One of Australia’s most successful rock exports, the Grammy-winning trio Wolfmother, has been torn apart by “longstanding frictions,” according to a statement published on the group’s Web site on Thursday.
Bass/keyboard player Chris Ross and drummer Myles Heskett have resigned, while singer/guitarist Andrew Stockdale plans to find other musicians and begin making a new Wolfmother album.
“Please understand that in spite of their best efforts over a long period of time, they just could not find a harmonious way to work together,” the statement said.
Wolfmother’s self-titled debut album, released in 2006, sold more than 500,000 copies in the United States, powered by radio airplay for the songs “Woman” and “Joker and the Thief.”
The group won a Grammy in the hard rock category last year, becoming the first Australian band to pick up the music industry’s top honors since Men at Work in 1983.
However, all was evidently not well behind the scenes.
According to the statement, Ross decided he would quit the band because of “irreconcilable personal and music differences” following a show in the eastern Australian town of Byron Bay on
Sunday. Heskett also decided to leave rather than continuing as part of a changed lineup.
The pair had been working together on songs for some time and plan to focus their energies on that new project, the statement said.
