Modest Mouse have stated guitarist Simon O’Connor won’t be part of their upcoming tour, following allegations of inappropriate messages to a 16-year-old fan.
The claims emerged on the band’s Reddit discussion board earlier this week, when a fan shared screenshots of an Instagram change they stated had taken place shortly earlier than their seventeenth birthday.
In an announcement shared on social media immediately (July 31), Modest Mouse confirmed that Les Savy Fav guitarist Seth Jabour would exchange O’Connor for his or her upcoming dates.
“Simon O’Connor won’t be becoming a member of us for the upcoming tour,” they wrote. “The excellent news is that Seth Jabour of Les Savy Fav can be leaping in to play guitar. We look ahead to being on the market with you all.”
The band didn’t straight handle the allegations or verify whether or not O’Connor has completely left the group. He has performed with Modest Mouse since 2021.
The fan who made the allegations stated that their age was seen of their Instagram bio and that O’Connor had considered a narrative that includes a countdown to their seventeenth birthday.
The screenshots appeared to indicate O’Connor opening the dialog with a sticker studying “SIMON calls your bluff BUZZ”, earlier than sending a sexually express meme. The picture was censored within the Reddit put up, though the fan stated that it had not been obscured when it was despatched to them.
O’Connor responded to the allegations on the identical discussion board, saying that he “unequivocally” opposed “any sexual behaviour in the direction of minors”.
He claimed that a person had repeatedly created social media accounts in an effort to “mess with” him and that he had mistakenly believed the fan’s account belonged to the identical particular person.
“I assumed that this was the identical particular person I had handled earlier than and, with poor judgement, I made a decision to succeed in out with a tasteless meme, a sticker that learn ‘Simon calls your bluff,’ and an try to point that I acknowledged the ‘barrage of likes’ and related picture content material from the earlier profiles…. Nearly a ‘gotcha’.”
O’Connor stated he realised “after a couple of minutes” that he had made a mistake, earlier than unsending the messages and ending the change.
“I’m genuinely sorry to the one who obtained these messages,” he added. “They didn’t need to be put in that place, and I’m sorry for the stress and a spotlight this has introduced them.
“I do know some folks will select to not imagine me, and I perceive that. I can’t change what’s occurred. All I can do is inform the reality, take duty for my mistake, and apologise.”
Jabour has been a member of New York indie-rock band Les Savy Fav since their formation within the mid-’90s.
Modest Mouse launched their eighth studio album ‘An Eraser And A Maze‘ in June, their first since the loss of life of founding drummer Jeremiah Inexperienced in 2022.
