In a recent interview with The Guardian, members of British metalcore outfit Architects talked about the band’s forthcoming new album “The Sky, the Earth & All Between” (out February 28th), as well as various other facets of their career and current outlook.
Among the topics to come up was their infamous January 2024 incident, in which the band’s guitarist/vocalist Adam Christianson was called out for having reshared controversially divisive transphobic content on social media. While Christianson would quickly apologize for the incident, blaming it as a “complete all-thumbs moment”, backlash against the group ensued on social media.
Complicating the situation was the subsequent further scrutiny into Christianson‘s social media profile, which found him previously liking other divisive content regarding transgender identity. As calls for Christianson to be fired grew louder, the band instead put on a unified front, with Carter saying onstage in Paris, France soon afterwards:
“No one on this stage judges anybody for their gender, their race, and whoever they are in love with. We never have, we never will. That is not what this band stands for. And that is not what this band will ever stand for. We love every single one of you.”
Reflecting on that now over a year removed in this aforementioned new interview, drummer Dan Searle stated:
“They wanted Adam crucified in the street, with no job. Anything less than that would be an act of blatant transphobia.”
As it turns out, Carter was initially one of those who took a stance against Christianson, stating:
“I was a mess. I was thinking: he has to go. And then he wakes up and we have a phone conversation. He’s my friend who picked me up off the floor when I was in bits crying about Tom; he’s a stepdad of two kids; he’s a saint. But you’ve drawn this picture up of him. [The internet] is such a fucking scary place.”
Speaking on the initial reaction he received his own onstage comments mentioned above, Carter added: “…I got dragged for that! The right were angry with me. You can’t win.”
When it was pointed out by The Guardian that Christianson‘s explanation was complicated by his history of liking posts related to other divisive content, including posts attributed to the ‘freedom convoy’ anti-vax protest that took place in Christianson‘s native Canada, Searle responded:
“What if it is supportive? The brother of a good friend of ours in Canada had their bank balance frozen because he’d liked something on Facebook about the convoy. Do we really think that’s good? That’s not the world we want to live in.”
