Radiohead have issued a blunt statement demanding that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) remove their song “Let Down” from a social media video. The clip, posted on ICE accounts, features a choral version of the track over a montage of alleged victims of violence carried out by “illegal aliens.”
In a statement to The Independent, the band said: “We demand that the amateurs in control of the ICE social media account take it down. It ain’t funny, this song means a lot to us and other people, and you don’t get to appropriate it without a fight. Also, go f*** yourselves.”
This is not the first time the band’s members have clashed with the Trump administration. Two weeks ago, guitarist Jonny Greenwood and director Paul Thomas Anderson requested that a segment of music from the 2017 film Phantom Thread be removed from Melania Trump’s Amazon documentary. Greenwood composed the score for the film, which starred Daniel Day-Lewis.
Greenwood and Anderson’s representatives said in a joint statement that the usage was a breach of his composer agreement. They claimed that while Greenwood does not own the copyright, the film’s distributor, Universal, “failed to consult Jonny on this third-party use, which is a breach of his composer agreement.”
The documentary, directed by Brett Ratner, followed the first lady in the 20 days leading up to Donald Trump’s second inauguration. It earned $13.35 million domestically after two weekends, exceeding projections, partly due to organised groups of Republican women. The film was critically panned, receiving a one-star review from The Independent.
