Japanese post hardcore band ilill issues statement regarding drummer’s misconduct

Japanese post hardcore band ilill issues statement regarding drummer’s misconduct. The band has also announced that they will disband as a result of all that has transpired. The post originally drafted by Marie which sparked the band’s reflection can be found further below.

As Marie has clarified to us – there are two issues at hand here.

1. One is the drummer of the band ilill’s own misconduct.

2. The other is Keisuke Tsunekawa who runs Cut the Tension. Marie’s post below is in regards to this person’s behavior.

The first post below is in regards to ilill’s drummer.

The person at the center of Marie’s initial post, Keisuke Tsunekawa, has also released a statement which is at the very bottom for you to mull over and share your thoughts. With all thats’s happening in the world with people in positions of power being called out, rightfully so, for disgusting misconduct towards others, it is good to know that within our own punk/hardcore community these conversations are also happening.

Regarding issue 1:

“The following statement is the product of a period of self-reflection of Keisuke and Johannes that was kicked off by Marie’s statement regarding the behavior of Tsunekawa from Cut the Tension and the hard but welcome reminder from a person in our environment.

(From here on out the term we refers to Keisuke and Johannes)

For those who still care, Keisuke and Johannes decided to call ilill quits. Furthermore, we distance ourselves from our previous drummer Hiroshi. We deleted all of the music from our bandcamp page and everything that could help promote what ilill was. We do this, because we cannot agree with past decisions and actions of Hiroshi.

We won’t give any further details, as we are not able to contact the people potentially harmed by him and thereby can not ask for their consent to publish what exactly happened.

We want to deeply apologize to the people that Hiroshi and we hurt. May it be by what we have done or not done, said or not said. We also want to sincerely apologize to everyone that has ever helped us or supported us in any way.

Hiroshi told us what he has done approximately four months before putting the band to hiatus. He promised us, that he has already atoned for what he has done and that he is now in a friendly relationship with the potential victims. We thought, that he deserves the benefit of the doubt. Now we know, we should have disbanded right after he told us. We deeply regret, that we have not taken any appropriate actions earlier.

We want to thank Marie for stepping up with the case of Cut The Tension’s Tsunekawa. Her statement was a wakeup call for us and made us critically self-reflect on ourselves, our time in ilill and our environment. Realizing how Tsunekawa deceived us, we also realized how we deceived ourselves about Hiroshi and what it means for ilill.

Again, there is no excuse for us ignoring the situation and we deeply apologize to the people that Hiroshi and we hurt – especially the potential victims.

If there is anything we can do for you or if you are able to shed more light on the situation, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Johannes & Keisuke”

The person in question, Keisuke Tsunekawa of Cut the Tension, also released a statement which you can find below:

“Cut The Tension 代表 常川啓介

Hi, first of all, I would like to sincerely apologize for causing you trouble because of my private thing. The reason I am writing this on here is to share my thoughts and to clear something out for what some of you may have heard an rumor about myself recently. In the statement a past friend of mine, who is the third party have shared contains something that isn’t truth from my side, although I have to clearly admit some part what i have done. One of the biggest problems about this I suppose is that I did not see what I have to do with this, so many weird things have happened being with her, and I’ve very, very stressed out. It’s no excuse but I have made a wrong decision about myself having a mental illness, I was truly a wrong and deeply sorry how i made her feel uncomfortable.

I used to live a girl I liked a few years back by ourselves, we both liked each other, and we had shared the time together for months. However, I had a mental breakdown from some point and things are gotten really awkward and I was losing myself and did not feel about myself back then. I personally think, the same kind of mental problem has happened to herself as well. A lot have happened, however, both myself and herself have our own privacy each other, thus, I am not going to speak up any more details for now. But the one thing I clearly would like to say, I did not rape to the person concerned, who I have lived with. Although I have mentioned that there’s a part I have to admit, but I cannot admit everything that was written there. This is certainly not to justify myself, and I just wanted to share what I think of. Terribly sorry for what I have done to her, some people I had friendship with and for anyone who has got hurt by anything I have done and being an idiot. I am going to do appropriate actions for what has actually happened and what I have to take responsibility with. Thank you for your understanding and I am terribly sorry again for causing you/anyone worry and trouble.

Keisuke,
Cut The Tension”