Spiritbox bassist Josh Gilbert is among the many who have lost their homes amid the wildfires raging through the Los Angeles area. Gilbert shared the news last week via an Instagram Story reposted from his wife, Stephanie, in which she wrote that the couple's Wapello Street street home didn't make it.
"I have no words. Heartbroken for all of our neighbours, everything is gone. We haven't made it back to the kitties yet but we will be sheltering in a safe space once we do while we figure out next steps," read the Instagram Story from the Gilberts.
Spiritbox vocalist Courtney LaPlante and guitarist Mike Stringer tell Exclaim! that they too had to evacuate for a few days, but are safe at home again and doing everything they can to support their bandmate.
"[The Gilberts] weren't in town, so they didn't even get to save anything — not one piece of memory or anything," LaPlante says. "Their whole house is gone — everything."
The Gilberts had hired a catsitter while they were away, who saved the couple's cats from the house before it burned down. The family is together and safe once again. "We've just been focused on how to help [Gilbert] and donating a bunch of things to donation centres and just trying to get through it," says Stringer.
Spiritbox's sophomore album, Tsunami Sea, is set to drop March 7, with the band set to start touring in mid-February overseas, before a North American run in April.
"We just want to do whatever [Gilbert] wants to do, and he wants to keep going; he wants to rehearse for the tour, he wants to do music videos, he wants to go on this tour," says LaPlante. "I think he needs normalcy and something positive to do. We're so grateful to him that he still wants to do all this with us, and we're here to support him no matter what he wants to do."
Gilbert is just one of many musicians impacted by the wildfires: Empress Of, Cola's Tim Darcy and DIIV's Zachary Cole Smith are among those who have GoFundMe campaigns to help them recover from the loss of their homes. Many organizations are similarly raising money to help the city and its residents recover from the devastation.
"So many people were impacted here and it's awful," says LaPlante. "I've never had a friend that's gone through this much adversity before. It's so horrible. We're trying to remember that in the future we'll all be grateful that we all prepared for future things together right now and didn't just spiral out of control."
Stay tuned for Exclaim!'s full interview with Spiritbox.