Just days following Brand New's announcement of a reunion tour set to begin next month, a woman named Aiyana (no last name given) has accused frontman Jesse Lacey of grooming her as a minor throughout 2006 and 2007.

The woman wrote an article titled "A Call for Accountability: Why Jesse Lacey and Brand New Should Not Be Touring Right Now", available on Medium, where she recounts meeting Lacey after a show when she was 15 years old, leading to hours of online chats, video game sessions and family hangs around New York City.

An excerpt of Aiyana's recounting is below, via Lambgoat:

"After we had dinner with the band and returned to our home state, Jesse initiated regular contact with me through AIM. He texted me several times a week and invited me to play games with him (World of Warcraft, Yahoo! Games — sometimes for 6–7 hours at a time). I felt like I was at the center of his world. As a 15-year-old, it felt thrilling to have someone I admired so deeply establish regular connection with me."

Aiyana and her best friend received VIP access at various shows and tours and hung out on the band's tour bus in multiple states, where things turned inappropriate at times.

"After one show, I received a text message from the tour manager that said something along the lines of, "You two are so cute — Jesse and I were just talking about how we want to snuggle with you both on the tour bus." While it felt playful at the time, it also left me feeling unsettled. There were other instances where comments were made about my friend's appearance, such as remarks about her chest that seemed to suggest her display of her body could lead to getting him in trouble. Comments about the irony of being with two girls as young as we were while strolling past a courthouse together. These things would often upset us, but Jesse would quickly try to smooth things over with gestures such as hugs or kissing us on our temples. This type of push-and-pull behavior became something I recognized as part of my interactions with him, where teasing or embarrassing remarks were often followed by validation or affection. It left me feeling unsure about where the boundaries truly lay in our relationship."

Allegations of the emo frontman grooming minors first surfaced in 2017, with his first accuser, Emily Driskill, who appears in the background of photos of Aiyana and Lacey, as seen above.

Read the full essay here.