Make Me Famous Now Less Famous

Ukranian five piece band band Make Me Famous are decidedly less so now that they’ve been dropped by their label and have decided to move on without their singer, Denis Shaforostov. Sumerian Records drew first blood yesterday via Facebook, releasing a statement that they’d dropped the band.

Sumerian Records has dropped Make Me Famous. It’s a shame when band members cannot get along with each other. We wish all of them the best in their future endeavors. Maybe there’s a band from Australia that is more ready and determined for this open spot on the Euphrates roster?

The cause of the friction is apparently Shaforostov, at least if you’re willing to go with the lengthy statement that they released via their Facebook page. Apparently, they’re finishing their first-ever headlining tour without him, with singers from the support acts, which include Get Scared, Heartist, and I am King filling in, which should be plenty awkward. Here’s the statement:

We are currently in the middle of our first, and unfortunately the last headline tour as the band Make Me Famous. This will also be our last tour and time playing in the band known as Make Me Famous. As it were, most the members of Make Me Famous were very excited and grateful for this opportunity. We would like to say that we love playing music; love touring and most importantly WE love the fans.

We would like to make a statement on the state of Make Me Famous. We four members were never treated like equal musicians to Denis Shaforostov. According to Denis, he was the only member in the band and he treated the rest of us as unpleasant as humanly possible, it was not fun being in a band with him. It was as if everybody but Denis were hired musicians and were expected to do any and everything that he would tell to us to do. Denis would also expect to keep a larger portion of any band income, in return he would treat us disrespectfully and give everyone in the band and the bands team an everlasting negative attitude. From those on the inside of the industry, this might not come as much of a surprise.

Denis not only lied to our label and management about who wrote what in the band, but lied to the fans as well. Denis told everyone that he wrote and recorded 99% of the bands music; in actuality all of Make Me Famous had a large portion in the creative of both. The music we made, including production and recording of our album was a collaborative effort involving all members of the band. We were not appreciated for anything by Denis, he would take his front-man position in the band to his advantage. He lied to the bands label and management in order to get paid more on royalties, payouts and even daily band tour allowances. Meanwhile it was us, the rest of the members of Make Me Famous, who did what normal, hardworking touring musicians do (setting up our gear, loading in merch, driving to the shows) as Denis refused to help while doing nothing but making nasty comment after nasty comment such as, “I brought you here, you owe me! You’re nothing without me”!!

After around 10 months of dealing with Denis and the stress that came with him, we approached our team about his behavior and told them how we did not want to continue on without him. As of right now Denis has overstayed his welcome, he has a plane ticket booked home to the Ukraine and is flying back mid-tour. We will finish the tour without Denis, but sadly is not the first show without him as he has missed out on a whole tour previously because he simply did not want to play that tour (due to the fact that he once told the headlining band vocalist over twitter that THEY would be opening for Denis in 6 months).

In summary, Denis has some issues and according to Denis, the fault to his issues is everyone and anyone but himself. This will be the end of our current incarnation, but we promise you the rest of the members, minus Denis will continue on making music and touring under a new forthcoming name. Our industry team continues to back us and we look forward to playing for you in 2013!

Please come out and support our final Make Me Famous shows (dates below). We would surely appreciate the support from our fans, various singers from the support bands will be filling in on Denis’ spot and it will surely be a good time to mark the end of something that we all loved and were excited about but was ultimately ruined by one person—Denis Shaforostov

While it says in the statement that their “industry team” is still backing them, it’s hard to imagine how, given that they’ve been dropped by their label, but at least Make Me Famous fans (there have to be some out there, considering they’re headlining) can look forward to a new band from them.