Ex Mac DeMarco bandmate Jon Lent jailed for sexual assault
Jon Lent pleaded guilty earlier this year
A musician who formerly played with Mac DeMarco has been imprisoned for two years for sexual assault.
Jon Lent, DeMarco’s former bassist and percussionist, has been in jail since June, though the news was only made more public recently when the victim got in touch with Pitchfork.
The victim, known only as ‘S’, emailed the publication last month to reveal Lent’s guilty plea from April 12 and to confirm that he’s been in jail since June 3. The charge concerned an incident that occurred in Edmonton, Canada in 2018.
“I had really loved Mac DeMarco for a long time before I met Jon, and that was the reason why I ever met him, because I was following all the people from the band on Instagram,” S told Pitchfork.
She added: “It has been almost six months since Jon was convicted and neither Jon nor Mac have said anything to address the situation. I now know that I was wrong to believe that legal justice also means accountability.”
A representative for DeMarco told the outlet: “Lent first told Mac about the sexual assault allegations in April 2021. Mac has not spoken to Lent since that conversation. Lent last played with Mac in January 2020. Upon learning of these allegations, Lent was immediately removed from the Mac DeMarco Band.”
DeMarco, speaking via a representative, added: “I am no longer personally associated with Lent. I would like to respect the privacy of the survivor.”
In a message viewed seen by Pitchfork that was sent by Lent to S on October 3, 2018, Lent said: “I’ve been thinking a lot about what I did and I realise that what I said was a misunderstanding was truly more a lack of consent.
“I was fully in the wrong and I feel awful about it. It’s really been eating me up inside. I feel my initial apology sounded insincere and I just want you to know how much I’ve regretted what I did. I acted cruelly and in a hurtful manner and have been afraid to acknowledge this and I realised that in ignoring what I did I’ve been making it worse.”
In other news, over the summer DeMarco joined Kenny Beats in trying to make an “Italian-American gangster rap” freestyle for an episode of the producer’s series ‘The Cave‘.
The YouTube series sees Beats and a guest make a song from scratch. Previous guests have included Slowthai, Thundercat and Danny Brown.
Asked by the producer what he wanted to make, DeMarco replied: “We’re smoking cigars. I am 25 per cent Italian. People talk a lot about ‘gangster rap.’ A lot of Italian-Americans in the movies are gangsters. How come there’s no Italian-American gangster rap?”
You can watch their attempt here.