Confessions: Ahren Stringer, The Amity Affliction

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ARRESTED?

“Many times. Back in the day, I’d get arrested for peeing in public almost every weekend. The first time I got arrested was for wielding a shifter – which is like a long spanner – down the main street of Gympie [in Queensland, Australia]. It was a street fight between my friends and some others. I was a bit of a dickhead back then.”/o:p

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE DRINK?

“Jameson. It’s so sweet, but it’s such a nice whiskey – it can do some damage, though!”

WHAT’S THE WORST DECISION YOU’VE MADE WHILE DRUNK?

“This morning I woke up and walked downstairs to go to the toilet, and I thought, ‘Why is this step wet?’ Joel [Birch, singer] was asleep in his clothes in a chair, so I instantly thought, ‘Oh, it’s probably piss. Cool.’ I’ve pissed myself in the van loads of times. Back when we toured in vans in Australia, I woke up, like, ‘Oh, I’ve pissed myself again’ and was stuck in there for two hours.”/o:p

EVER GOT TATTOOED WHILE DRUNK?

“The other day my mate got his stick’n’poke kit out and, ’cause we’d just got a gold record, he tried to write ‘gold’ on my leg, but it looks like ‘solo’… so that was pretty dumb.”

WHAT’S YOUR LEAST FAVOURITE DRUG?

“Probably weed. I don’t smoke it, although I always talk about it online to make people think I do, to be funny. I don’t like how it makes me feel paranoid and how it makes me overthink everything. I occasionally have one puff when I’m drunk, then I pass out. I’m not a wake-and-bake kinda guy.”

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR MOST EXTRAVAGANT PURCHASE?

“I went crazy on eBay recently and bought every single Ninja Turtle figure in mint condition and boxed from the 80s and 90s – I’ve got this shrine in my room with all these Ikea bookcases. I also buy taxidermy birds, and I’ve got a taxidermy buck head above my bed. I bought a bobcat in America recently. JJ [Peters], the singer of Deez Nuts, who I live with, doesn’t take too kindly to it ’cause he’s vegan.”

WHAT’S THE WORST INJURY YOU’VE EVER SUFFERED?

“I broke my big toe once; that was the only time I’ve broken a bone. I tried to say goodbye to my girlfriend at the time, and I was very nervous and I hopped up onto a ledge, but it had been raining, so I slipped and fucked my foot up, and then had to do the walk of shame to the bus! It hurt my ego more than my toe.”/o:p

**HAVE YOU HAD ANY EXPERIENCES WITH GROUPIES? **

“The last thing I want to do when I get off the bus is get mobbed by 30 girls. I just want to head into the venue and take a shit. If I stop to take a photo with a girl, they just keep coming. I’ve just woken up, look like shit and just want to empty my bowels.”

WHEN WERE YOU LAST STARSTRUCK?

“I saw Chester Bennington when we played Soundwave [in 2013], and I got a selfie with him, which was crazy. Linkin Park were the first mainstream heavy band I ever heard, on an Australian music TV channel called Channel [V] – it was childhood shit! I met [hip hop artist] Yelawolf once, too, and couldn’t really speak.”

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU GOT INTO A FIGHT?

“One time after a show in Brisbane, five or six years ago, a kid in the front row kept pulling my mic back and it kept smacking me in the mouth when I was singing – so after the show I went out back and punched him in the face. He was doing it on purpose, and it was fucking pissing me off.”

DO YOU HAVE ANY PHOBIAS?

“Dying, I guess. Snakes are pretty fucking terrifying, though – especially in Australia when they’re really poisonous and can kill you with one bite. Joel actually got bitten on the hand by a spider and almost died. That was in his sleep, which is when they get you. As a kid, I lived in the bush and there were king brown snakes, the most poisonous snake in Australia, and they were all around our property. I watched dad put a shovel a few, which is how it’s done in Australia – see a snake, grab a shovel.”

WHAT DO YOU WANT WRITTEN ON YOUR TOMBSTONE?

“I want to be cremated, then have someone carry my ashes through the street and ‘accidentally’ trip and throw them into a police officer’s face. That’s my dying wish.”

LET THE OCEAN TAKE ME IS OUT NOW VIA ROADRUNNER/o:p

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