Last week, songwriter Larkin Grimm wrote in a widely shared Facebook post that in 2008 Swans and Young God Records figurehead Michael Gira “raped me and dumped me from his label when I confronted him about it, needing to feel safe.” In the post, which warrants reading in full, Grimm unpacks her initial hesitance to share, the ensuing depression, and how she now considers it an ethical imperative to publicly disclose the “absolute tragedy.” After the post appeared, Gira called her allegations “a slanderous lie,” only to soften his tone in an official statement through his publicist, spinning the incident as a “consensual romantic moment that fortunately was not consummated.” Grimm responded, “This is your truth as you remember it. Unfortunately, this was still rape.”
This morning, Grimm released a spare and stirring new song, “I Don’t Believe”, with a dedication: “This song was written for all the survivors of abuse. You are not alone.”
I don’t believe you ever could be
So like those men around you.
So hungry.I don’t believe you ever think about it
But you remember words like they were more than music.I don’t believe you could ever be that way
Addicted to the pleasure, the things that people say.
I wrote this poem for you on your birthday,
Your mother read the poem
And said it couldn’t be you
Nothing so beautiful
Could come from something I made.
I don’t believe you.I don’t believe you
You hear your mother cry
I wish that I could die
I wish that you would die too
So I could play outside
I could be free with you.
I don’t believe you.I don’t believe you need to think about it
But you remember words like they were more than music.
You hear the words I’m speaking as more than poetry.
