WEIRD TIME: MUSIC, PANDEMIC, AND SEXUAL MISCONDUCT
Never in our mind we thought that last March was the last time we could live a normal life. We are currently sitting at home waiting for this to at least getting better, which is also scary because there is no idea when. The new year was pretty much fine and exciting before WWIII issues came out, flood sank Jakarta, severe forest fire happened in Australia. We were so excited to watch Foals live for the first time in Jakarta. Throughout their career, the band never visited Indonesia. Now, the idea of listening their tracks come to live was almost like a dream come true, not forget to mention that their last two albums are highly praised.
Not all tickets sold out that fast though, in February the promoters even came up with sonic opening act, Feast. to get more audiences on the row. Everyone was so optimistic as Foals managed to play in Garden Beats Singapore. They even flew to Manila to perform in other festivals. Yet, three days prior to the festival date it was announced that the festival had to be postponed. No need more time to decide that the Indonesia show was cancelled as well. In April, Foals decided to cancel their Europe and US shows.
It does not limited to Foals only, imagine how many artists need to do the same thing. Don’t forget their crews, managers, stylist, and other people behind those creative industries. Some managed to record videos, conduct home concert and upload it on YouTube. But, how about small enterprises who needs offline presence? This is a scary and weird time obviously. Some of us are fortunate enough to stay at home and still get income, some are not. So, we just want to suggest you to do as best as you can to support each other. Donate if you have more, stay at home as long as you could, keep your hygiene and health, and stay safe. Let’s pray this will end soon.
Anyway, this stay at home moment was the time when we look up to more playlists and podcasts, the number of artists we never heard of or even the forgotten one suddenly peaked. One name ticks us, Moose Blood. It seems too naive not knowing what happened to them. In the end of 2018, the band decided to be in hiatus even indicate a break up after a series of unfortunate events. First, their last album was such a big failure. It never sold out even after the sale. People attack them musically as well as personally. After the accusation toward their former drummer and finally the singer, Moose Blood did not even impress fans with the the material.
The peak was when Good Charlotte deleted their name from opening acts list and the band release the statement, which to us seem a bit off guard. They should have released any statement since the accusation come out in 2017. Yet, they waited until 2018 before the third album released and finally after being cancelled by Good Charlotte. Well, without any evidence and proof, we never know the truth, but we would like to remain respectful to the victim. Any sexual misconduct and immoral behavior should never happened at all at any stage or place.
As we research more about this Moose Blood controversy, we bumped into Nothing But Thieves case. There are threads in Twitter talk about this, completed by evidences showing disrespectful manners and private messages from the band members to underage fans. Good PR is needed and they worked fast enough to release statement accordingly. Saying that it was something in the past they’ve long learned and left behind. Good point, although it is still disgusting behavior we could not tolerate.
Moose Blood and Nothing But Thieves were not the only one. The sexual misconduct involving artists is an old story. Remember Neck Deep’s former guitarist, Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein. It exists and happens for a very long time we believe. In Indonesia, there is one case involving a local indie musician lately, he even managed to collect several victims. The worst thing was he still has guts to apologize through video. Although we hoped victims would speak up and bring this case to police, we are sorry to admit that those kind of people are still there around you, around us, anywhere else undetected just like coronavirus.
What makes musicians do that? There is fame and influences which lead to the imbalance of power between them and fans. There is informal “assurance” that whoever become their victims will not tell anyone due to stigma and dishonor they’ll get from society.
I hope that this quarantine would make them think through what they’ve done. Uncovered or covered cases. We hope the world gets better soon and we all could live normally, walk safely without caution, then someday the safe gig/concert for everyone regardless their gender is a real deal.
We know this is such a random thoughts, but we hope you enjoy this. Stay safe and see you soon.
