Strangers' Ben Britton On The Importance Of Talking About Depression

It's been a long and arduous wait for the second album from Aussie rock act Strangers. Five years in fact, and much stormy, turbulent water has passed under the proverbial bridge for the four-piece. Frontman Ben Britton joined us recently for a candid face-to-face chat, and gave a glimpse of some of the hardships the band has been through over the last few years that delayed the writing and recording process of Mirrorland.

"It took five years because we had so much shit going on, personally," Britton explains, "we lost a member, he was getting to the point where he didn't want to tour anymore. He was getting married. It's hard to talk about, but we had a death, a family death among us, we had anxiety and depression problems, a heap of shit."

"It's hard to talk about, but we had a death, a family death among us, we had anxiety and depression problems, a heap of shit."

On top of all that, the band had some trouble in their original hometown of Sydney a few years back. "We nearly lost our drummer, he got bashed," he explains, "to the point where, it wasn't touch and go, but he really copped it. He was hospitalised, he's a bit of a tough bugger, he's been hit by a car before. But it was just a bad time, and it took years."

And in addition to all of that, Britton himself had some serious personal issues of his own that he is only now ready to start talking about a little. "I had anxiety and depression shit," he reveals, "at the start of that, I wouldn't really have ever spoken about it, but in this climate I think it's really important to talk about that stuff.

"I don't want to go into specific details, but just to have it out in the open, everyone should not be feeling so ashamed of it anymore. I had to take time off to rebuild, it was a matter of if I was going to [continue] doing this."

The world can be glad that he did, as the new record has finally seen the light of day, and upon initial listens, Mirrorland is worth every minute of the wait. It is an understandably dark, hard-hitting but varied rock album, and early reactions to it have been nothing but positive. Britton is optimistic as to how it will ultimately be received, although it is an optimism tempered by realism.

"We've got some really good feedback on Facebook and stuff," he states, "it's hard to tell with these sorts of things I reckon. Albums take a little while to settle down, sometimes they can take up to a year, or more."

The band has done some excellent touring with some high profile bands such as Dead Letter Circus and Birds Of Tokyo in recent months. At the time of writing, no official dates for a Mirrorland tour have been announced, but according to Britton, that is all to come.

"We're trying to put together a kind of joint thing," he says, "we're just trying to let the album settle in. But it's definitely coming."