Content warning: This article discusses sexual misconduct
Ben Preece, managing director of Brisbane artist management, publicity and marketing company Mucho-Bravado, has issued a statement following allegations of sexual harassment.
Preece addressed his “flawed and incredibly inappropriate” behaviour in a statement posted to his personal Facebook account on Friday, 17th July. It was shared again a day later on the official Mucho-Bravado page, with Preece saying his current roster consists of “three male project management artists” and that he “recently completed radio plugging for one female artist”. Besides those artists, Preece says he’s handed “all other forthcoming publicity campaigns” to other publicists.
In the original statement, Preece says that the recent conversations around harassment and abuse in the Australian music industry sparked by musician Jaguar Jonze had led him to be accountable and honest regarding his actions, apologising for taking so long to publicly address those actions.
“To all the young women who I’ve hurt in the past – I’m sorry. Your awful experience with me isn’t imagined, it is real, it wasn’t your fault and there are no more ifs, buts or maybes,” reads the statement.
“I’m sorry for disrespecting you, for degrading, hurting, belittling and sexualising you while you were in pursuit of your dreams and passion in the music industry. Your experience would have been inappropriate comments from me, poor retaliation, creepy behaviour and then, more than likely, it was a shitty, disrespectful message that was manipulative and usually after rejection.”
“I would have then minimised it all or tried to tell you that you imagined it, making you feel unsafe in your working environment or even wary of other men. I’ve said some things that, to have them repeated to me recently, make my own skin crawl.”
Preece goes on to discuss being called out for his actions during BIGSOUND back in 2018 and says he’s seen social media posts over the past week that he believed to refer to him.
“I didn’t grasp just how flawed and incredibly inappropriate I was, I’m not the young, defensive asshole anymore and I want to be accountable for my past harms. I’m calm, my heart is open and I’ve identified and quit indulging past patterns of behaviour. I’m learning how to be better and will not stop.”
As reported by The Industry Observer over the weekend, the statement coincides with an Instagram post made by a person with the handle @yagirlpartyb, describing their experiences of harassment by a “Brisbane artist manager and marketing director/owner of a music business”.
In the posts, she talks about receiving unwanted attention from the “male manager” who allegedly went on to verbally abuse her online, “saying [I] was shit, that no one in the [Music Industry] liked working with me & that [I’d] never make it in this town or country.” She alleges the person in question attempted to blackmail her, telling her she could make these problems in the industry go away if she “went on a date with [him] and fucked [him]”.
“I’ve never really actually dealt with the fact of what happened until this week and I’ve said it out loud properly, in full,” she shared in a subsequent video post. “I didn’t sleep with him, that was never going to happen… He said all those things, I then turned off my computer and then made steps to leave the music industry.”
You can see a few of the posts here:
Image via: @yagirlpartyb 
Image via: @yagirlpartyb 
Image via: @yagirlpartyb Images via: @yagirlpartyb
See the full post below.
Last week, photographer Jack Stafford made a lengthy statement following numerous allegations of sexual misconduct, which surfaced following a post from Jaguar Jonze – real name Deena Lynch. Stafford, who also went under the moniker re:_stacks, photographed a number of high-profile local artists over the years. In his 3000-word statement, Stafford admitted to being “an abuser”, exposing himself to clients, sharing nudes without permission and other acts of misconduct.
You can read Preece’s statement in full below.
TRIGGER WARNING //
(this may bring up pain and questions, please read with support if necessary)
Jaguar Jonze’s recent revelations about inappropriate men in the music industry have led me to write this and bring my own accountability and honesty into the open – it has been a long time coming and is beyond overdue. I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to address this publicly – to make it earlier would’ve been from a place of fear and I had to learn.
To all the young women who I’ve hurt in the past — I’m sorry. Your awful experience with me isn’t imagined, it is real, it wasn’t your fault and there are no more ifs, buts or maybes. I’m sorry for disrespecting you, for degrading, hurting, belittling and sexualising you while you were in pursuit of your dreams and passion in the music industry.
Your experience would have been inappropriate comments from me, poor retaliation, creepy behaviour and then, more than likely, it was a shitty, disrespectful message that was manipulative and usually after rejection. I would have then minimised it all or tried to tell you that you imagined it, making you feel unsafe in your working environment or even wary of other men. I’ve said some things that, to have them repeated to me recently, make my own skin crawl. I’m sorry, so sorry.
I know these things leave permanent wounds – no one deserves that power over anyone and I’m mortified that I abused mine. I’m sorry.
It has been a couple of years now, since BIGSOUND 2018, where I was initially called-out, in addition I’m aware of certain social media posts this week that I worry are also referring to me. With the help of industry peers, I’ve been working to completely understand the extent of accountability needed to encompass the last 15 years of my career and exactly how to address it. I promise I’ve not ignored you, I assure you it hasn’t been “business as usual” and I’ve been working on this in therapy for quite a few years.
I didn’t grasp just how flawed and incredibly inappropriate I was, I’m not the young, defensive asshole anymore and I want to be accountable for my past harms. I’m calm, my heart is open and I’ve identified and quit indulging past patterns of behaviour. I’m learning how to be better and will not stop.
I understand the conversations this note will spark and I’m prepared to have them. I understand its brevity isn’t good enough or near enough to alleviate the hurt and trauma I’ve caused – it’s only skimming the surface of a much larger conversation I’ve been having and I’m prepared to continue and hear.
To my friends and colleagues whose integrity I’ve compromised during this time and because of my behaviour and denial, I apologise.
I sincerely hope this can be an invitation to anyone who I’ve hurt, to continue the conversation with me (or via a safe, connecting person). This could be a facilitated conversation by a professional in a supportive space or whatever is necessary for you to move forward. I acknowledge that there’s nothing easy about this, but you have my honesty and I want you to know you are heard and respected. It’s time for me to step back and listen.
The views expressed by people and organisations quoted in this article are not the view of Music Feeds or its employees.
