PWR BTTM Lose Touring Members, Management, Opening Bands Amid Sexual Abuse Controversy
Yesterday, allegations against PWR BTTM’s Ben Hopkins, accusing Hopkins of sexual abuse and anti-Semitism, made their way across the internet. The band responded with a statement, saying “these allegations are shocking to us and we take them very seriously,” and “the alleged behavior is not representative of who Ben is.” Since then, two touring members of PWR BTTM, Cameron West and Nicholas Cummins, have distanced themselves from the band, and T-Rextasy, Nnamdi Ogbonnaya, Tancred, iji, and Ratboys, who were scheduled to open for PWR BTTM on upcoming tours, have pulled out of the shows. They have also been dropped by their management company, Salty Artist Management.
PWR BTTM’s record release show, set to take place tonight at Rough Trade in Brooklyn, has been cancelled. (Their new album Pageant is out today.) The band have also been removed from the lineup for Hopscotch Festival. Pitchfork has reached out to PWR BTTM’s representatives for comment.
The original allegations against Hopkins were made by a person who claims to have “personally seen” Hopkins “initiate inappropriate sexual contact with people despite several ‘nos’ and without warning or consent.” The accuser also shared a photo of Hopkins posing next to a swastika symbol on a beach, which Hopkins had previously addressed in December 2016.
Salty Artist Management posted the following statement:
As Brooklyn Vegan points out, last night, West, who has been playing with PWR BTTM, posted on Facebook to announce he was “ending [his] tenure with the band.” West said he was “shocked” by the allegations. “From my understanding, these accusations were in fact levied via e-mail months ago, but were left unshared with other members of the band, including myself.”
Cummins wrote on Twitter:
I’ll say what I told Ben; while I will never dispose of them as a human, I fully believe all accusations that came up today. Regardless of their intent it’s clear that multiple people had their boundaries crossed. that’s incredibly unacceptable and needs to be acknowledged… I am deeply horrified by the thought of any role I may have played in doing harm to those people when playing with that band. All I can do is hope that the band does the right thing and pursues accountability in an honest and transparent way.
Find Cummins’ tweets here.
T-Rextasy also issued a statement on Twitter about why they were pulling out of the PWR BTTM tour. They said:
We wish we could say these allegations come as a complete surprise, but that is not the truth. Around the time we agreed to a July tour w PWR BTTM, someone came to us privately + warned us that they had these experiences w Ben. They asked us not to share them publicly. At the time we felt we should continue w the tour. We did not want to out the person who had had come to us in confidence. We feared that ducking out of a tour offer with no excuse would damage our professional relationships, many connected very personally to PWR BTTM. This in no way excuses us from culpability. We were scared and confused but we were also selfish. We made a mistake supporting this band. We put our career above the safety of fans who have trusted us and supported us and there’s no way for us to remedy that.
See the full statement here.
Nnamdi Ogbonnaya wrote the following on Facebook:
Tancred wrote:
— Jess Abbott (@tancredjess) May 12, 2017
iji commented:
Friends, iji band has decided to drop off the #PwrBttm tour in support of the people coming forward about the bands abusive behavior.
— iji (@zachfromiji) May 12, 2017
Hopscotch wrote:
Our statement regarding the removal of PWR BTTM from the Hopscotch 2017 lineup: pic.twitter.com/z6GjPzClNu
— Hopscotch Music Fest (@hopscotchfest) May 12, 2017
Ratboys’ Julia Steiner said:
When contacted by Pitchfork, representatives for T-Rextasy and Nnamdi Ogbonnaya said they had no further comment.
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