Modern Baseball To “Take A Break” For Their Mental Health

February 22, 2017

Modern Baseball are taking a hiatus to focus on improving their mental health.

In an open letter on Facebook, guitarist Jake Ewald has poured his heart out to fans, explaining that band life has taken its toll on everyone:

“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,” he writes. “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.”

The American punks, who toured Australia twice last year and only recently wrapped up a stint at Falls Festival, have decided to cancel all of their upcoming US tour dates and festival appearances and “take a break” away from the band.

“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,” Jake writes, adding that mental health has always been an important issue for MB.

“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,” he continues.

“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.”

The band haven’t specified how long they reckon their break will last, but we’re wishing them all the best and looking forward to having them back soon.

Catch pics from their headlining show at Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory last year — and read Jake’s full statement — below.

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