I Killed The Prom Queen’s former frontman, Michael Crafter, has issued a statement apologising for sexist comments he made which resulted the band’s abrupt removal from Unify Gathering’s 2019 line-up.

The Victorian festival announced on Friday that they had dropped the band from the line-up, after comments made by Crafter in 2016 (“there’s enough girls [getting] finger-banged in the tents to be happy enough about the festival”) began circulating and causing outrage online.

The comments were compounded by the fact that Unify was also being criticised for lack of gender-diversity at the same time — by Lineup Without Males’ count, just 24 percent of the line-up’s acts featured a member who identified as non-male.

“We made this decision because of historical comments made on social media by former member Michael Crafter, who was to re-appear as guest singer of I Killed the Prom Queen for their one-off 2004 nostalgia set,” the festival said in a statement on Friday. “These comments fall well short of today’s community standards and were considered deeply offensive to many people within our music community.”

“These comments are completely unacceptable and contrary to our deeply held values and beliefs that music is for everyone and to be enjoyed by all.”

Crafter has now responded publicly to the festival’s decision, writing on Facebook that he’s taking it “as a learning experience to reflect on my attitudes”.

“IKTPQ was removed from the festival for my past comments and I think being held to better standards is a good thing,” he wrote. “We need to all be held to better standards, accept our past mistakes and apologise for this. It’s not hard to be better to each other and say sorry if you’ve been a flat-out asshole, bully or know you said some really shitty things.

“Talking about past issues, building bridges and aiming to positively learn and grow from this experience and step forward as a better person is something I hope to do from all of this. While it’s been challenging, I’m taking it as a learning experience to reflect on my attitudes, the language I’ve used in the past, and how I want to encourage other men in the scene to reflect on our culture and how we can all work to make it better.”

He also addressed the fact that he was the moderator of the online forum Broken Glass Online back in the mid-2000s, which he admitted was a “toxic mess of bullying, nudity and online shaming.

“The entire site and forum was terribly managed and a massive cause of drama and personal issues for a lot of people,” Crafter wrote. “What I was a part of is indefensible and I don’t want BGO to create more drama for people in 2018. If this online forum affected you I sincerely apologise for the forum even existing and wish it actually never did.”

Read Crafter’s full statement below. Unify Gathering will be held at Tarwin Tower, Victoria across 9-11 January 2019. The full line-up can be found here.

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Michael Crafter Statement

Been a crazy few days and I understand why. IKTPQ was removed from the festival for my past comments and I think being held to better standards is a good thing.

Some people here would be too young to know that years ago I was a moderator on a website from 2005-2009 called Broken Glass that had an online public forum with over 5000 users.

What started as something FOR the music scene ended up being a toxic mess of bullying, nudity and online shaming. The entire site and forum was terribly managed and a massive cause of drama and personal issues for a lot of people.

I’ve seen a lot of people come out and support me over the last few days but I ask that you stop. What I was apart of is indefensible and I don’t want BGO to create more drama for people in 2018.

If this online forum affected you I sincerely apologise for the forum even existing and wish it actually never did. We need to all be held to better standards, accept our past mistakes and apologise for this. 

It’s not hard to be better to each other and say sorry if you’ve been a flat out asshole, bully or know your said some really shitty things. Talking about past issues, building bridges and aiming to positively learn and grow from this experience and step forward as a better person is something I hope to do from all of this.

While it’s been challenging, I’m taking it as a learning experience to reflect on my attitudes, the language I’ve used in the past, and how I want to encourage other men in the scene to reflect on our culture and how we can all work to make it better.