New Pornographers drummer Joe Seiders was recently arrested on charges including possession of child pornography.
The indie rock band from Canada announced that they have ended all connections with Joe Seiders, aged 44, after learning about his arrest through a news release by the Palm Desert police in California on Thursday, April 17.
Expressing shock, horror, and devastation over the charges against Joe Seiders, the band conveyed their immediate decision to cut ties with him. They shared a statement on Instagram empathizing with all those affected by his actions.
According to the Riverside County sheriff’s office, Seiders was apprehended following two incidents that occurred on April 7 and April 9. On April 7, officers responded to a report of a concerning situation in Palm Desert, where they encountered an 11-year-old boy. The boy reported that an unidentified man had recorded him with a cell phone while he was in the restroom, as stated in a news release.
Two days later, the police department said it received a second report from the same location. An employee claimed a man was seen “entering and exiting the restroom with juvenile males.” Police took the suspect, later identified as Seiders, into custody.
Following an investigation, including search warrants to access Seiders’ home, car and cell phone, the musician was arrested on charges including possession of child pornography, annoying/molesting a child, invasion of privacy, and attempted invasion of privacy, the release said.
Seiders was booked into the John Benoit Detention Center in Indio, California.
The New Pornographers formed in 1997; however, Seiders joined the group in 2014, replacing longtime drummer Kurt Dahle. The band’s current lineup, sans Seiders, consists of lead singer Neko Case, bassist John Collins, singer and guitarist Carl Newman, lead guitarist Todd Fancey and pianist Kathryn Calder.
The band’s name takes inspiration from the 1966 Japanese movie The Pornographers, Newman said in 2005.
“I saw the Japanese movie The Pornographers and I thought it was an interesting word,” Newman told Glide Magazine. “On the first Destroyer record, Dan [Bejar, former band member] has a song ‘The Pornographers.’ I remember wanting to put the word new in front of something like ‘the new sneakers of the new Christy Minstrels.’ I always thought that bands that put new in front of their name was somehow kind of modern in a false way. Like, do you really have to call yourself the new? Does it really have to be illustrated by those words. So I like the words ‘the pornographers,’ and ‘The New Pornographers’ just fell together. I don’t know, I can’t tell if it’s a bad name or s***** name.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
