A rock band made up primarily of performers with autism has a message for present and future fans.
"We don't want people to feel bad or sorry about us 'cause we're autistic," one member says in a new mini-documentary about the band. "We want people to come to our gigs and enjoy the music. You can also head-bang if you like."
Ladies and gentlemen, we give you The AutistiX, billed by the Guardian as "the UK’s premier autistic rock group."
According to the band's website, The AutistiX formed in 2010 and now consist of three core members with autism: Jack Beaven-Duggan, 20, on electric guitar, Luke Steels, 18, on bass, and Saul Zur-Szpiro, 22, on drums.
The video above, directed by Dean Puckett, follows the lads on their first real tour, culminating with a performance this year at a concert called "Autism's Got Talent." The AutistiX play all kinds of venues and sometimes perform charity gigs for the National Autistic Society, their website says.
As the documentary shows, The AutistiX play hard rock, with much of the songwriting done by Beaven-Duggan. The film shows him working on a song called "Feeling Stupid," about the judgments the trio must confront. But he also explores romantic yearning. His song "I Guess I'll See You" spotlights daydreaming about girls, he says.
In the song below, "Just The Same," written by Steels, the performers sing about inclusion. "I wrote the song to show that we’re just the same as everyone else," Steels told the youth-empowerment site Fixers.org. "We’re no different."
Rock on, lads.
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