STATEMENT FROM THE COSMIC DEAD
Recently one of our band members was accused on social media by a former partner of being emotionally abusive. This has left us feeling the need for self-reflection.
The former partner has published intimate details of their experience of the relationship on social media, and we need to acknowledge it was a hard read, but we did read it, and we have heard it. The post also included information about our band member's mental health. The decision to publish these details was made as part of one person's healing journey, and we hope it has provided solace. Our colleague is taking a hiatus from the band to process the accusation, revisit some of their behaviours and seek support for their mental health recovery.
It is hard when someone you have known for many years is accused of something that does not match your experience of them, but we have to acknowledge that we simply don’t know what happened within the relationship. We have struggled to consider what would be an effective, fair and compassionate response. We might not get it right, but we do want to meet this moment.
We do not condone abuse of any kind, we believe that we are motivated towards a more progressive society and we have a zero tolerance policy of behaviours that are exploitative or abusive. We have read a lot of associated social media posts about safe spaces within music. We hope that this painful situation could be a catalyst for some deep contemplation into wider systemic issues within the music scene. We all, as a community, need to hold ourselves to account about what part we play in those systems.
We as a group of individuals, and as a band are taking some time out to ask ourselves some difficult questions. The band will be taking a break from live activities until 2021 to do this work in private and wont comment publicly. We don’t want to do it in a void and would appreciate the wisdom of others. If you want to have some dialogue or reach out please contact us via
thecosmicdead@gmail.com