OnlyDans
Fantastic way to address the trolls and to get your thoughts out. I was bobbing my head along the whole time!
Favorite track: The Troll Part 2 (Things I Should Have Said).
Put together very quickly, and in response to some online abuse I recevied last week, 'The Troll' is an avant FUNkstravaganza for a collapsed society.
There is one deliberate mistake in the lyrics, and also a snippet of a melody that appears briefly which is from one of my other songs. If you spot them, I will give you a shout on on social media, and call you a genius.
Dedicated to my independent musician friends, who have to deal with trolls (abusers) on the regular.
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The Full Story...
On Sunday May 3rd 2020, I was looking through the feed on a popular social media website.
One of my favourite things is discovering new, interesting, independent artists, and I noticed that someone had shared a post by a ‘fellow musician’. I was just about to walk my dogs, so I followed them and made a note of their Bandcamp link so I could have a listen to them later.
On returning from the dog walk I saw that this musician had sent me a private message, which read -
“Look you mother f**ker, I think musicians trolling musicians is the worst trolling of all. PLEASE F**K OFF. THANKS.”
I was shocked and confused. I have never trolled anyone. I’m a quiet, gentle, easy going guy, who likes to help others and support the independent music community.
Straight after sending the message, she blocked me, so I was unable to message her on that particular site, to find out why she would abuse me in such an aggressive manner.
I spent some time thinking about what had happened. Had she confused me with someone else who she’d had a bad experience with in the past? I had no idea.
A while later it occurred to me that she might have thought that I was trying to pass myself off as 80’s Goth legend Peter Murphy from the band Bauhaus.
I’ve had numerous instances of people thinking I’m him over the years, but no one has ever attacked or abused me for it.
As I had made a note of her Bandcamp link, I decided to message her via the ‘Contact’ link on there.
I sent her a message -
“Hello, I implore you to please check your facts before sending offensive, disturbing messages to other musicians. I am neither a ‘mother f**ker’ or a ‘troll’.
I am still confused as to what prompted your outburst. The only thing I can think of is that you have somehow presumed that I’m pretending to be Peter Murphy, the singer from Bauhaus. I’m not pretending to be anyone. I was given the name Peter Murphy by my parents when I was born. The only connections I have to the other Peter Murphy is that we have several real life mutual friends, and were born around 30 miles away from each other.
Please do not respond if you are going to direct abuse at me.
Wishing you peace,
Pete Murphy (NOT the singer from Bauhaus)”
A while later, she must have unblocked me on the social media site, because she posted on my page -
“@PeteMurphyMusic What do you want anyway?”
I replied -
“I don’t want anything. I followed you because I was interested in checking out your music. I like discovering artists, making musical friends, supporting independent artists, etc. I have no idea why you sent me such and abusive message. It was totally unnecessary.”
At this point, I had a look at her profile page, and noticed that she had made a couple of posts about me...
“Why is this guy bugging me on Band Camp and on here, calling himself Pete Murphy, if you can ask him for me, it would be great, because I cannot send him an message and there was not one single real thing on his profile, I am tired of BS people. Ask him.”
And...
“If my parents named me Robert Smith and I did post punk I might change my name to like David Smith the musician, oh wait I did kind of. It is so hard to figure this shit out hackers. I am going to have to put a new OS on this baby because it is totally compromised computer.”
And...
“If anyone thinks I could ever be confused who Peter Murphy is or some troll called Pete Murphy, you are sadly mistaken”
So, I commented on her posts...
“And I’m not ‘bugging you on Bandcamp’. I sent you one message because you called me a ‘mother f**ker’ and a ‘troll’ for no reason. You are the one in the wrong here. I’m a polite, respectful guy, who doesn’t understand why you sent me such and abusive message.”
And...
“And it seems you are continuing to abuse and lie about me on your profile. I have taken screenshots of everything for proof. I don’t know what your problem is, or why you need to cause upset, drama, and abuse people for no reason, but I wish you well. Goodbye.”
She replied with...
I apologize but please do not email me in my private email box, when there is no reason for you to even care what I think, and I do not understand this. The page still looks like questionable troll material. Please do not do it again.”
My final response was...
“I didn’t email your private inbox. I emailed you via Bandcamp, which is a public site, so I could defend myself from being called an MF and a troll! You obviously have issues, and you seem to be trying to pin some blame on me for your abusive actions. I’m going to block you now.”
I have no idea if she’s made more posts about me, because I blocked her.
I hate injustice of any kind, and in the following days, I started thinking about some of the ‘things I should have said’, which I’m obviously unable to do at this point.
I could have talked about the dictionary definition of the word ‘troll’ (“to leave an insulting or offensive message on the internet in order to upset someone, or to get attention or cause trouble”), and how her actions were far more reflective of the term than the fact that I happen to have the same name as another musician.
I could have also brought up the fact that there are many artists/bands who have the same name (including the fact that there was a famous band in the 1960’s called Nirvana. Does this mean that Kurt Cobain was a troll?). What about bands like The Charlatans, Anthrax, and artists such as James Hall, James Taylor, and many more...
The funny thing is, I googled the name of the woman who abused me, and found that there are other musicians out there with the same name as HER!
I could also have responded to her saying that there was ‘not one single real thing on his profile’ by mentioning that there are links to my 40+ albums/EP’s on Bandcamp, links to my radio show where I’ve interviewed several famous/notable people who can all vouch for the fact that I’m very real and not a troll, and links to numerous publications who have interviewed me or reviewed my music.
Oe of the reasons I seek out artists, is for possible airplay on my radio show. I like to feature and support independent / unsigned / underappreciated musicians (I'm not doing the show at the moment, but I might start doing it again at some point in the future).
As a relevant aside - One of the publications that has interviewed me is a political activism website. I noticed that the lady who abused me says in the bio on her profile that she’s a ‘political activist’. I would have presumed that a political activist would be well aware of the spread of misinformation and lies on the internet, and be well versed in such concepts as ‘fact checking’ before publicly spouting nonsense about other people.
I tend to dwell on things. I suffer with various mental health issues, including OCD. The form of OCD I have means that I have a tendency to overthink things, and focus in on negative situations to the point where I become totally consumed by the whole thing. Unable to sleep, mind movies on repeat, driven crazy by the inability to remove this stupid thing from my mind.
So.... I had the idea to write about what happened, to try to ‘get it out of my system’.
There are many more things I could have said to the person who abused me. Some of them are addressed on the EP.
Maybe writing, recording, and releasing this EP is a pointless exercise. I don’t know. I just know that it was something I had to do. I will always stand up for myself and the people close to me when people start hurling insults and untruths. Abusers shouldn’t be tolerated.
Does making this EP mean that I am stooping down to my abuser's level? I don't see it that way. I see it as standing up for myself after receiving some very nasty abuse, which was totally unprovoked and uncalled for.
I don’t know if my abuser will ever see this, or hear these songs. I don’t really care one way or the other. She seems like the type of person who will never listen to reason, never change her mind, and always feel that she’s the one in the right.
If she does ever read these words, I’m a very reasonable person who is more than happy to discuss the matter further, in a calm and adult manner.
By the way, I have since followed Peter Murphy from Bauhaus on Twitter and Instagram. He appears to post on his own accounts (rather than have a 'social media team' do it), and he hasn't contacted me to call me a troll.
I am, and will continue to be, Pete Murphy.
Cheers!
credits
released May 15, 2020
All songs, recording, mixing, and mastering by Pete Murphy.
Pete Murphy, UK songwriter. I make unpopular music in numerous styles... everything recorded, performed, mixed, and mastered
by me in a tiny corner of the lounge in my house. Avant pop, experimental, electronic, techno, solo jazzy piano, techno jazz, rock, musicals, sound art, comedy, and more......more
Ergo Phizmiz is one of the most prolific and inventive artists on the planet. This is the first E.P. album I heard, and I very quickly became a fan. Pete Murphy
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