New Pornographers drummer Joe Seiders was recently arrested on charges including possession of child pornography.
The Canadian indie rock band said it had severed all ties with Seiders, 44, after his arrest was announced in a news release by local Palm Desert, California, police on Thursday, April 17.
“Everyone in the band is absolutely shocked, horrified, and devastated by the news of the charges against Joe Seiders—and we have immediately severed all ties with him. Our hearts go out to everyone who has been impacted by his actions,” the band said in a statement shared via Instagram.
The Riverside County sheriff’s office said Thursday that Seiders was arrested following two separate incidents on April 7 and April 9. Officers were dispatched to a “suspicious circumstance” in Palm Desert on April 7 and spoke to an 11-year-old boy who said that an “unknown male adult recorded him on a cell phone while he was using the restroom,” per 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).
