Spiritbox guitarist Mike Stringer has pushed back against a lingering assumption from their detractors that the alternative metal band were ‘manufactured’ by the music industry. If you’re not familiar with their catalog, it was the group’s explosive single “Holy Roller“, released back in July of 2020, that put the Canadian alternative metal band on the map.
While that song sparked off a meteoric rise for the outfit, its timing of arriving smack-dab in the middle of the pandemic proved to be a double-edged sword. The success of that track and the material that followed ultimately afforded the group the luxury of skipping some of the more grueling touring activities associated with being a younger band.
However, according to Stringer, the pandemic also didn’t do Spiritbox any financial favors, instead putting them $30,000 in debt. Speaking with Guitar World, Stringer described how the pandemic nearly put the band on ice just as their career began to heat up:
“We had a song out that people really liked, and everyone was excited we were going to play shows. Then the pandemic shut everything down and we had to pay 30 grand to come home overnight because there was a travel ban. We had no money and I went into major debt.
When we got home I said to Courtney, ‘Well, it looks like we’re done here because we can’t tour and now we’re going to have to figure out how to pay this money off.’”
Now only two albums into their career, the outfit have racked up two GRAMMY Award nominations, collaborated with multi-platinum rap star Megan Thee Stallion, and have landed coveted support slots on numerous tours for metal and hard rock luminaries.
They’ve also had no shortage of criticism and haters, in part thanks to a long-running feud with Falling In Reverse‘s Ronnie Radke. Speaking to Guitar World, Stringer pushed back against the narrative that his band aren’t an authentic creation, offering:
“It’s so funny that a lot of people think we came out of nowhere and were manufactured by the music industry to make them loads of money. That would probably be one of the worst investments from any company, ever.
If you think of how long it has taken to get this band off the ground, it has been such a slow-moving process, and after 12 years playing in bands, we’ve finally gotten to the point where we can pay rent.”
Stringer and his wife, Spiritbox vocalist Courtney LaPlante, of course didn’t get to skip paying their dues playing dives and cramming into the van entirely at least. The pair did previously endure the trials of the road during their time as part of defunct mathcore outfit iwrestledrbearonce.
However, it would appear that Spiritbox essentially leapfrogging their way a few rungs up the billing thanks to the pandemic has taken some time to process. Speaking of that with the above-mentioned publication, Stringer shared:
“It’s very weird. The band gained a lot of popularity when we couldn’t go out and play music. For years, everything happened behind the scenes. We’ve only recently been hitting it hard and touring.
I sometimes get freaked out when I look out at the audience and all these people are singing along. It’s so bizarre. It’s like we existed in this big blank space of uncertainty, and then all of a sudden it was, ‘Wow, look what happened!’ We’re here now and we have to continue to strike while the iron is hot.”
The group are currently supporting their newly released sophomore album “Tsunami Sea“, which just opened at #26 on the Billboard 200, shifting 22,000 album equivalent units during its first week of availability. 16,000 units of that sum has been attributed to album sales, 10,000 of which were of vinyl copies of the record. The band’s immediate touring plans can be found below.
With Loathe & Dying Wish:
04/03 Dallas, TX – South Side Ballroom
04/04 San Antonio, TX – Boeing Center at Tech Port
04/05 Houston, TX – Bayou Music Center
04/07 Atlanta, GA – Coca-Cola Roxy
04/08 Orlando, FL – Hard Rock Live
04/11 Washington, DC – MGM National Harbor
04/12 Pittsburgh, PA – UPMC Events Center
04/14 Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore
04/15 Montclair, NJ – The Wellmont Theater
04/18 New York, NY – Hammerstein Ballroom
04/19 Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall at Fenway
04/21 Montreal, QC – M TELUS (no GEL)
04/23 Toronto, ON – Great Canadian Casino
04/25 Chicago, IL – Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
04/26 Madison, WI – The Sylvee
04/27 Grand Rapids, MI – GLC Live at 20 Monroe
04/29 St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
04/30 Des Moines, IA – Vibrant Music Hall
05/02 Denver, CO – Fillmore Auditorium
05/03 Salt Lake City, UT – The Complex
05/06 Vancouver, BC – PNE Forum
05/07 Tacoma, WA – Temple Theatre
05/09 San Francisco, CA – The Masonic
05/10 Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium (no GEL)
Spiritbox:
06/06 Nurnberg, GER – Rock im Park
06/07 Nurburg, GER – Rock am Ring
06/10 Leipzig, GER – Arena Leipzig
06/11 Nickelsdorf, AUT – Nova Rock
06/11-14 Hradec Kralove, CZE – Rock For People
06/12-14 Interlaken, SWI – Greenfield Festival
06/15 Derby, UK – Download Festival
06/20 Clisson, FRA – Hellfest Open Air
06/21 Dessel, BEL – Graspop Metal Meeting
06/24 Milano, ITA – Ippodromo Snai La Maura
06/26 Arnhem, NET – GelreDome (with Linkin Park)
06/28 London, UK – Wembley Stadium (with Linkin Park and JPEGMAFIA)
07/04 Milwaukee, WI – American Family Insurance Amphitheater (‘Summerfest‘)
