SWMRS respond to sexual misconduct allegations against Joey Armstrong

nme.com:

SWMRS have issued a statement regarding the accusations of sexual misconduct levied against their former drummer Joey Armstrong.In a statement shared on Instagram in July 2020, Lydia Night – singer of LA band The Regrettes – detailed her experiences with Armstrong (son of Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong) during a one-year relationship that began in mid-2017.Night said in the message that the relationship began when she was 16, and ended “right before my 18th birthday”.

Armstrong was 22-years-old during that period.“Every time we took a step sexually it was because he wanted to and made it clear by either putting my hand on his crotch, shaming me for saying I wasn’t comfortable, gaslighting me or ignoring me when I didn’t my consent,” part of Night’s post read.She explained that she’d taken the decision to make the claims publicly after SWMRS “released an unbelievably hypocritical statement on social media”, adding: “This band’s delusional positioning of themselves as woke feminists is not only triggering for me as a victim, but is complete bullshit and needs to be called out.”A post shared by lyd (@lydianight)Elsewhere in Night’s statement, she wrote that it has taken her “years to finally understand that I am a victim of abuse”.

She also accused Armstrong of using his “position of power” as a musician of a headline tour band with which to exert his control. “That professional power dynamic had made its way into all aspects of our relationship,” she said.Night added that she spoke to Armstrong before sharing the statement online whereby he “seemed very empathetic” but that when she received a handwritten note written by him and delivered by his bandmate, Cole Becker, Armstrong “didn’t address any of the abuse, my.