Artist News

Sigur Rós drummer Orri Páll Dýrason quits following rape accusation

By | Published on Tuesday 2 October 2018

Sigur Rós

Sigur Rós have announced the departure of drummer Orri Páll Dýrason from the band, following accusations of rape made against him last week.

The accusation was made against Dýrason by fellow artist Meagan Boyd in an Instagram post. In it, she wrote: “I was drunk, and I had met him at a club. I also engaged in a kiss with him before falling asleep in the same bed, after that I completely knocked out. I woke up with the feeling of being penetrated without my consent during a deep slumber”.

She went on: “It happened twice that night, and I wondered [to] myself why I didn’t leave after the first time – but I was drunk, dead tired, in shock, and this was right before I ever heard of anything like Uber/Lyft. But none of that should matter because no one deserves to be raped/touched/licked/fucked without CONSENT”.

In a second post, she shared screengrabs of an email from Dýrason in which he wrote “I cannot understand why you would want to publicly accuse me of something I did not do … My experience from that night is completely different from yours. We had a nice night drawing and drinking at my flat; and then we went to bed. The next day you even wanted to stay and asked me if you could, but I had to go to the studio and you got upset about that”.

She countered: “I was not mad you had to leave at all! I was mad that I woke up to a fucking dick inside me without consent! You acted like you didn’t know why I was upset. I screamed at you telling you, ‘You don’t fuck people who are asleep!’ You asked me to stay and for my number and even invited me to go to the studio”.

In a short statement on Facebook yesterday, Dyrason’s bandmates Jónsi Birgisson and Georg Hólm said: “In the wake of the extremely serious and personal allegations made against him in recent days we have today accepted the resignation of our bandmate Orri Páll Dyrason to allow him to deal with this privately”.

Shortly afterwards, Dyrason issued his own statement, saying: “This matter has undeniably taken its toll on me for the past few days. Justifiably, some will say, and I do not intend to argue with those people. However, I sincerely ask the same people to steer their anger into the right path and abstain from dragging my family, and especially my wife, into this matter. At the same time, I ask people to stay calm and not to be divided into two battling armies, these are not court proceedings, just Meagan’s words against mine, on the internet. Loud and provocative words are in nobody’s favour – neither to me or her”.

Insisting that it was his choice to leave the band, he went on: “In light of the scale of this matter, I have decided to leave Sigur Rós. That is a difficult decision for me, but I cannot have these serious allegations influence the band and the important and beautiful work that has been done there for the last years. A job that is so dear to me. I will do anything in my power to get myself out of this nightmare, but out of respect for those actually suffering from sexual violence, I will not take that fight public”.

Dyrason has been a member of Sigur Rós since 1999, first appearing on their third album, ‘( )’ in 2002.



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