On their new album, 'Misery', The Amity Affliction take their first brave steps in a new, sonic direction.
Vocalist and songwriter, Joel Birch explains how he and the band made a deliberate effort to step out of their comfort zone and create a new chapter in their continuing story. “I know we wanted to make the transition from where we were at into something we were a bit more comfortable with,” Joel says.
“We're growing older; this is my 16th year doing [The Amity Affliction] and as you grow older you want your music to mature with you, and I feel like it's not the formula but the way we approached things in the past – we were trying to better our previous album but within the same set of sounds.
“This time we wanted to push ourselves to do something in a new direction and still have it tasteful and not be crazy. Stick to our core style, but engage a little bit more with music that we listen to as well.”
Both musically and thematically dense, 'Misery' is the first departure away from the standard sound of The Amity Affliction and marks a particularly dark period in Joel's personal life. “For me it's probably the hardest album I've done,” Joel says.
“I was diagnosed fairly soon after finishing recording [this album] with bipolar, which was nice, but explains a lot. For me it was a pretty tortured process and I'm really happy with it. I think it's going to be a nice surprise for people; not a rude shock, not the same old music but just a nice surprise.”
After recording five albums over the past decade, Joel says the motivation to break away from their established sound arose in part from having become too complacent with the writing and recording process.
“We went overseas again because we felt we were getting too comfortable at home recording and we just approached it completely differently,” he says.
“We went in and did the pre-production all together, which we haven't done in a while.”
To enact the change they wanted to see in the band, producer Matt Squire was enlisted to help guide The Amity Affliction through unchartered terrain. “[Matt] said he's the guy labels go to when they don't know what to do with a band or the band wants to change,” Joel says.
“He certainly helped us with that. He didn't do too much – we don't really let producers f... with our music so much – but he did help restructure a few parts and add in a lot of the electronic stuff because Dan [Brown, guitarist] and I have written that in the past and we felt like it was time to hand the wheel over to someone who knew what they were doing a bit more.”
'Misery' opens with lead single and veritable punch-in-the-face 'Ivy (Doomsday)', which is accompanied by an equally harrowing video written and co-directed by Joel as part one of a video triptych depicting a classically dark and typically Australian tale of violence and revenge.
“I wanted to do a short film project with Dan for a lot of years now but it's not something we've a. had the budget for, b. had the time for or c. really had the music for,” Joel says.
“This time with the music being a departure from our usual sound I felt like the music videos didn't have to have anything to do with the music. I got to writing and this is what came out; I think it's a pretty good take on where I stand and where the rest of the band stand in regards to sexual violence.
“Being Australian we've had to really pander to Americans in the past to push our name over [t]here and get the recognition; this time we just wanted to be absolutely Australian. This is who we are: we're an Australian band and these are very Australian film clips.”
Perhaps no other country on Earth celebrates its criminal history like Australia, with tales of bushrangers, bank robbers and stand-over men forming an integral part of our cultural psyche and identity, not to mention the fact we're largely descended from convicts.
“There's a folklore relationship between Australians and the criminal myth; going for the underdog, no matter what they've done,” Joel says.
“Whether it be glorifying Chopper Read or the father-and-son duo [Gino & Mark Stocco] who were on the run in Australia for eight years... there's always some, albeit false, mysticism surrounding these characters. I wanted that to be a part of the music videos and just push the Australian tradition of celebrating criminals,” he laughs.
With The Amity Affliction moving on in terms of sound and style, they've also put behind them the departure of drummer Ryan Burt back in February and are now just the trio of Joel, Ahren Stringer and Dan Brown.
“I don't want it to be too curt an answer but it didn't really have an impact on us, certainly not musically,” Joel says of Ryan leaving the group.
“Ryan was an amazing drummer… but towards the end his heart wasn't really in it, and for numerous reasons it wasn't working out and it was time for us to move on.
“I don't think where we were headed he was committed to heading that way and that's not any fault of his own. Dealing with what he was dealing with, it just wasn't conducive to moving forwards. It's the right decision for all of us.”
Coming two years after their last album 'This Could Be Heartbreak', 'Misery' is a significant addition to The Amity Affliction’s back catalogue and a record Joel believes will be worth the two-year wait. “Of all the albums we want to surprise people with, this would be it,” he says.
“It's worth the wait this time. I always think it's worth the wait for our music, but this one especially is a very special record for us.”
