Modest Mouse has cut ties with guitarist Simon O’Connor following accusations of sending inappropriate DMs to a minor.
On Friday, the band announced that Les Savy Fav’s Seth Jabour will join them on the tour accompanying their eighth studio album An Eraser and a Maze, which kicks off Tuesday, Aug. 4 in Ojai, California.
“Simon O’Connor will not be joining us on the upcoming tour,” Modest Mouse prefaced in a statement on Instagram. “The good news is that Seth Jabour of Les Savy Fav will be jumping in to play guitar. We look forward to being out there with you all.”
Last weekend, a Reddit user claiming to be 17 and “following Simon for a few years,” recounted an incident that allegedly happened when she was 16, sharing screenshots of inappropriate memes and messages O’Connor appeared to have sent.
“Late at night I checked stories and I spam liked whatever it was Simon had put on his story,” she recalled. “He came into my DMs and sent me an erotic image (to say the least) while giving me the excuse he had been partying or whatever, continuing to message me. My age is the first thing in my bio. I reached out to several people within the indie music fandom and nobody with a platform cared. I think more people should know about this. I’m hesitant to put screenshots here but I do have them!”
O’Connor broke his silence the next day with a statement on Reddit. “Hey, Simon here. I would just like to address some of the conversation on this thread that has come to my attention. Firstly, I would like to just state that I unequivocally oppose any sexual behavior towards minors, as a human and a parent it disgusts me,” he started.
“Throughout my adult life, there has been a person who has popped up from time to time with the intention of, for lack of a better term, messing with me. This person creates multiple social media accounts and deletes them… but always posts similar photos that I often recognize from previous accounts,” he explained. “After a long night, I picked my phone up to discover that a similar profile had been interacting (‘likes’ to be specific) with some of my instagram posts and stories. I assumed that this was the same person I had dealt with before and, with poor judgement, I decided to reach out with a tasteless meme, a sticker that read ‘Simon calls your bluff,’ and an attempt to indicate that I recognized the ‘barrage of likes’ and similar photo content from the previous profiles…. Almost a ‘gotcha.’ After a few minutes, I realized that I had made a mistake and this was not the person who I had dealt with before. I unsent the messages and immediately ceased communication.
“I’m genuinely sorry to the person who received those messages. They didn’t deserve to be put in that position, and I’m sorry for the stress and attention this has brought them. I know some people will choose not to believe me, and I understand that. I can’t change what’s happened. All I can do is tell the truth, take responsibility for my mistake, and apologize,” added O’Connor.
O’Connor, who previously toured with MGMT, joined Modest Mouse on guitar and backing vocals in 2021, first appearing on An Eraser and a Maze, which the band released on June 5.
