De Nieuwe Anita canceled a performance by the band Dream Machine on Friday afternoon. The band would perform on Friday evening in the cultural café on Frederik Hendrikstraat. The reason is statements made seven years ago by members of the band about immigration, refugees, sexual abuse and feminism.
The statements were made by Matthew Melton, the band’s American singer, and his Bosnian-Dutch wife Doris, also a member of the band. The two have lived in Amsterdam for years. Before that they lived in Austin, America. In a 2017 interview with music website Still in Rock they talk about the reasons for moving to the Netherlands.
“I’m glad that in America they have finally started ‘deporting’ criminal illegal immigrants,” Doris says in that interview. “It took a very long time before I got my residence permit in America and because so many illegal immigrants enter the country, it becomes difficult for people who want to participate properly in American society.”
‘Boring jellyfish’
Matthew says in the interview at the time that he was excited about moving to Europe, but: “I will always be a red-blooded American. And just like the waves of refugees coming into Europe, I’m not going to learn new languages and I’m going to I don’t adapt culturally.”
When Doris is asked in the interview whether there is anything in the music world that makes her angry, she says: “That women have mainly become boring jellyfish who play in those terrible feminist bands, just to show men what they have inside them. They don’t even know how to play an instrument. They make songs saying they’ve been sexually abused or they say how empowering abortion is, or some other nonsense and ‘it’s fucking retarded’.”
The band’s record label said goodbye to the band after the interview, and the record label then donated all proceeds from the band to charity.
To view this content you must accept cookies. Manage cookies
De Nieuwe Anita writes on Instagram that there have been long internal discussions and that discussions have also been held with the band members. “We feel that they are sorry for what they said at the time, something for which they have also apologized,” the cafe said. “Yet we feel like they haven’t found the right way to make that clear and make up for what they said. We want to be a place that feels safe for everyone, always. The New Anita is not the place for Dream Machine tonight.”
Grown as a person
Under De Nieuwe Anita’s post, the band responds through Matthew and Doris. “We are sad that the show has been canceled and we feel bad for everyone involved.” The band says that there have indeed been long conversations with De Nieuwe Anita.
“We are grateful to them for taking the initiative to talk to us,” the band said. “Although we offered to donate all proceeds to charity, apologized on stage and did so on social media (as we have previously done on YouTube and Instagram), that was not enough. “
Matthew and Doris also say that they have grown a lot as people over the past seven years and that they have learned a lot about “the difficulties that women and immigrants face.” The two call their statements from seven years ago a bad part of their career, which they have had to learn to live with.
2024-01-06 19:24:00
#Entertainment #venue #Nieuwe #Anita #cancels #performance #due #statements #band #members
