Why Do My Favorite Bands Keep Breaking Up?

Call it whatever you want, breakup, time off, a break, something’s happening out there.

• Walk The Moon
• SWMRS
• FIDLAR
• Catfish And The Bottlemen
• Life In Film
• Mainland
• Weathers

This is a list of some of my all time favorite bands that should be in the prime of their careers right now. FIDLAR is probably the only one that could even be argued is in their prime, and I do like the new tunes fellas! Mainland and Weathers are still touring, but (in my opinion) have fallen way off the radar.

SWMRS barely survived a scandal where the now ex-drummer was allegedly dating and abusive towards an underrage girl. After years off they’re trying a comeback of sorts, but the magic just isn’t there. Life In Film disappeared after one of the most brilliant indie debute albums in some time. Catfish’s drummer and guitarist just quit and there’s been zero word since.

FIDLAR, as I said, are still a band, and I like the new tunes! But guitarist Elvis Kuehn recently left, and his songwriting prowess is certainly missing from the new music if you ask me.

Lastly, Walk The Moon, one of the most influential bands on teenage me, has announced a “hibernation” that feels pretty permanent based on the tone and emotional delivery from frontman Nick Petricca.

So where am I going with all of this?

It’s HARD AS FUCK to be a musician right now. Not that I would know, personally I got a PhD instead of trying (though sometimes I wish I had). But what I do know is that all of these bands “made it”. They had big singles, most even had big albums. Yet things went off the rails somewhere along the way.

No one could have predicted the SWMRS drummer being a dick, that was his fault. And apparently the beloved bassist from Walk The Moon Kevin Ray was not exactly well behaved either. Those guys seemed to have fucked up. While I’m glad both members out of the band, there’s no denying these bands lost a piece of them with the rightful departure of original members.

The SWMRS story really hurts too, because I thought they were going to be the next Clash.

Scandals aside, my point is that you need to support your favorite bands now more than ever. They only make money if they tour, so they tour a lot. More touring puts more stress on them, their families, relationships, and even inter-band relationships. Plus, there’s not a ton of motivation (financially speaking) for them to record and put out a ton of music. I’m not pointing to stress as the cause of Ray or Armstrong’s alleged behavior, I’m simply stating that the other bands without scandals must feel intense stress for the record.

Some of these bands may have another peak again, some may fizzle out. Either way, there’s clearly a lot going on out there, and as a music fan, do your best to A) keep concerts safe and welcoming for everyone, and B) keep these bands funded, happy, healthy, and hopefully making more music!

Realistically I know that buying a T shirt or ordering their vinyl won’t magically fix the problems that plague these bands. But hopefully this illustrates how turbulent the musical landscape is right now. For so many reasons, a mega hit song isn’t even enough to keep you afloat, and shitty behavior is not going to be brushed under the rug.

This is probably a pointless article, and I was expecting to have a review of the Tom DeLonge Strat up today, but we can thank Fed Ex’s late delivery of my new guitar for that!

But if there’s anything to take away from this, it’s that indie punk rock bands seem to have shorter lives than you’d think these days, even when they made quite the impact. I wish all these bands (except for the abusive SWMRS drummer Armstrong, and WTM bassist Ray) the best and hope they’re enjoying new phases of their lives. But it kind of sucks right now, feels like there’s just no continuity within these alt scenes.

If Destroy Boys, Wet Leg, Saint Motel, or Young The Giant go down next I’m not gonna be pleased!