An open letter to Max "Dandy" Eckert of Driftwood Records
Hey Max,
You probably noticed that I blocked you on my main facebook and just slowly disconnected and distanced myself from you. There are reasons as to why I did this, and there are reasons that I am making this letter public. Really, I just want to set the record straight on you once and for all.
I liked you at first, I thought you were a perfectly decent person, but really as time went on I realized how truly toxic you actually were. Remember last year when I was extremely suicidal, and you found out and tried to talk me out of it by saying that suicide was “gay?” On top of that, how about all the other times where you chose to use gay as a synonym for stupid? At the time, I identified as a gay male, and I found what you said to me made things astronomically worse, so great job on that. Seriously buddy, who the fuck says that to a person?
What about more recently, when you started appropriating the term queer for your identity, even though you have told me several times that you are a straight, cis male who is comfortable in his own skin. I never said it then, but I now realize that you were just trying to get out of being part of the oppressive majority that is straight white men. To even further appropriate queerness, you made a freaking riot grrrl shirt just to increase sales. Cause hey! Being a feminist magical witch queer girl is the hot new thing right now, so ya just gotta cash in on it.
Let’s go even further and talk about the time you flaked out on that show I put on specifically for you and your old band. Let’s talk about how I put on that show anyway, and how your friend chose to assault my friend by slamming into her at full force, and then proceed to chase her out of the venue. Let’s talk about how she got a concussion, and yet you chose to defend him and his actions, because HXC. Let’s also talk about how you ignored the fact that he kept spewing out about how he didn’t give a fuck about her, like when he didn’t give a fuck about putting swastikas on another band’s equipment.
Let’s talk about that time you made a joke about how pronouns are invalid sometimes, let’s talk about how many people you fucked on merchandise, let’s talk about how you manipulate people to do your dirty work. Let’s talk about your misogyny, how is it that I got free records for my volunteer work when I was male identified, and yet a female identified person who did the same work a year ago got jack shit despite being promised free merch.
My point is, you are not helping the music scene, you are making it fucking trashy. This is why people are abandoning you, this is why people are so uptight around you, this is why you are scum. Take this any way you want to. I completely regret being a part of your label.
this person is apparently fucking people over again even though this post is from a year ago…
be careful folks
Bringing this back over a year later because it’s important that the word is and stays out to stay the hell away from this psychopath.
A chapter in my life from a couple of years ago is, unfortunately, dedicated to being involved with Driftwood Records. …. at least his cats were sweethearts.
Here’s a rundown of what happened over the course of a few months:
I was sexually assaulted multiple times (which he’ll deny because “I never said no” - but that’s a red herring; he just “encouraged” me to drink a shit ton of alcohol with my anxiety and sleeping pills so I wasn’t able to). I was manipulated into hours of labour/”dirty work” for absolutely NO compensation. I still had to pay full price if I wanted just one record from the label. I was emotionally abused to the point where I would sneak around his house and find sharp objects to cut myself with because that’s how much worse being around him was making my depression. I was dragged to shows where I would be ignored, get hurt, and almost never enjoy myself. I was forced to listen to his bullshit as he talked about how much these bands I like (such as TWIABP) were just awful. And to top it off, I was expected to give him my full attention 100% of the time and cater to his every whim whenever I was over there, but he wouldn’t give me the time of day if he didn’t want to.
I’ve stayed silent about this for a couple of years now, and I cannot continue to do so. If this reaches anyone and prevents them from making contact with him in some way, then it’s worth it.
However, there is a current reason that makes this letter once again become relevant:
A musician I got to know a while back through our local scene, totally unrelated to anything I did at driftwood, now finds himself totally screwed over by Dandy. Long story short, he’s losing a lot of money trying to make it on his current tour because Dandy was a shithead and didn’t give him ANY of the money from sales that was promised, and didn’t even give him complete records that he could sell at full price. And this isn’t the first time that Driftwood Records has put a musician in a situation like this.
This isn’t just about my personal demons or my terrible experience, this is about exposing Driftwood for what it is.
Please, for your own safety, NEVER associate with Driftwood Records.
We are so fucking over this person. This nails it in the coffin. Please contact the RAINN hotline 800-656-HOPE(4673) if this terrible person has hurt you and you are unsure what to do. Don’t ever support this shit head. We learned the hard way.
