Real Estate reveals that it fired guitarist for "allegations of unacceptable treatment of women"
Last May, Brooklyn-based indie rockers Real Estate announced that they were parting ways with guitarist Matt Mondanile; at the time, the band’s remaining members said they were splitting from Mondanile because he wanted to focus on his solo project, Ducktails. Today, though—and in light of the currently increased scrutiny on decisions that encourage silence about sexual harassment of women—the band’s members have revealed the real reason for Mondanile’s firing: “allegations of unacceptable treatment of women” that they’d received about him.
Pitchfork reports the news, along with a flat denial from Mondanile—who just released a new Ducktails album on his own independent label—that he has or had done anything wrong. A year after Mondanile’s departure from Real Estate, frontman Martin Courtney gave an interview to Uproxx where he appeared to be uncomfortable about the split with his childhood friend, responding to a question about the departure by saying, “He didn’t just quit. I mean, there’s more to it. It’s kind of stuff that I don’t necessarily want to talk about. So I don’t know, its just complicated.”
The band was less ambiguous in its language today, releasing the following statement:
Matt Mondanile was fired in February 2016 when allegations of unacceptable treatment of women were brought to our attention. While we urged him to seek counseling at the time of termination, we are no longer in contact. We feel that any abuse of one’s power or status to victimize another is completely unacceptable. We applaud the courage of the women who came forward to make us aware so that we could address the issue head on.