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Artist News Legal
Disclosure deny song theft claims
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 22 January 2015
Disclosure have responded to claims that they stole lyrics for songs on their debut album, ‘Settle’, which featured guest vocalists Sam Smith, Eliza Doolittle and Aluna Francis.
The accusations stem from a lawsuit unearthed by the Mail On Sunday last weekend, launched by songwriter Katie Farrah Sopher. She claims that her ex-boyfriend Sean Sawyers stole a notebook of her lyrics when they split up and sold them to his own music industry contacts. As well as the three Disclosure songs, she also claims that AlunaGeorge’s ‘Attracting Flies’ features her work, and that the words of all the songs relate to her allegedly abusive relationship with Sawyers. He denies the accusations.
In a statement published on their Facebook page yesterday, Disclosure refuted that any lyrics on their records were written by anyone other than them and their stated collaborators.
“We always make sure everyone gets proper credit”, they wrote. “We take great pride in our self-sufficiency, our work and the way we work, and it’s incredibly frustrating when someone tries to take that away from us, by claiming we stole even one word or one note of our music from anyone … All allegations made against us to do with this subject are completely false, as anyone we have ever worked with will back up. We didn’t get into this industry to steal other people’s ideas and we haven’t – we are musicians, artists and producers”.
They added that they are now working on their second album.
