Modest Mouse guitarist responds to allegations of inappropriate messages to minor
Modest Mouse guitarist Simon O’Connor has responded to allegations that he sent inappropriate messages to a minor.
On July 26th, a Reddit user shared a series of screenshots of her interactions with O’Connor on Instagram, which began with him sending a message that reads, “SIMON calls your bluff BUZZ”.
He then apologised, prompting her to respond stating that she assumed he’d been hacked to which the guitarist stated, “Wish I was hacked just had a party night and looking at everything with one eye ya know.”
She then instructed him to “get a good night of sleep”, to which he replied, “But you did blindside me with a gaggle of likes and then very little intro besides bikini pics so we are both to blame,” before unsending the message and writing, “I did it again”.
In another post on Reddit, the anonymous user who later shared the screenshots, first wrote, “For context I am currently 17 years old but this happened right before my birthday, so I was still 16. I have a public instagram but its very niche, I’vee been following bands iIlike for a while so iIhave been following simon for a few years.”
She continued, “Late at night I checked stories and I spam liked whatever it was Simon had put on his story. 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. iIthink more people should know about this. I’m hesitant to put screenshots here but I do have them!”
Subsequently, O’Connor also took to Reddit, writing, “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 continued, “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.”
O’Connor, who is also a touring guitarist with MGMT, added, “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.'”
However, he conceded, “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.”
He then apologised, writing, “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.”
Lastly, O’Connor wrote, “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.”
O’Connor has served in Modest Mouse since 2021. The band are yet to make a statement on the situation.
They are next scheduled to perform on August 4th at the Libbey Bowl in Ojah Valley, California.
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