Anberlin - Vega (August 2, 2024) • Page 3

Stephen went into details about the band's initial break up and how much he was responsible for it in the first place. Paraphrasing but he talked about how once he got his first kid, being constantly away from his family and missing so many milestones were getting tougher to handle. It was hard to bring that up to the rest of the guys, childless at the time, as the main reason for him wanting to stop.

Because of that, he felt like whenever he was, he was making someone upset. Ie. If he was back home with his family, he felt like he was disappointing his bandmates and the entire crew who relied on him/the band income wise (he said something akin to "I had 16 mouths to feed" at some point). If he was on tour, he felt like he was disappointing his family instead. It was a lot of pressure on his shoulders and 2013 was the point where it all blew up for him. Once he made the decision to step away from Anberlin, he said something like "I'm giving you one last year" to the guys. He sounded regretful about that statement as he then wasn't able to be totally present mentally and so, live performances aside, he turned out to be miserable during their final tour.

As for how they got back together, I didn't pay as much attention to that part of the podcast but if I remember well, it was a lot due to timing (ie. getting the initial offer to open for Underoath), him moving back to Florida (if I understood well), and wanting to step back on stage for his kids, the latter of whom were curious to see a side of him they hadn't come across of yet. The fact the other guys started becoming fathers in the meantime helped them reconcile the bittersweet feelings that surrounded that 2013-2014 period and also helped them understand Stephen's POV more. From the first show back together, they pretty much started operating on a "let's do what we want, free from any label pressures or anything" motto. It organically led to more activity and then to new material.

I'm probably forgetting some important stuff that helps contextualise all this, as well as other side topics that were brought up, but that's the gist of it for the main one.

 

terrible

 

this is certainly a choice.

 

So what I’m gathering is that Stephen is about to break up the band again with his politics? (kidding, kinda)

 

more like Stephen Conservative Christian amiright

 

A lot of times I wonder how Cities-era Stephen would react to someone from the future telling him "you're gonna release a cheeseball worship album one day"

 

kinda think i'm done with them. not telling anyone what to think but there's too many red flags here adding up to one ugly-ass picture

 

The inability to speak up against, or remove themselves (like Relient K did) from the Watashi Wa album, plus now playing with them... Extremely disappointing

 

Personally, I don't think I could pass up an Anberlin + Acceptance show, even with the opening act.

Just step out or show up late or be loudly vocal in your support of human rights.

 

Or, hear me out, stay at home and put on one of their records instead and know you aren't literally putting money in the pockets of people who have harmful views as well as the folks who support them.

 

Yeah, I mean... I live 15 minutes from that venue and I'm content staying home

 

it's really sad how 4/5 members seem like reasonable people/folks not caught up in all the sociocultural bullshit that plagues Evangelical Christianity, and yet somehow they all seem cool with the 5th member clinging to some of the worst elements of it (or just don't feel like speaking out). it's incredibly rare, but you can be an Evangelical pastor and still not be an ass. as a longtime Anberlin fan, i'm always down to hear new stuff, but as a former Evangelical and gay man, i can't help but feel disappointed every time i think about how embedded in its toxic elements Stephen is, and how the other 4 members don't seem bothered by it for the sake of "brotherhood".

 

OOTL, what happened?

 

genuinely curious, are there others than what are being brought up in this thread?

 

It’s all mostly been deleted from Twitter now after Seth from Watashi Wa/Lakes/Eager Seas got called out, primarily by the folks here on Chorus. Dude has been posting homophobic/transphobic/racist/sexist shit for a few years now. Once he got found out, he CURIOUSLY, deleted every incriminating tweet and then locked up his profile tight. You can start here in the Eager Seas thread and read through from there to get a pretty good idea of what it was:

Eager Seas - Mine As Well (2018) • Page 2 • forum.chorus.fm

 

He also DM'd me on Facebook asking me to call him to talk about it, I'm not kidding you

 

Can confirm. Steve showed me the message and oh my goddddddd.

 

10 years of Vital today (and 9 years of Devotion yesterday). i was a senior in high school when Vital dropped. crazy how time passes.

 

Yooooo

 

LFG!!!!!

 

im hyped. caaaaaaan't wait!

 

Does anyone know why there's two "releases" of this on Spotify? Usually I only see that when there's an explicit version and a censored version of an album, but I don't think that's the case here :)

 

Wish I could still get excited about this band, but all of the stuff from the last year or so has soured them for me.

 

What stuff? The EP?