Die unerwartete Auflösung von Every Time I Die ließ viele Fans vermutlich mit Fragezeichen zurück, weil beide Seiten nur bedingt erklärten, was genau die Metalcore-Band aus Buffalo, New York nach fast einem Vierteljahrhundert gemeinsamer Geschichte so entzweit hatte, dass es zum endgültigen Bruch kam.
Nun haben sich beide Seiten erneut geäußert. Sänger Keith Buckley, der in dem Streit dem Rest von Every Time I Die gegenüber stand, postete auf Instagram seine Sicht auf die Implosion der Band. Demnach hätten seine ehemaligen Bandkollegen nach dem öffentlichen Twitter-Streit am 3. Dezember keine Kontaktversuche mehr unternommen, bis er am 20. Dezember jenen Anwaltsbrief erhalten habe, der Buckley aufforderte, nicht mehr als Teil der Band öffentlich zu sprechen und die gemeinsamen Geschäfte aufzulösen. Er wiederum habe noch versucht, mit dem Rest zu sprechen, nachdem er mitgehört habe, dass er als Sänger ersetzt werden solle.
Am 5. Januar habe die Band ihm vorgeschlagen, den Namen Every Time I Die zu behalten und ohne die Instrumentalisten weiterzumachen, was Buckley abgelehnt habe. Weil die Band damals ohne Manager gewesen sei, dennoch weiter Tickets für Konzerte verkauft worden seien und der Druck von Promotern größer geworden sei, sich zu äußern, habe Buckley dem Rest der Band am 17. Januar ein Statement geschickt. Dass würde innerhalb von 24 Stunden erscheinen, wenn keine gemeinsamen Gespräche zustande kämen. Daraufhin hätten die Instrumentalisten der Band die Auflösung verkündet. Buckley erläuterte auch, dass die Pandemie ihn zu Veränderungen in seinem Leben bewegt habe und die Band ihm daraufhin wiederholt seine angeschlagene mentale Gesundheit vorgeworfen habe.
Kurz darauf reagierte Bassist Steve Micciche auf Buckleys Statement. Demnach habe Keith seinen Bruder Jordan aus der Band werfen wollen, eine gemeinsame Therapie-Sitzung der beiden hätte das Problem nicht nachhaltig gelöst. Die Band habe auch unterstützt, dass Keith Buckley getrennt von der Band reist, und auf der Tour wenig Alkohol konsumiert, um den trockenen Sänger zu schützen. Es habe seines Wissens auch zu keinem Zeitpunkt irgendwelche Gespräche gegeben, Keith als Sänger zu ersetzen. Nachdem dieser am 3. Dezember seine Pause von der Band verkündet habe, sei er für die Band nicht mehr für ein Gespräch erreichbar gewesen. Das folgende Band-Statement auf Twitter über Keiths mentale Gesundheit sei als Unterstützung des Sängers, nicht als Angriff gemeint gewesen.
In den folgenden Tagen habe Buckley die anderen Musiker in Textnachrichten aufgefordert, sich zwischen ihm und seinem Bruder zu entscheiden und mit dem Ausstieg aus der Band gedroht. Die Weihnachtsshows seien nur passiert, weil die Band auf ausführliche Forderungen von Buckley eingegangen sei. Weil sich der Sänger im Vorfeld der Konzerte online indiskret und rufschädigend verhalten habe, sei die Band zu dem Schluss gekommen, er wolle nicht mit ihnen zusammen die Band fortsetzen.
Schon zuvor hatte Gitarrist Jordan Buckley erklärt, das Anwaltsschreiben an Keith sei lediglich der Versuch gewesen, sich geschäftlich sauber zu trennen und ihm eine Fortsetzung unter gleichem Bandnamen zu ermöglichen. Die vier Instrumentalisten würden zudem die Hoffnung hegen, in Form einer anderen Band gemeinsam weiter zu machen.
Instagram-Post: Keith Buckley schildert seine Sicht der Dinge
Tweet: Einer der ersten Tweets von Bassist Steve Micciche zum Split von Every Time I Die
This band of 20 plus years of hard work, dedication, doing it our own way and with pride was tore down and ripped away in a matter of 4 or so tweets at wee hours of the morning in December of 2021. A band that we were so immensely proud of was reduced to TMZ/soap opera ashes..
Steve Micciche (@MitchBHavin) January 19, 2022
Text: Das gesamte Statement von Steve Micciche im englischsprachigen Original
„This band of 20 plus years of hard work, dedication, doing it our own way and with pride was tore down and ripped away in a matter of 4 or so tweets at wee hours of the morning in December of 2021. A band that we were so immensely proud of was reduced to TMZ/soap opera ashes.. in quite possibly the saddest demise of anything Ive ever seen in my life, and we were a part of it. While Ive been cringing at even the thought of doing this, I am now choosing to stick up for my friends, coworkers, anyone thats ever had a hand in ETID, and myself
Our MGR retired in June. There was a seamless transition to a new MGR who was formerly our day to day point woman. She was incredible at her job so we were all comfortable with her and all 5 agreed to bring her on board. Privately, and behind our backs, Keith made a call to her.. saying he wanted Jordan out of the band. Immediately, an internal rift started. We canceled a live stream event, canceled a video shoot. The band paid for therapy for them. After ONE session, ONE, Keith had convinced the band that he could continue on and keep the band rolling..
after numerous talks about every member being more open, more transparent, we were feeling good about the future. We play a Covid comeback show in Buffalo. We find out from MGMT that Keith was trying to cancel the show even after every single safety precaution was humanly done.. so in full transparency, we got on a group call and asked Keith about it. He immediately called our MGR a liar, she started crying, he hung up the phone. Hung up. No accountability. We awkwardly sweep it under the rug and head into Furnace Fest and the radical release .
The tour started off seemingly well. Until we got 1 week into tour in Omaha. After the set, Jordan walked back on stage after kids were shouting for another song. While backstage I go are we doing this?, Keith replied thats your boy. No, thats all our boy Right there was when I sensed this therapy session did not work. It immediately soured the rest of the tour moving forward for us. This is the band. These 5 guys. Everyone here are boys. Well, whatever we have a tour to do. We march on .
We were in full support of Keith traveling separate. We supported him in ways that I wont disclose, but he knows, he had full support of the band. There was no crazy drinking on this tour. I dont drink on tour. Goose doesnt, Andy doesnt. Jordan maybe 2 & 2 more for stage props Keith was showing up to shows 10 minutes, sometimes 5 minutes before set time, and while I mostly wasnt paying attention due to my own pre show rituals and warm ups, it was casting a reasonable concern as to what if the RV breaks down? I have zero clue what Keith claims to have heard. But there was zero conversation, I mean, zero, about replacing Keith as the singer of ETID. Keith knows that cause Ive told him that personally and via text, NUMEROUS times recently and over the years. He stormed off the stage after the show and refused to talk to..
Andy & myself. We waited. We waited longer. His girlfriend told us Ive been trying to tell him to talk to you guys. Well, we waited longer as she went to get him. Never showed up. We sat there for over an hour waiting. I could tell Andy was defeated and deflated. We all were.. The next morning as we woke up on Dec 3rd, we found out, via twitter, that Keith was leaving the tour. He never told us, never told MGMT. Thats how we found out. Keith sited mental health reasons. So, in full support of Keith like we have always done, we addressed mental health in a statement, wished him well, and hoped to play TTS with him. Also, keeping in line with band history, when Keith has left a tour for whatever reason, we have ALWAYS continued on. With whatever friend we could beg at the time to fulfill any obligations we had.
This time though we didnt even feel it was right to have someone fill in. So, to not disappoint paying ticket holders, the 4 of us agreed to continue on and just have kids come up and sing their favorite songs. Does it suck not having Keith there, absolutely! But what are we supposed to do? We found out via twitter he was leaving and wouldnt talk to us. So we posted that we were gonna do those 3 shows. Well, Keith somehow took that as a personal attack. What followed after that is still shocking to me and quite frankly will never understand it
That statement was not proof of anything. Its what weve always done. Whatever he claimed to hear did not warrant in any way shape or form the slander of a fellow band member publicly nor did it warrant tarnishing the legacy of the band we were all in for over 2 decades We, along with MGMT, the label, booking agent were in absolute shock. While scrambling to decide what to do next, we got word that the 68 tested positive for covid. So we made the decision to cancel the final 3 shows and contemplate the future of TTS
On Saturday, Dec 4th, I called Keith. He didnt answer. So I texted him. He did respond to the text with a if you have anything to say, say it here. He also said I dont trust either of you when referring to Andy and I. Wasnt sure what we did but I looped Andy in on the text Keith led off by saying im not talking, im reading. The main bullet points of this convo are as follows:
His main concern was why Andys g/f unfollowed him on social media and why I laughed at something Jordan said in our dressing room that I dont even remember happening.
He threatened to walk 3 times, let me repeat, 3 times during this convo. He gave Andy and myself an ultimatum to choose him or Jordan. What?? Friends dont give friends ultimatums. He accused Andy and I of allowing physical and emotional abuse towards him via Jordan for 20 years Do you think for a second that Andy and myself would ever allow or stand for anything like that? Were just waiting daily for a healthy dose of abuse to happen and let it slide? Never. Keith said the outcome of TTS happening was in OUR hands! What? You put us here
We came to the agreement to play the Xmas shows for the kids and the bands that traveled. But Im order to do that, we had to meet the demands of Keith: separate dressing room on the other side of the building, a statement saying we apologized although all we originally did was address mental health which is verbatim what Keith tweeted in regards to him leaving the tour, demanded no alcohol in the rest of the bands dressing room even though no one was drinking and Jordan barely was, etc. We play the shows with zero access to Keith. Not one word said..
During that week between the tour and TTS, Keith was accusing Jordan of making fake set lists to hand out to him (never happened), he was blocking us from his social media (only to unblock me on Dec 6th while I was at a Bills game to comment noted) super cryptic and when I texted him to ask him what that meant, he didnt reply. Look, he refused to take the stage any further with Jordan in the band. He dragged the band name over hot coals online for the public to see. Accusing Jordan of wild shit. Leaked private text messages between Jordan and himself in only what I could imagine was some attempt to make Jordan look bad and didnt at all. He threw that legal up some mic drop/dunk attempt that tried to make himself look like he was fired when his own lawyer even knows thats not the case and you can see for yourself its not. Look, at some point, you have to take your own life back. There were completely irrational tweets sent out ruining the thing that EVERYONE in the band built. We read between the lines enough to come to the conclusion that Keith could and would continue without us
So guess what? I know some people dont want the fairy tail ruined, but the band is a business. And the 4 of us rightfully so, were setting boundaries and protecting our interests. Thats it. Thats all that is. And for this to have even gotten to where it is is soooo sad.. I have nothing to lose band wise by posting this other than to stick up for a band member undeservingly slandered and ourselves. The band was already ripped away. I hope everyone understands how much this hurts every single one of us. Our manager QUIT management completely because of this. Take a guess why.
I absolutely appreciate each and every one of you, sincerely from the bottom of my heart, and i will always remember these experiences. I ultimately wish Keith the best and truly hope he does find inner peace and no hate in his heart like he I know what has transpired online over the past month has been confusing, vague, sad, totally out of character, leaving people angry, etc. I know this, because Andy, Jordan, Goose, myself and every single person behind the scene to make ETID go have felt those with you “
Tweet: Jordan Buckley über das Anwaltsschreiben an Keith Buckley und die Zukunft der Ex-Bandmitglieder
That was sent to let him know wed left, and that if he wanted to replace us and continue on like wed been hearing, we were more ok with it, we just wanted it done professionally and legally. Its actually quite smart. But I understand that people will believe whatever they want
jordan buckley (@JordanETID) January 18, 2022
Thats the plan. I hope I never stop getting in a room with these 3 to write rippers
jordan buckley (@JordanETID) January 18, 2022
