Hi,
My name is Joe and I run Don Giovanni Records. Sex Stains label. I can't claim to understand anything about what you are all trying to investigate as far as the bigger picture and political connections or Comet Ping Pong or anything involved in your broader investigation. I also believe that this kind of stuff is really important and worth investigating, I just haven't had any time to read up on anything related to the broader scandal.
With that said, it seems like my label and one of our bands, Sex Stains is now somehow part of your investigation. Instead of being investigated though, we are just being harassed.
I've had people email me and ask me questions which I've answered but I guess those answers aren't getting back to this community so I made an account to come answer whatever you want to know about us and Sex Stains with the goal of you realizing we really have nothing to do with this whatsoever and that hopefully it will lead to us not being harassed. As a label, and as artists we are all very outspoken with our music and writing about sexual assault and exploitations in all its forms. We work to police and investigate matters our own punk/diy community. I know what its like for victims not to be believed.
When someone told me that there was symbol for pedophelia in one of our videos I was horrified. Even if it was unintentional since i don't think most non-pedophiles are aware of those symbols (I certainly wasn't till someone linked me to the FBI document because of its supposed connection with the video), I wouldn't want it showing up in the video. But when I looked at the symbol in the document and the one in the video they really didn't seem all that similar. In an email I wrote someone else it would be like the difference between an "M" and an "N" or something. There are similarities, but they have different amounts of lines in different directions and thus have different symbolic meaning. This site I am on right now (Voat) seems to have a blue triangle for a logo, for example. I doubt it is part of this whole (though if people feel its worth investigating, then maybe it is).
I guess the point of this all is that I really have no issues with the investigation of pedophelia or any kind of abuse whatsoever, in fact, I agree it should be investigate if there is reason to. Like many of you, I also believe that there are large scandals especially in the mainstream that are covered up by the MSM and the government.
I don't know how the rest of your investigation is being conducted, but I can tell you that what is happening with Sex Stains and our record label isn't investigation. For every email or tweet I have received asking em questions about it, I have received a dozen of harassing comments. Please investigate. Ask me any questions you have about Sex Stains and my label and I will answer them as fast as I can (I am home with my family on thanksgiving. I was hoping to deal with this on Monday but the harassing comments are too numerous and piling up too fast).
I am, and always have been very accessible. My email is public, my label has no walls to hide behind and is fully owned and operated by me. I will now answer all your questions here too (or if you tell me a better place I will do it there too).
Joe
view the rest of the comments →
nimblenav ago
I'm sorry if some assholes insulted you but anyway it's the internet, they are just tweets and emails, they are worthless.
https://twitter.com/tylerthecreator/status/285670822264307712
dongiovannirecords ago
Tyler is very successful though and makes a lot of money and probably. I'm sure it is a lot easier to walk away. For me and our bands this stuff is very direct. It's also very scary. The singer of sex stains has literally spent her entire life fighting against sexual assault in the punk community and is extremely well known for that, its not her first band, there are books about punk with sections about her and her work in that regard. So seeing that kind of thing is deeply upsetting and would bother the exact type of people that come to her music looking for support. Our label occupies a similar role. I have a two year old who I work hard to protect from many scary things like this. My wife and I don't even put pictures of her on the internet anywhere other than private groups. We are scared when we get these mass levels of harassing comments, especially about child exploitation.
I guess what I'm trying to communicate is that myself and the bands on our label are basically on your level as far as power goes here. Were not rich, we don't have anything or anyone to hide behind, and this stuff scares us. We don't have protection that someone like Tyler the Creator who made that tweet could afford to hire. We live our lives out in the open just like you do. We aren't part of society's elite even if our bands play at the same building that they frequent. The elites who you believe are involved probably also have some kind of cleaning staff who come in and clean their places. I would doubt they are involved in this whole thing either even if there is a blue triangle on one of their brooms or mops. The bands that play comet at the janitors, not the power brokers. We fight against power just like you. We fight for freedom just like you. But we do it with our music.
nimblenav ago
You have good reasons to feel that way but remember that your company hasn't been involved much and these people are just assholes that can easily show it on the internet with a click.
You have children you must be really concerned about what this open source investigation is discovering. This is the real danger.
dongiovannirecords ago
Yes, of course i am concerned about child sex trafficking and would be even if I wasn't a parent!
And I realize my company and sex stains haven't been that involved, but what I am trying to communicate to you as that we are a very very small company and sex stains are a very very small band, so this small level of involvement from such a large movement is actually a lot to us.