Larkin Grimm Releases Song Dedicated to Abuse Survivors, in Wake of Michael Gira Accusations

Photo via Larkin Grimm’s Bandcamp

Singer/songwriter Larkin Grimm has released a new song called “I Don’t Believe.” “This song was written for all the survivors of abuse. You are not alone,” she wrote on the song’s Bandcamp page.

Last week, Grimm wrote a Facebook post claiming that Swans frontman Michael Gira raped her in spring 2008, when she was recording her album Parplar for Gira’s Young God label. In her post, she said she confronted Gira and he then dropped her from his label. Gira called Grimm’s accusations “a slanderous lie” on his personal Facebook page. Later, in an official statement through his publicist, Gira refered to the incident as “an awkward mistake,” describing it as a “consensual romantic moment that fortunately was not consummated.” In her own statement, Grimm responded to Gira: “This is your truth as you remember it. Unfortunately, this was still rape.”

Here are the lyrics to “I Don’t Believe”:

I don’t believe you ever could be 
So like those men around you. 
So hungry. 

I don’t believe you ever think about it 
But you remember words like they were more than music. 

I don’t believe you could ever be that way 
Addicted to the pleasure, the things that people say. 
I wrote this poem for you on your birthday, 
Your mother read the poem 
And said it couldn’t be you 
Nothing so beautiful 
Could come from something I made. 
I don’t believe you. 

I don’t believe you 
You hear your mother cry 
I wish that I could die 
I wish that you would die too 
So I could play outside 
I could be free with you. 
I don’t believe you. 

I don’t believe you need to think about it 
But you remember words like they were more than music. 
You hear the words I’m speaking as more than poetry.

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