I, the Breather’s Morgan Wright on Surviving Their Last Tour
Christian metal band I, The Breather never back down or give up. While on tour this past month, the band endured multiple seemingly disastrous van breakdowns, including one on Easter Sunday. However, as drummer Morgan Wright recently told Noisecreep, the band persevered and successfully finished their tour with Upon a Burning Body.
"Our van problems began after our show in Little Rock, Arkansas," Wright said. "We had been driving all night to reach our next stop of the tour in Prattville, Alabama. Early that morning, I began my drive shift. Not even 30 minutes into my shift, I'm startled by our trailer tire blowing smoke out of it. I immediately pulled over on the shoulder so we could figure out was going on. Our trailer tire's wheel bearing blew out, leaving the trailer incapable of being driven."
While a tire blowout is not an uncommon occurrence for a touring band, the breakdown happened on Easter Sunday when nothing was open. "It wouldn't be worth us calling a tow truck driver, since due to it being Easter, we couldn't get it serviced anywhere," Wright said. "The spot we broke down in was in the middle of nowhere and all of the places we wanted to get it fixed at were 10 miles or further away. With our trailer tire still busted, we drove on the shoulder 10 miles up the road at about 10 mph until we reached a gas station. We were officially stranded. We stayed at the gas station until the next day, when we called and called trailer places until one agreed to come out and service our tire."
Stranded at a gas station is not an ideal way to spend Easter, but the band soldiered on. However, the rest of the tour was not without its problem. "Following that, we were in Florida at the venue Rocketown," Wright said. "We had just gotten done with our photo shoot and [vocalist] Shawn [Spann] needed to take the van about 20 miles to go and pick up his brother. Everything was going so great; we were enjoying ourselves having a great day, catching up with the rest of the tour package since we had missed two days previously. The show began and Shawn still wasn't back from getting his brother. I then receive a call from Shawn saying that he had broken down alongside the highway."
"I was devastated and so discouraged. It was our time to go on stage and Shawn wasn't there, our van was broken down, and I had no hope of us finishing out the tour. Luckily, with us having great friends in Florida, I had my friend and his girlfriend go pick Shawn up and get him back to the venue. The Color Morale was so nice and understanding about the situation that they played before us that night. Shawn finally returned mid-way through their set and told us what happened. The van just shut off on him, forcing him to pull over on the side of the road. Turns out the oil change we received from Walmart wasn't done properly by the mechanic, causing all of our oil to spew out the van and leaving the van stranded once again."
I, The Breather documented the whole shebang with a video. "The video captures what it was like for us to go through these moments and shows how we handled each situation," Wright said. "It was a very tough time for us, and we questioned whether or not we would finish the tour. But we stayed strong and realized it was important for us to play in front of our fans and gain new fans. All the kids who came out to any of the shows on this tour kept us going. Also all the bands, they rallied us and kept our morale high when they were low. Definitely one of the best tours I've ever been a part of."
I, The Breather will spend their summer touring with Norma Jean, Sleeping Giant, and The Chariot on the Scream the Prayer tour.
Watch a video of 'A Day in the Life' of I, The Breather
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