Earlier this week, Brand New announced their first tour since frontman Jesse Lacey faced multiple allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor in 2017. On Friday (Apr. 4), a woman came forward with a previously undisclosed allegation of grooming that began in 2005.
In a detailed Medium post, a woman by the name of Aiyana shared her story of meeting Lacey and his tour manager with her best friend when she was 15 and her friend was 16 (Lacey would have been 26 or 27 around this time). After she gave Lacey handmade gifts, he asked for her contact information. From there, the band’s tour manager offered Aiyana and her friend VIP access to various shows and tours, inviting them through AIM. They hung out at the tour bus regularly.
At a show in Kansas, Lacey allegedly became “playful” and “teasing,” and said something along the lines of, “If we’re gonna be friends, you’re gonna have to put up with a little teasing every now and then.” They had dinner with the band and Lacey initiated regular contact with Aiyana through AIM. He would allegedly frequently make comments such as, “I wish you weren’t 15 years old.” After one show, the tour manager allegedly sent a text to Aiyana along the lines of, “You two are so cute — Jesse and I were just talking about how we want to snuggle with you both on the tour bus.”
Lacey would allegedly give shoutouts to Aiyana and her friend onstage and dedicate songs to them, and on one occasion he invited them to a lakehouse to swim and even offered to drive them to Walmart to buy swimsuits for them. They were not allowed to join the afterparty, but Lacey allegedly insisted on driving them back to our hotel.
When Aiyana, her friend, and Lacey were playing video games on the tour bus one night, Lacey was teasing Aiyana about something when she jokingly asked, “Why do you hate me so much?” Lacey allegedly responded, “I don’t hate you, the truth is I’m in love with you, but you’re just not old enough for me to marry you yet.”
When a Brand New fan who was friends with Aiyana got ahold of Aiyana and Lacey’s conversations and emailed them to Lacey, Lacey allegedly called Aiyana and her mother to insist to keep their relationship a secret. He said something along the lines of, “You’ve become a close friend, one of my best friends, actually… and although we understand our relationship, others might not without more context.” From then on, if she was talking to Lacey’s friends, Lacey would make a comment like, “Careful, she might take what you tell her and put it on the Internet.”
In 2007, Lacey allegedly met up with Aiyana in New York while she was visiting her mother and sister, and he joined her family for dinner. He allegedly gifted her a Polaroid camera and put his arm around her as they walked through the city.
Aiyana wrote that the Brand New reunion tour should not be taking place, especially because Lacey’s 2017 apology did not admit what he had done. “To my knowledge, he has yet to name specific behaviors that were problematic — like the grooming, manipulation, and coercion — and he never reached out to the victims to attempt any form of restitution,” she wrote.
Read her full post here, which includes pictures and voice memos.
If you or someone you know has undergone sexual abuse, please visit rainn.org or contact the National Sexual Assault Helpline at 1-800-656-4673.
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