Aaron Stainthorpe spent 35 years as the voice of MY DYING BRIDE, a band he co-founded. He was dismissed in 2025. Speaking to Paul McNamee of The False Face Show, he gave his fullest account yet of how it happened — and made clear he has stopped trying to explain himself.
"That doesn't bother me anymore. I've moved on. Obviously, I was gutted when [it happened]… I mean, it was a misunderstanding, which they don't believe that it is what it is. And I tried to prove that it was a misunderstanding. They weren't interested. So I think they wanted me out — I don't know why — a long time before that. Anyway, it happened. I was heartbroken. I couldn't believe it."
His other band, HIGH PARASITE, caught him on the way down. Then keyboardist Mark Deeks approached him about singing MY DYING BRIDE songs again, "so I thought, 'Okay, it's not necessarily over, me and MY DYING BRIDE music.'"
He is not interested in a public fight. "I don't care what they say about me now… If they wanna spout some bullshit, well, that would be the measure of those people. I'm not getting into any online spat because you will just bury yourself if you do that… By kicking me out, they showed their cards. If they want to continue to beat me, that's absolutely fine. But I think the more people who see that will realize what kind of a band they've turned into."
Asked how long the split had been coming, he recalled an old exchange with co-founding guitarist Andrew Craighan. "I remember years ago, Andrew would say to me, 'Look, if you're gonna leave, at least give us plenty of notice.' 'I've no intentions of leaving. What are you talking about?' I would never leave MY DYING BRIDE, and I said that right till the end, which is why they had to kick me out."
What replaced it is TOWARDS THE SINISTER: Stainthorpe with founding MY DYING BRIDE members Calvin Robertshaw and Rick Miah, original bassist Ade Jackson, plus Chris Revett, Deeks and violinist Emma Allington. The remit is strictly the first four albums and the EPs around them — "As The Flower Withers", "Turn Loose The Swans", "The Angel And The Dark River" and "Like Gods Of The Sun" — because, as he puts it, the others "weren't involved in writing anything after that, and they're not interested in playing anything they didn't help write."
Warm-up shows in England come first, European festivals next summer. Response so far: "nothing but positive."
Source: blabbermouth.net