The Neighbourhood are addressing the return of Brandon Fried as their drummer.
The band originally fired the 35-year-old musician following sexual assault allegations from The Marias‘ singer Maria Zardoya, who said he groped her under a table.
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With their comeback this year following a hiatus, The Neighbourhood recently spoke out in an interview with Apple’s Zane Lowe about why he was invited back into the band.
“I think from our perspective, we’ve seen genuine growth and change in the last few years with Brandon,” Zach Abels said.
Bringing him back wasn’t a snap decision, I think, for us. We definitely knew the type of reaction we were going to receive….but from our perspective, we’ve seen genuine change. And although that doesn’t excuse anything, we still believe that he deserves a second chance and an opportunity that he’s better.”
Brandon then spoke to the situation himself.
“When you hit rock bottom like I did, and something happens like that, there is kind of a crossroads where you’re at a point where you could either keep going deeper and find a deeper bottom, or you can try to climb your way out of it. Luckily through support of friends and family and these guys, I was able to kind of put my head down and just get into the work of bettering myself and showing everyone that I’m not the person that type of event kind of defined me as,” Brandon said.
“Being back here with the guys and even making the record was such a therapeutic way…for all of us, dealing with this and trying to climb our way out of it and start a new chapter and I feel really really strong about it.”
When prompted to ask what led them to invite Brandon back into the band, Jesse Rutherford went on to explain: “It’s challenging and it’s it’s so deep. I grew up without a parent because of alcoholism, and it’s just something that I’ve always really fought against in my life, and really had…beef with, just the whole idea of it. And kind of similar what Zach said, it’s not an excuse, but I do believe it’s a big part of the reason of why everything happened the way it did…it just feels like this whole situation is a thing that we just have to live with.”
“Similarly to what Zach said, like Brandon…I’ve known him since I was 15 years old. I met him in biology class. This is…my favorite version of Brandon that I’ve ever known. I think the the reason we’re all here today together too and the reason we’re doing the band again is because it’s something that we could really all believe in,” he said.
“And I feel like it’s really hard to keep hope and belief in general right now….when we’re with each other, I know it’s real. And I know that, these guys are just this is what we have and and we love each other and we’re going to stand by each other no matter what. Brandon has went through what he’s went through, but we’ve all went through a lot in the past couple years and that’s not maybe known or things aren’t out there, but you know, relationships have ended. Family members have gotten ill and dealt with their drug and addiction problems. So, you know, this is kind of…it’s one of those real life-changing moments that we, whether we like it or not, we’re in it together.” Watch above.
The band recently just announced a world tour for 2026.
