If you’ve ever listened to the indie band Frightened Rabbit, it might not surprise you that frontman Scott Hutchinson knows how depression feels. And recently, that depression manifested itself on Hutchison’s Twitter, where the musician had what he calls “a bit of a meltdown.” In a string of since-deleted tweets, Hutchinson caused fans to fear for both the existence of the band and his own personal health. In a quick five-tweet spree, Hutchinson wrote things like these: “Turns out I’m a complete arsehole,” “I’d urge you to forget about the band, it’s a complete farce,” “Goodbye to Frightened Rabbit.” Nothing ever dies on the internet, and here’s the screengrab:

Since then, Hutchinson has explained the meltdown in a Facebook statement, writing that the band isn’t breaking up and that he’s learned the dangers of “mixing alcohol, depression and social media.” The band has also canceled two upcoming shows, at the Haldern Pop and Rock Am See festivals, both of which are coming to Germany over the next couple of weeks. Here’s the complete text of Hutchinson’s statement:

I will keep this short and to the point, there’s no real need to go into great detail. I had a bit of a meltdown on Saturday, for various reasons. Some of you may have witnessed it, some of you may not have and some of you may not really care, but I said some regretful things on Twitter. I’d like to attempt to set that straight. Sometimes when life goes awry the reaction is to destroy and say “fuck it all” and unfortunately that’s what I did. In spite of this, it’s not the end of our band and (in the sobering light of day) I don’t truly believe the things I said. On the plus side I have a greater appreciation of the pitfalls of mixing alcohol, depression and social media. In case you were in any doubt, it’s a terrible idea. For now, the priority is recovery, so regretfully we have decided to cancel our appearances at Haldern and Rock Am See. Sometimes there are more important things than playing shows and we wouldn’t be pulling out if we didn’t think it was necessary. Lastly, I’m sorry if I caused any alarm. If you have ever been through a low-point in life I’m certain you’ll understand. If you haven’t ever been through the muck, you are a lucky bastard.

Scott

Honestly, it’s surprising that things like this don’t happen more often. Bands’ internal dynamics can be volatile things, and social media has a way of letting us in on things that we should never really know about. It’s good to see that Hutchinson is figuring things out and that the band will continue.