am now.
Alcoholism is soul destroying, but there is always a hard choice to be made when you are facing down your addiction, and I made that hard choice and changed my life for the better.
That’s it. I won’t be saying another word about anything or anyone, I know who I am, as do my friends who have watched me grow into a much better person than I was while drinking. Thank you in advance for understanding.
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