Metal Anarchy

Asking Alexandria’s Danny Worsnop recently made headlines after discussing his lack of involvement in the group’s business matters. Now, the frontman has further clarified his role in the band, while shooting down claims suggesting the he doesn’t care about it.

Worsnop said the following:

“I notice a lot that online, and perhaps outside the internet, there’s become the general understanding or consensus as to what my feelings and perhaps priorities are with Asking Alexandria, and I understand to an extent how those conclusions were reached, because it’s often cited from replies to comments, or just small things here and there, namely regarding my involvement in the band in an official capacity or a business capacity, and often my personal non-enjoyment of the early record.

And I think I understand how you could see that and only that, and come to that conclusion. But unfortunately, they’re correct and accurate responses to kind of the only time it’s brought up in conversation. Because outside of the people who are coming to be negative or argue or make an accusation, that they are responses to, and they’re not necessarily negative — sometimes it’s just a concern or a curiosity. But I understand how you take that and go, ‘Well, it’s clear to see that he doesn’t care’, or ‘he doesn’t like it’ or whatever the other conclusions are.

So I just wanted to offer a different perspective because I think you guys only get to see one side of it because only one side of it’s ever brought up…

Asking Alexandria has been an enormously large part of my life, and I’ve loved most of it. There isn’t a single person in the band that can say they loved all of it, because we’ve been through some very trying and tough times. There have been moments where it has not been fun for each and for all of us. But it’s something I love, and I love them, and I love what we’ve created, and I love what we’ve built, and I love what we’ve been allowed to do as a job for our entire adult lives. It’s over half of my life at this point, and it’s a giant part of it. There isn’t a day that goes by that, in some way, shape, or form, I’m not telling a story from it, or thinking about it, or reflecting on it, both past, present, and future. Future.

In regards to my not being an official member or involved in the business, that was a byproduct of when I left the band, which was for personal reasons. And while I’m not going to get into those, because they’re personal… I’ve dug into a little bit over the years. You have to find that. But I never bought a part of the business back, and I don’t think there’s a net positive for anyone in me doing that, I don’t have, in terms of the business operation, I don’t have a vote. I don’t have a piece of it. I don’t have involvement in that, and I’m busy as it is with a multitude of different things.

Some public, some not, and it’s just more things that I have to a study up on during make very important business decisions, or at least weigh in on very important business decisions. On the people who are not massive fans of me and think I’m trying to do something, in some direction with the band, shouldn’t be like that because I don’t get to control that….

I mean, now you have four people voting. Ben [Bruce, former guitarist/vocalist] also doesn’t. Now you have four people voting. If me and Cameron [Liddell, guitarist], or me and Sam [Bettley, bassist], or me and James [Cassells, drummer] vote one way, and the other two vote another way. Now we’re to a stalemate.

Now they get to just decide things and figure out what they want for the band, what they want to do, where they want to go, how they want to operate, and I think that’s good. I’m more than happy to trust in their judgment of what they want to do. It isn’t a sign of me not liking the band, not loving the band, not having any passion for the band. It’s that’s purely a business arrangement.

And I think at the end of the day, I love playing music with my friends, and that’s what’s important. The way the band operates shouldn’t really shift people’s opinion of it or feelings towards it in one way or another, I don’t think. But I want to go on record and say I do love Asking Alexandria and I love the guys and I love playing music with them.

And I know I’ve had a couple weird years. I’ve had to live them, and I’ve had to live them outside of the 75-minute show. I’ve had to be inside the bigger picture of those years. And I’ve no desire to get pity, understanding, or anything at all from that. That’s just… I am aware.

That said, I suppose that transitions into the I don’t scream anymore [argument]. I don’t. I have no desire to. I don’t wish to downplay anyone’s enjoyment of it. I don’t wish to make anyone else not enjoy it. I don’t want to make anyone feel bad for not enjoying it. I don’t want anyone to think I don’t think they should because everyone likes what they like, and I love that.

I love that we can all have different tastes, different different things that we love, different things that we’re passionate about. That is just something I don’t enjoy. I spent a great amount of time in my life damaging my voice doing it. I don’t enjoy doing it. I don’t like doing it. I don’t like the way it sounds. I don’t like the way it feels. I reached a point where I was sacrificing doing the thing I love to do, which is singing, for the sake of something I don’t like doing.

Yes, there’s the argument of like, ‘Well, couldn’t you learn how to do it right and make sure that you’re not doing that damage?’ Yes, but then that kind of goes back into, I don’t like doing it. I also don’t think it represents who I am, or it translates what I’m trying to say in my music. I think it takes away from what I’m trying to say and what I have to say.

So it’s just not a part of me. And it hurts my feelings a bit — less for myself — more for just the world and how inhumane we seem to be right now, where that isn’t okay. It isn’t okay for me to choose to not do something that I don’t like doing because I should have to do it anyway because you want me to do it, and I don’t think that’s fair.

And I see the argument of of people being like, ‘Well, then they should find someone who will’, and if that’s what they want to do, that’s okay. I’m not going to be upset with them. I’m not. There would be no hard feelings. But based off our conversation as friends, not as people on the internet, we love playing music together. I don’t write their music. I didn’t have a massive involvement in the last album. There’s more to that.

Where I started writing, I wrote two songs on it. I wrote ‘Where Do We Go From Here?‘, which was originally supposed to be for my record, and they they wanted to put that song on there, and I said, ‘Absolutely, it’s yours.’

And I wrote ‘Things Could Be Different‘, but then it turned a lot into everything I was writing in that period of my life. It was just a lot of divorce stuff, and I didn’t want it to be a divorce album. I didn’t think it should be a divorce album, so I suggested, I was like, ‘maybe we get some outside help with this’, because I don’t think what I’m writing right now is appropriate for the band, and we did.

They they were reluctant at first, but we did it, and we got the album out of it, and hopefully some, or many of you, or all of you, loved that album. But my interest at any point in time has been to present musically what I think and what I believe to be best for the band, and what their vision is and what their goal is with a record at each step of the way.

All the way to the point where we’ve talked about doing heavier songs and bringing people in to do those screaming things. I was like, ‘Listen, I don’t do that, and that won’t be me. But we can stack this thing with guest vocalists and do it, and we’ll see what the future holds.’

…But I just wanted to go on record and just clear that air, because there’s a lot of speculation as to me thinking it’s just a job or a money grab. And I don’t know if you guys are familiar with the inner workings of the heavier rock side of the music industry, but it doesn’t pay that crazy.

I do a lot of things, and Asking Alexandria is one of them, and it’s one that I love. But no one’s retiring off it…

But yeah, I just wanted to clear that up because I think there’s a lot of speculation as to what my relationship with the band and the music is, and I wanted to clear it up because it’s very frustrating, and I try to respond with grace and try to explain things. And I understand that you can’t read the tone of someone’s voice, and perhaps sometimes the way I type sounds, like I’m being being aggressive or dismissive. Or maybe it reads empty, and that isn’t how I type it. I’m generally just trying to explain to people what the answer to their question was.

…I’m not the band. I have no control in that business. It’s generally, ‘Well you made the band do this’, and the answer says, ‘I didn’t.’ I’m actually not a part of that, or a part of it at all… We’ve compromised 10 million times during the course of the band’s career. We will continue to do so. I’m sure there have been many times where they have done stuff to make me happy, I have done things to make them happy. They’ve done things they don’t want to do. I’ve done things I don’t want to do. It’s with every single thing.

That is the nature of making music with anyone other than just yourself. …You compromise and you find things, and sometimes you like one thing better. Sometimes they like one thing better, and you kind of got to decide through as you go, but that’s all that to say. I’m not dismissive of of the band. I love the band. I’m very appreciative for it. I’m very thankful for everything it’s provided me, and I’m very thankful for everything I’ve been able to provide for it and for them, and see what the future holds.

The band isn’t doing anything right now. That again, is not a me decision. I agree with it. I think a little bit of time away is good for everyone. A little bit of a breather, a little bit of a break. It’s been a very, very long time, and everyone deserves to just breathe for a minute, and yeah, that’s all I wanted to say.

Because people seem to think I don’t care, and I do. And yeah, a lot of negativity and accusations just kind of get in my head… Me and the band, and we talked about it many times. And I’ve told them a million times. And when I see it online, it always makes me think. I’m like, ‘I hope I hope that they don’t think that as well.’

And I don’t believe they do, because we’ve talked about it a million times. But yeah, it bums me out because these are my friends and it’s something we built together, and I understand where conclusions can be jumped to, but yep, just setting the record straight.”

He also added:

“I don’t talk about AA business very much on here, there’s a separate account for that, same as they don’t talk very much about DW business on theirs. I just wanted to clear up some speculations and stress that I love them and the band and most definitely do not consider it to be a cash grab or a day-job. It is ONE of the many things I do, and I am very grateful for it.

That said, it doesn’t define who I am as a person or an artist, nor does it for any member of the band. I just wish and pray that people would allow me, them, and any other artist the grace to pursue and explore their passions regardless of how near or far they are from what that particular fan enjoys from them.”

[via The PRP]