Revered Philadelphia indie/pop-punk heroes Modern Baseball have cancelled their impending tour of the United States and announced a hiatus in order to care for their mental health.
The beloved quartet were thrust into the global spotlight in the lead-up to and wake of their lauded third full-length, Holy Ghost (2016), and it appears that the months of constant touring, performing, interviews and other facets of their packed schedule have taken their toll on the members.
In late January, vocalist/guitarist Brendan Lukens announced that he would not be able to join the band on the tour as a result of personal stressors, but that MoBo would nonetheless be pushing ahead with the tour. However, his fellow vocalist and guitarist, Jake Ewald, has now written a heartfelt statement on behalf of the group — who also include drummer Sean Huber and bassist Ian Farmer — about their joint decision to call it quits for a while to convalesce and heal themselves and their friendships.
Posting an image of a series of crisis helpline numbers to the band's Facebook page this morning (AEST), Ewald explained, "Over the past few months, the band has become an immense source of anxiety for me, and it wasn't until I opened up to Sean, Ian and Brendan about it that we realized we were all feeling the same way".
"The project we started as a source of joy and positive expression had become something that was slowly eating away at our mental health and our friendships," Ewald wrote. "We have been championing the importance of mental health for a while now, and we recently realized that it would be wrong for us to ignore our own health any longer."
The band's planned tour was to have kicked off on 17 March in Huntington, New York, and kept them on the road until late April. Refunds are available for the American punters who had bought tickets.
Along with sojourns around the world as part of their weighty worldwide blitz, MoBo had made it down to Australia twice in less than 12 months — once for a headline tour and again as part of December's Falls Festival line-up.
"Please know that we don't take a tour cancellation lightly, and under any other circumstances we would not even consider it an option, but in this instance we have to put our health and friendships first," Ewald continued. "You've supported us unconditionally throughout this crazy ride and we could never thank you enough.
"We never really learned how to do this whole 'rock band' thing the right way, but you kept coming to the shows and talking to us and assuring us that we'd figure it out sooner or later. We could not have done any of this without you. Be honest with those you love and don't be afraid to lean on them when you need to. Odds are they'll need to lean on you pretty soon too."
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