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The drummer for the Icelandic rock band Sigur Rós has quit after facing allegations of sexual assault, according to a Monday statement on his own Facebook page. Variety reports that Orri Páll Dýrason was accused in a since-deleted Instagram post by fellow musician Meagan Boyd, who claims that Dýrason raped her in 2013 while she slept in his bed. “I woke up with the feeling of being penetrated without my consent during a deep slumber.. it happened twice that night, and I wondered myself why I didn’t leave after the first time- but I was drunk, dead tired, in shock, and this was right before I ever heard of anything like Uber/lyft … but none of that should matter because no one deserves to be raped/touched/licked/f—ed without CONSENT,” Boyd wrote, adding that she was inspired by Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony against Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh to come forward.
Soon after Boyd’s allegations surfaced, fellow Sigur Rós band members Jonsi Birgisson and Georg Holm announced Dýrason’s departure: “In the wake of the extremely serious and personal allegations made against him in recent days we have today accepted the resignation of our bandmate Orri Páll Dyrason to allow him to deal with this privately,” the pair wrote on the band’s Facebook page. Dýrason subtly denied the allegations in his own Facebook post. “I will do anything in my power to get myself out of this nightmare,” he wrote, “ but out of respect for those actually suffering from sexual violence, I will not take that fight public.” He added that “In light of the scale of this matter, I have decided to leave Sigur Rós. That is a difficult decision for me, but I cannot have these serious allegations influence the band and the important and beautiful work that has been done there for the last years. A job that is so dear to me.”