Update: Label head Geoff Rickly has severed ties with investor Martin Shkreli.
“Today, Collect Records — with the support and encouragement of all of our artists — have agreed to fully sever our relationship with Martin Shkreli, effective immediately,” he wrote in a statement.
“When I decided to get into business with Martin, we took him on as a patron. He was completely silent and allowed us to do business as we pleased. His only ask was that we sign bands that we believed could make great art given the right environment and not to focus on a profit, no matter how dire the bottom line.”
“Never in a million years did any of us expect to wake up to the news of the scandal that he is now involved in. It blindsided and upset us on every level. As such, we know it is impossible for us to continue having any ties with him. For my part, I’ve always strived to make Collect a place that was so liberal, encouraging, and artist-friendly that no one would ever walk away from us willingly, though to do so at any time would be very easy. To that end, I hope that our bands continue to believe in our guidance and passion. Any of them that have had an incurable crisis of confidence will be allowed to leave with nothing but the kind of encouragement that we’ve built our label on. ”
Geoff Rickly’s label faces an uncertain future after pharma CEO scandal.
Bands on the Collect roster have spoken out after discovering that their label is owned by scumbag venture capitalist Martin Shkreli, who recently gained notoriety for hiking the price of an Aids drug from $13.50 to $750 per pill.
The label is run by singer Geoff Rickly of Thursday and No Devotion, who revealed the connection with Shrekli in a Noisey interview yesterday.
“When I met him, he was charming, he was goofy and he was a fan of Thursday. It’s hard for me to come to grips with all of this because this was my first impression,” said Rickly, adding: “I can’t see my future at all in the label.”
As a “silent partner” in Collect, Shkreli had “never asked to see the bottom line,” explained Rickly. “His only goal was to further my vision.”
“My head is still spinning, and though I want to believe that there is some reason that he would do this that is some remotely positive way, the only thing I can see is that it is totally and completely heartbreaking.”
Philadelphia band Nothing are about to release their first album on the label. The band’s lead singer Dominic Palermo told Hopes&Fears: “I’ll sit on this record forever until we find a way to release it that’s not connected to him. I’ll never put another record out before I’ll do something with anyone connected to this guy.”
His bandmate Nicky Money told Noisey: “This is a fucking nightmare though, way beyond what any major label might do. It’s something that I could never live with.”
Shrekli hasn’t commented on the future of Collect, though he has spent an inordinate amount of time winding up internet critics who fail to share his vision of sick patients as cash cows.
