Win Butler, Arcade Fire band frontman, accused of sexual misconduct

Four people have accused Win Butler, the frontman of the Grammy-winning rock band Arcade Fire, of sexual assault.

Three of the accusers are women who say they were “devoted” followers of the band between 2016 and 2020 when they were between the ages of 18 and 23, and Butler was between the ages of 36 and 39. According to Pitchfork, a fourth accuser, who identifies as gender-fluid, claims Butler sexually attacked them twice in 2015, when they were 21 and he was 34.

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Butler has been married to Arcade Fire collaborator Régine Chassagne since 2003.

According to statements he provided to Pitchfork, Butler rejected the sexual misconduct charges, claiming that he had “consensual relationships outside of my marriage.”

The accusers, who were addressed in the report by pseudonyms, claimed Butler first contacted them over social media before meeting them in person and then demanded nude images and intercourse. According to one of the women, “Butler sent her photos of his genitals against her wishes.”

Another woman said that after meeting Butler on Instagram during an Arcade Fire show in Montreal, the two exchanged “sexts and video calls” before having intercourse. However, this person told Pitchfork that she attempted suicide after having a sexual encounter in her Vancouver bedroom before a show in October 2017.

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“I felt incredibly low,” she said. “The toll of having to keep everything secret, constantly pushing my needs aside in order to appease him, lack of boundaries, and the guilt of being the other woman was getting too hard to ignore.”

Butler acknowledged being aware of her suicide attempt, but claimed she informed him “it was unrelated to me, she was suffering from mental illness.” “It was absolutely related to him,” she said.

The gender-fluid individual, a 21-year-old art student at the time, stated that they encountered Butler while the band was performing in Montreal in January 2015. They exchanged contact information and met in February, where they claim Butler improperly touched them without their consent. He returned to their apartment two days later, where “he pinned me up against the wall and was aggressively grabbing my body and sticking his tongue down my throat,” they claimed. “It was an attempt to be sexy, and it was so not OK in the context.”

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Butler termed his marriage “unconventional” at times in his statement, and said his connections with the four accusers were “short-lived,” adding that “every single one of these interactions has been mutual and always between consenting adults.”

“I have never touched a woman against her will, and any implication that I have is simply false. I vehemently deny any suggestion that I forced myself on a woman or demanded sexual favors. That simply, and unequivocally, never happened,” he said.

Butler sent Pitchfork a second statement in which he admitted to suffering with depression and drinking.

“I have long struggled with mental health issues and the ghosts of childhood abuse. In my 30s, I started drinking as I dealt with the heaviest depression of my life after our family experienced a miscarriage. None of this is intended to excuse my behavior, but I do want to give some context and share what was happening in my life around this time.”

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Chassagne, for her part, supports her spouse.

Butler is “my soulmate, my songwriting partner, my husband, the father of my beautiful boy,” she told Pitchfork. “He has been my partner in life and in music for 20 years. ” “I know what is in his heart, and I know he has never, and would never, touch a woman without her consent, and I am certain he never did,” she continued. “He has lost his way and he has found his way back. I love him and love the life we have created together.”

Butler’s publicist, Laura Eldeiry, declined to comment beyond what Butler and Chassagne said to Pitchfork.

Arcade Fire, currently a five-piece band led by the husband-and-wife team, rose to prominence with their sincere and anthemic rock. After emerging from the thriving Montreal indie scene in the mid-2000s, the band quickly rose to critical acclaim and became one of the biggest rock acts of the last two decades.

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They received a Grammy for album of the year for their third album, The Suburbs, in 2011, and headlined the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in 2014. This year, the band returned to Coachella with a surprise early-morning set supporting its latest album, We.

As of Saturday, the band’s European arena tour was still set to begin on Tuesday, with two nights at the Kia Forum in Inglewood in November.