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"Changing, re-recording, touring" - The Amity Affliction interview



Thanks to Concerto Music, I had the opportunity to conduct an interview about the Parkway Drive concert in Budapest (November 8, 2025) and talk a little via video chat with Joel Birch, the co-lead singer of the tours opening band, The Amity Affliction. Among other things, I asked about the album Let The Ocean Take Me Redux, about Jonathan Reeves who replaces co-lead singer and bassist Ahren Stringer and about the fall tour.
 
Rockbook Rockmagazin: Your album, Let The Ocean Take Me became 10 years old this year, which you updated and re-released as the Redux album. Why did you decide to take this step?
 
Joel Birch: To be honest, the main reason was because we were on a major label when we did that album. I can't be superspecific, but they basically took close to 90% of that money. They did that for a period of years and that was our biggest album and to be honest, all the sales and all the streams and everything like that, not had much of an impact. You get to a certain point when you start wondering where the fuck is the money and you know like, you had so much success… That was the first thought to try and put it out independently because they fucked up their contract basically so we found a way that we could do it legally. 
 
And then, we've been playing these songs for 10 years live and they don't sound as good live as the other songs do. And so then we got to fixing things that we didn't fix and that we missed because we were a much younger band. Mostly just small things musically and different sort of electronic parts of the music. And then for me, I am never happy with how I sound on a record. I really wanted to re-record it just to have some better vocals which I think I did successfully. It really became a project of trying to be better at what we've already done.
 
 
Rockbook Rockmagazin: Did the result live up to your expectations?
 
Joel Birch: I think so and it went above it. I was expecting the usual hate that comes with it. Your band puts stuff out and that's not exactly how it used to be and people react negatively to it, but this time it was overwhelmingly positive. So I mean, it exceeded my expectations to that. 
 
Rockbook Rockmagazin: What was the reaction from your fans? Do they like this version more or the original one?
 
Joel Birch: I think there's place for both of them and it seems to work out. They have a place for the original one, how it was and they like the modernized version of what we've done this time. It's made the launching much better because now we have the same kind of sound throughout the whole set, without having newer songs that sound much more full.
 
 
Rockbook Rockmagazin: The lyrics, which were written by you 10 years ago, deal with quite serious topics. How did it feel to re-record each song?
 
Joel Birch: I get asked about this quite a bit, about how it feels to record stuff. It's so removed from the emotion of the song. It just becomes like a machine, I mean, I sing it line by line. So by the time I'm in the studio I'm not even reading what I've written. It's just like making sounds out of breaths, saying the words 70 times that I sometimes stop wondering like ,,It's that a real fucking word??" I said it so many times I'm not even sure that's a word. It kind of takes the emotion out of it. But I think performing the album live from start to finish was a little bit of an unexpected emotional hurdle. You know, it's pretty special. It's interesting to reflect on the lyrics. There's a lot of naivity there. It's a whole album of writing about not drinking in the night and I was drinking within months of finishing recording.
 
Rockbook Rockmagazin: What do you think, which of your songs can the fans connect to the most?
 
Joel Birch: Well, we were a little bit surprised. I mean it's been one of my favorite songs off the album since we did it, but the song My Father's Son. We'd never played it live and when we did, I was like ,,What the fuck?!" laugh I was really, really shocked. But outside of that I think Pittsburgh obviously is the one that resonated with most people. We see lots of Pittsburgh tattoos and hear lots of stories about how people discovered the band with it. Which is cool, you know? It's pretty special to put something out into the world that has sort of resonated with tens and thousands of people. And often it seems like it has helped a lot of people through some dark times. I have to say Pittsburgh.
 
 
Rockbook Rockmagazin: How has the band changed from personal and musical perspective over these years?
 
Joel Birch: I mean we've gotten older obviously. I stopped drinking nearly 9 years ago. There's a lot less drinking in the whole band, the partying for most of us stopped. And then we've just became more mature I guess. I mean maturities as artists and how we have a much more clear sort of picture of who we are as a band and what we want to get out of it. I guess it's strange because we never set any goals when we were younger. We just did it like... We just didn't care. I didn't give a shit. I didn't think I'd be doing it very long so I just didn't care. I was like whatever, I'm touring, I'm drinking, I'm partying whatever cause it's gonna be fucking done soon, and then that was like 10 years ago. laugh You know, I'm still doing it. Things definitely change and that's to be expected with a band. Some people grow with it and some people don't, and that's just how it is.
 
Rockbook Rockmagazin: For the known reasons, as we did several times this year we will see Jonathan Reeves sharing the stage with you next year as well. Why was he chosen as the singer, bassist for the band?
 
Joel Birch: We were in a panicked situation where we needed a singer. We were at a point with Ahren when we thought we were gonna wake up and he would be dead. We didn't want that to happen. It was just too much. It was taking a tone on everyone, you know, and touring was taking a tone on him. He hates touring and it's not good for him, so yeah, we sent him home for health reasons. Obviously, it caused trouble and we stayed pretty quiet about it and we'll continue to. That's his life. Whatever he wants to put out there, that's his choice, but it's not our place to be out there sharing anything about it, you know what I mean?
 
We were in that position and we got this other kid and he was cool, but he just was like, I don't know... He's like a real sweetheart. He was cool, but we didn't sort of feel like he'd fit and then our other friend couldn't do the whole tour in America. When it comes to Jon our friends were like ,,Try this guy, like he's really good!" So he came and he did the first show and we were just like ,,Oh fuck!" He's good, he's chill, he fits in with the band like straightaway. We all got along straightway. And here we are, he'll be joining us in the future.
 
Rockbook Rockmagazin: What is it like working with him?
 
Joel Birch: A breeze. It is so easy.
 
Rockbook Rockmagazin: Do you have any special rituals that you do before every performance?
 
Joel Birch: I don't actually. Look, to be perfectly honest a lot of the time when I go on stage I just come in the back door from somewhere else. Then I put my ears in and walk on the stage. Maybe that's my ritual. I don't have anything else that I can really think about.
 
 
Rockbook Rockmagazin: This summer in Hungary, you performed at Akvárium Klub, and next November you will perform at MVM Dome. What's the biggest difference when it comes to preparing for a club or a stadium concert?
 
Joel Birch: Believe it or not, the stadium concert will be less stressful because it's a Parkway Drive show and we don't really have to worry. laugh
 
The show we just did in Budapest was fucking insane. I think I said something on stage and I think I posted about that I really don't know why we haven't been going back there. We will be back in 2026 a 100%. As far as preparation goes, no, not much different, just less stressful.
 
Rockbook Rockmagazin: Obviously, every band is close to their fans but what makes your audience special?
 
Joel Birch: Every band gets all negative people online like talking shit and trolling and whatever. All that comes with it. I also get super positive and supportive feedback from the beautiful people we’re surrounded with. They're not asking for a response or anything, they just reach out and tell me how our songs turned their lives around and that's pretty special. I don't know if that happens to everyone. I'm sure it does, but I don't feel any different than anyone. I don't put myself above others when it comes to this.
 
That's when I realise that I am doing something positive. That's like helping people and that's pretty cool. I've been doing it for a long time and it just feels pretty normal to me. I think we have really beautiful fans for the most part. I think that they're very inclusive. I know it from talking to a lot of them. A lot of them had tough times socially with people and then they come to our shows and they find like a community and everyone sort of pulse together and support each other. I love that. They're pretty beautiful fans, we're very very lucky!
 
 
Rockbook Rockmagazin: What setlist will you prepare for the fall tour? Will we hear a best of selection?
 
Joel Birch: It will be all the heaviest songs we have. That's it. laugh The heaviest set we can possibly put together, which will sound not very heavy compared to Parkway and Thy Art, but it will be the best we can do.
 
Rockbook Rockmagazin: Why are you the opening band since your ,,numbers" are bigger than Thy Art Is Murder's? 
 
Joel Birch: They did a tour in Europe recently that was bigger than our tour in Europe. These things are like... You're not gonna get very far in music, if you attach everything to your ego. Some bands would say no, like ,,No, we're not supporting that band, we're bigger than them”. They did a tour that was bigger than ours while we were organizing this and we don't have an ego. The tour’s gonna be amazing. I'd rather be on an amazing tour than you know, feel some strange ego thing. And we like Thy Art Is Murder, they're our friends so it's not a big deal.
 
They are playing in the stadium, we are playing in the stadium and we both open to Parkway Drive. I think it would be foolish to make a choice based on like ,,Uhh, I feel like my band's bigger..." Their tour was bigger than ours, so that's fine. It's music, it does this, maybe by then we'll be bigger than them, maybe not. It doesn't really matter.
 
 
Nóri Matyi-Szabó