There’s many reasons why a musician might leave a band. Whether it boils down to personal issues, exhaustion, other ventures, or overall dissatisfaction, the decision to leave your band and often your close friends is never made lightly or because of just one issue.
In the case of Amity Affliction’s co-founder and former guitarist Troy Brady, it was a mix of physical exhaustion, dissatisfaction with life on the road, and a run-in with the law which tragically made the guitarist a liability to the band’s international aspirations.
“This band was my heart and soul and I couldn’t have put anything more into it, literally,” he recently told The Music Network. Since leaving the hit-making metalcore outfit, Brady has been hard at work on launching his new record label and an upcoming musical project.
“It was a decision which solely wasn’t mine,” he said of his decision to quit the band, whose last album went Number 1 on the ARIA Chart and whose international profile is rapidly rising. “It was something that we had to come to terms with on a personal and a business level.”
Forming in 2003, The Amity Affliction’s rise was swift. They released four well-received albums and began a diligent touring schedule which saw them playing around Australia and overseas year in, year out, with Brady there every step of the way.
As The Music Network notes, it was the guitarist’s total devotion to the band he helped form that forced him to walk away. After a decade on the road, Brady was struggling with the life of a travelling musician. By 2014, he’d worn away the cartilage in his ankles and knees.
As he travelled from city to city, his fear of flying was wreaking havoc on his nervous system. “My body was tired, traveling had become exhausting for me and everyone had grown aware of that,” said Brady. “I think at times I was unpleasant to travel with.”
Compounding this was a marijuana charge pressed back in 2003, the year the band formed. This meant that crossing US borders was now a bureaucratic nightmare involving Homeland Security escorts and long-winded routes as he entered America from different avenues.
During the band’s last tour, Brady’s petition for a US visa was under review and he and the band quickly realised he wouldn’t tour the US again. Brady spent his last six years in The Amity Affliction as both a crucial member beloved by fans and a liability to his bandmates.
[include_post id=”448832″]
“Not being able to tour America and having the band play at least 75 percent of the shows in America, it was a serious issue,” said Brady. “There were certain unfortunate things that happened with The Amity Affliction.”
“It was a career where certain tours don’t do as well and you end up with financial deficits. Music is taxed so hard it’s hard to keep up and make sure you’re above board.” Indeed, Amity frontman Joel Birch once tweeted about his dissatisfaction with a label mate’s bigger budget, writing, “Fuck you Roadrunner. Money for nothing.”
Since leaving one of Australia’s most successful bands, Brady has set to work on launching his own record label, Elevnth Records, which he’s described as an artist’s label. Acts retain full ownership of their music and have the freedom to curate their own release campaigns.
“For me, realising it’s not that complicated a process was really exciting,” said Brady shortly after the launch. “To just put the pieces together and make all that work at the end… to give artists good recordings and realistic situations and to be able to facilitate them however they need.”
“The last six months have been very reflective […] For me this is a decision that if I had kept on my path, I may not have made. For me, this is a really good and healthy evolution.” He’ll be slowly unveiling more info about the label, including its roster, throughout the coming months via the Elevnth Records YouTube page.
