King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Breaks Down Decision to Ditch Spotify: ‘We’ve Been Saying F— Spotify for Years’

Prog rock ensemble King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard further elaborated on their decision to remove their discography from Spotify.

Last month, prog rockers King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard released a new demo collection, stating “out everywhere except Spotify. (f— Spotify). You can bootleg it if you wanna.” The band further elaborated on the decision, which stemmed from Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s investments in AI military technology.

“A PSA to those unaware: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek invests millions in AI military drone technology,” the band wrote. “We just removed our music from the platform. Can we put pressure on these Dr. Evil tech bros to do better? Join us on another platform.”

That move followed similar sentiments from indie band Deerhoof, who pulled their discography from the streaming service over Daniel Ek’s involvement with defense company Helsing, of which he serves as chairman. Helsing specializes in the sale of software utilizing AI to inform military decisions.

Now, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, King Gizzard is doubling down on the decision. Vocalist/guitarist Stu Mackenzie discussed finding out about Ek’s investments and his initial reaction.

“A bit of a shock, and then feeling that I shouldn’t be shocked,” said Mackenzie. “We’ve been saying f— Spotify for years. In our circle of musician friends, that’s what people say all the time, for all of these other reasons, which are well documented. We saw a couple of other bands who we admire, and thought, ‘I don’t really want our music to be here, at least right now.’”

Mackenzie expounded upon the band’s decision, noting the challenges associated with taking a stand while continuing to make their music accessible to fans.

“The thing that made it hard was that I do want to have our music be accessible to people,” he said. “I don’t really care about making money from streaming. I know it’s unfair, and I know they are banking so much. But for me personally, I just want to make music, and I want people to be able to listen to it. The hard part was to take that away from so many people. But sometimes you’ve just got to say, ‘Well sorry, we’re not going to be here right now.’”

As for whether the band’s decision to leave Spotify will have any impact on Daniel Ek’s decisions, Mackenzie says he’s certain it won’t have any effect on the billionaire. But he still thinks fans will appreciate the band’s efforts.

“I don’t expect Daniel Ek to pay attention to this. We have made a lot of experimental moves with the way we’ve released records—bootlegging stuff for free. We have allowed ourselves a license to break conventions, and the people who listen to our music have a trust and a faith to go along on this ride together,” he adds.

“I feel grateful to have the sort of fan base you’ll just trust, even when you do something a little counterintuitive. It feels like an experiment to me, like, ‘Let’s just go away from Spotify, and let’s see what happens.’ Why does this have to be a big deal? It actually feels like we’re just trying to find our own positivity in a dark situation.”

King Gizzard has a slew of live dates queued up through the end of the year, starting in Manchester on October 31 and ending in Melbourne on December 13.