Modest Mouse guitarist Simon O'Connor has been accused of sending inappropriate messages to a minor. The allegations were made over the weekend on Reddit with screenshots showing the musician sending a sexually explicit meme and a suggestive message about the 16-year-old fan's "bikini pics." He has since acknowledged the allegations, saying he had mistaken the account for someone else.
The screenshots show that O'Connor initiated the conversation with an image that read "SIMON calls your bluff BUZZ." The fan replied saying she assumed he was hacked, but that she loved his music. He answered, "Wish I was hacked just had a party night and looking at everything with one eye ya know." She then attempted to shut down the conversation, writing, "ohh boy get a good night of sleep." He replied, "But you did blindside me with a gaggle of likes and then very little intro besides bikini pics so we are both to blame." He then unsent the message, and sent another one that read, "I did it again."
The fan explained on the Reddit thread that he'd also viewed her Instagram Story, which had a countdown to her 17th birthday. Here's what she wrote on Reddit:
for context i am currently 17 years old but this happened right before my birthday, so i was still 16. i have a public instagram but its very niche, ive been following bands i like for a while so i have been following simon for a few years. late at night i checked stories and i spam liked whatever it was simon had put on his story. he came into my DMs and sent me an erotic image (to say the least) while giving me the excuse he had been partying or whatever, continuing to message me. my age is the first thing in my bio. i reached out to several people within the indie music fandom and nobody with a platform cared. i think more people should know about this. im hesitant to put screenshots here but i do have them!
O'Connor made a Reddit post of his own to address the allegations, claiming he'd assumed the account belonged to a longtime harasser of his. Here's what he said in full:
Throughout my adult life, there has been a person who has popped up from time to time with the intention of, for lack of a better term, messing with me. This person creates multiple social media accounts and deletes them… but always posts similar photos that I often recognize from previous accounts. After a long night, I picked my phone up to discover that a similar profile had been interacting ("likes" to be specific) with some of my instagram posts and stories. I assumed that this was the same person I had dealt with before and, with poor judgement, I decided to reach out with a tasteless meme, a sticker that read "Simon calls your bluff," and an attempt to indicate that I recognized the "barrage of likes" and similar photo content from the previous profiles…. Almost a "gotcha." After a few minutes, I realized that I had made a mistake and this was not the person who I had dealt with before. I unsent the messages and immediately ceased communication. I'm genuinely sorry to the person who received those messages. They didn't deserve to be put in that position, and I'm sorry for the stress and attention this has brought them. I know some people will choose not to believe me, and I understand that. I can't change what's happened. All I can do is tell the truth, take responsibility for my mistake, and apologize.
