Illinois metalcore band Oceano recently announced they’re hanging up their hats with a run of farewell shows, but has since become embattled controversy surrounding the flyer they put out, leading to them disappearing from social media and See You Next Tuesday dropping off the short-run tour.
Last week, artist Chris Gallien came forward to accuse the band of stealing from the design of a concert poster that they asked him to make and then allegedly never paid for. “Ya I’m not keeping my mouth shut,” Gallien wrote in a social media post, alongside images of the two posters.
“Don’t meet your heroes, they’ll take advantage of you,” he continued. “That Oceano tour flier that dropped yesterday was my work and I got zero credit for it. Straight up ‘hey, you can copy my homework, just change it up a little.’”
“I was told my flier didn’t make the cut, and then see that my work was completely ripped off and plagiarized,” Gallien went on to say. “With that being said, I’m not working with Adam or Oceano on anything moving forward. That’s the last time I do anything without upfront deposits and contracts. Even the big boys will play you.”
See You Next Tuesday Drops Off Ocean Tour
Late Monday night, things got worse for Oceano, as See You Next Tuesday announced that they were dropping off the tour.
“Half of See You Next Tuesday’s members are visual artists and rely on art as their sole income,” the band wrote in a statement. “Given the current tour poster situation, it has presented a huge dilemma for us, challenging our morality and standards as artists. We stand against things like AI stealing art from hardworking artists for the profit of the less creative, with zero recognition to the original artists.”
“This may seem like a minor problem to people outside of the art world, but it is seriously damaging to the livelihoods of artists who use their art to support themselves and their families,” the band’s statement continued. “This situation between Oceano and the original artist of the tour poster, Chris Gallien, although a different type of situation, awkwardly aligns itself with the same reasons we despise AI.”
“In the end, we as a band have decided we are not comfortable with the current situation and will no longer be part of this tour,” See You Next Tuesday concluded. “We would like to apologize to everyone who worked on making the tour happen for us and anyone who was looking forward to seeing us live. Lastly, we hope a positive resolution can be reached between all other parties involved.”
In addition to See You Next Tuesday, the tour was set to feature I Declare War, Filth, and BackBiter. At this time, Oceano has not commented on the situation, but they have scrubbed their social media accounts, per Metal Injection. It’s currently unclear if the tour will continue.
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