when Ezra Miller Music producer Oliver Ignatius was contacted in February to help him with a new music project, but Ignatius wasn’t immediately hooked. After all, he has plenty of classes booked for the next few months at Holy Fang Studios in New York. But he had known Miller since his teens and decided to make an exception.
According to him, he never imagined that Miller would steal the music they made and post it on his social media months later without credit.
Something was wrong from the start, Ignatius said. Ignatius noticed that Miller was going through a dark time and agreed to join the project as lead producer, while also serving as a “musical and spiritual life raft” for friends. “They seem to be heading towards deep water,” he told Rolling Stones“They’ve had scorched-earth consequences in their Hollywood careers. They’re severing many relationships in their lives and seem to be in a very dangerous vortex.”
With that in mind, Ignatius said he and Miller met intermittently in the Northeast and Hawaii to work on the project, and Miller was first arrested a few weeks ago for erratic behavior at an island bar. “It’s like pulling a tooth,” Ignatius said of the process. But they continued to work because Ignatius believed the end result was worth it. “We all have high hopes that this will be a beautiful project that will be meaningful to us,” Ignatius said. “this is not the truth.”
Ignatius said he took the project home and continued to work on several of the songs they wrote and produced together. In addition to tweaking the production, he added lyrics from Philadelphia rapper Ghais Guevara, whose music Ignatius played for Miller. “They sent me a great instrumental piece with a sample of Ezra’s voice,” Guevara said Rolling Stones. Miller’s reaction was exciting. “They were like ‘Fuck, this is crazy. This is really good. That shit,'” Guevara explained.
With Guevara’s rap now on a track, and some songs almost done, Ignatius said he reunited with Miller for some finishing touches. “I went in with some fear,” Ignatius said, referring to Miller’s several arrests Due to the alleged violent, unstable behavior on the island.
At that party, Ignatius said things took a turn after he introduced a song he had written about a female friend who was murdered by her husband. He said the song was “an attempt to gracefully examine patriarchal violence,” but after listening to it, Miller’s reaction was “aggressive and grumpy.”
“They were totally freaked out by the song because basic feminism is a very hard line. If we don’t agree that men’s violence against women is not worth talking about, then we’re not going to agree too much,” Igne said Hughes said. “Ezra’s behavior throughout the exchange was brutal, bellicose, threatening, and extremely aggressive.”
That night, Ignatius said he “politely withdrew” from the project for ethical reasons. Overnight, Miller leaked the unfinished original music in its entirety, including songs the actor didn’t even participate in. Miller posted a link to the SoundCloud playlist on their Instagram bio under the pseudonym “Negative Ghost Rider.”
“What Ezra did was…extremely immoral and harmful behavior,” he said. “They stole from artists who had fewer resources than them but who probably had the art that Ezra wanted…I thought the guy I knew was a lot gentler than the guy we’re seeing right now. It’s a very worrying episode Journey.” (Miller’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.)
Guevara and Ignatius are speaking out now because they want to be honored for their work — and want to stop Miller from doing something similar again. Earlier this week, Guevara — who was featured on “Thinkin’ Bout a Story” — shared his experience with Miller on Twitter. “I’m posting this just to illustrate that if you’re Ezra Stein, just know that the music they’re involved in is not the result of their own work,” he wrote. “Especially that song has my verse in it.”
Although Guevara was paid for being featured in the work, Ignatius said he now plans to take Miller to court to get them to take down the unfinished music – and possibly further damage – for being a The producer, he said he owns the master of the song. Ignatius said he had heard from Miller since the incident, but declined to say more about the interaction “because it was personal and there was no benefit or reconciliation.”
Regardless, both musicians said they wish Miller all the best. Ignatius wants Miller to get “the mental health they obviously need,” but says he won’t condone the theft of his or anyone else’s music.
“I’ve seen parts of their character that I can’t erase now. I can’t go back and believe they weren’t the person I know now,” he said. “I don’t want anything from them, I just want to be alone and stop stealing my art and intellectual property.”
“Not for drama, but for drama, I feel like what just happened was raped both artistically and spiritually,” he said. “It will never happen again.”
