Update, 9/6, 3:56pm CT: Dorian Cooke of Neverkept has released a statement via social media responding to allegations of sexual misconduct. In his statement, he explains that he has been removed from Neverkept, and will be releasing an additional statement at a later time. Read his full statement below.

Update, 9/4, 4:54pm CT: Epitaph Records has just responded to Substream via email, providing the following statement:

”Because of  behavior that’s recently come to light, that  doesn’t represent our values, we’ve parted ways with Neverkept and won’t be promoting or releasing their music in the future.”

Update, 8/28, 12:38pm CT: Today, further allegations against Dorian Cookie has surfaced, including allegations of sexual assault, grooming, and emotional manipulation. Substream reached out to the person who shared the story and ensured it was okay to include it in our ongoing coverage, so below you can find the story that was shared involving these allegations against Dorian Cooke.

Original story: Yesterday we posted an article detailing allegations of sexual assault against Dorian Cooke of Neverkept, and allegations of various forms of inappropriate behavior against members of Sleep On It.

At the time, we put these allegations together in the same story because Fran’s story mentioned both Neverkept and Sleep On It with how they handled the situation on their end. These two piggy-backed off of one another and we felt it was appropriate to share them in the same article. Once we saw Fran share her story, we reached out to ask if we could post about it on Substream and cover this story. We spoke with each victim who shared their stories before posting our article, and made sure they were comfortable with it as well.

Our intentions were to spread awareness to both bands and hold both bands accountable for their actions. We continued — and will continue to do so — to update the post with new allegations that surfaced against the bands. 

However, Fran reached out to us earlier this afternoon and voiced her concerns that her story with Dorian Cooke of Neverkept was getting lost in translation of all of the Sleep On It allegations coming to light. She asked if we could separate her story from all of the allegations surfacing against Sleep On It.

Out of respect to Fran, and every victim who has bravely shared their story regarding either or both bands, we wanted to make a new post solely dedicated to the allegations against Dorian Cooke of Neverkept. This is her story, not ours, and in these scenarios, we will always respect the wishes of the victims. Our original story can still be seen here.

It’s also worth noting that at this time of publishing, we have still yet to hear back from Neverkept’s team regarding the allegations. Their social media pages have also been entirely silent.

Their silence is concerning and unacceptable.

Substream wants to do our part in holding both bands accountable, and we believe this is the next step as so far it has been crickets from Neverkept: to make clear that the allegations are serious, and deserve a response.

When speaking with Fran, she wanted to provide a statement herself explaining why she asked us to do this, which you can find below, and after that we will re-share her allegations against Dorian Cooke of Neverkept.

From Fran:

“I think it’s honestly great that I was able to encourage a lot of people to come forward about additional stories. Though a lot of people are wrong and there’s a lot of reasons to be angry right now, my intentions weren’t to distract [from] who the actual abuser is. I’m speaking for a lot of people right now that don’t have a voice, and I believe that mine is speaking for those that are very innocent and haven’t been able to say anything. So, I just want to make sure that we realize who the actual problem is and that person doesn’t get to sit in silence. Because at the end of the day, the reason that I’ve stayed silent for two years is because I know Dorian is someone who likes to roll the punches and blame other people and sit in silence. And I feel like that’s what is happening right now and I don’t want it to happen ever again.”

https://twitter.com/frannzzy/status/1298344904456900613?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1298344904456900613%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstreammagazine.com%2F2020%2F08%2Fsexual-misconduct-sleep-on-it-neverkept%2F

https://twitter.com/frannzzy/status/1298344917425631234?s=20

https://twitter.com/frannzzy/status/1298344983532052486?s=20

While all mentioned parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, Substream is electing to stand with victims and their allegations, demanding accountability and a safer music scene for everyone.