Jolyon Petch is receiving death threats after Reigan Derry stoush
New Zealand-born DJ Jolyon Petch has responded to copyright claims made by Australian singer Reigan Derry on Instagram during Wednesday night’s ARIA Awards.
At the centre of the stoush is his now Platinum-certified radio and streaming smash ‘Dreams’, a cover of the 1977 Fleetwood Mac classic on which Derry sings the vocals.
The story has since been picked up by mainstream media, including a segment on The Project.
The record was nominated for Best Dance Release at the 2021 ARIA Awards, a gong that ultimately went to RÜFÜS DU SOL this week for ‘Alive’.
In a statement shared with TMN, Petch said he had become the target of Derry’s fans in recent weeks which has since escalated to death threats. He also maintains that ‘Dreams’ was not released without Derry’s consent and that they had “come to an agreement”.
“Over the lockdown, Reigan & I had worked on a number of covers under the same commercial terms. Reigan was aware her vocals were a paid session, to be released and at no time have I ever received an invoice from her that stated ‘Demo’.
“Reigan was never concerned with any of these covers, never asked to be credited, and only in the past 7 weeks has Reigan raised it with me with the success of ‘Dreams’, and well after I had paid Reigan what was agreed upon last year.
“We did a single together called ‘Holding On’ which Reigan co-wrote and was paid for her session and registered as a songwriter. She agreed to be uncredited on ‘Holding On’.
“With ‘Dreams’ and the other covers we recorded, Reigan was paid for a session (I can’t credit Reigan for writing Dreams, as I didn’t write it either, so I have no claim to that). We even discussed working further on singles after Dreams to which Reigan sent me 4 additional toplines.
“I have gone onto credit Reigan in a number of radio interviews and was keen to involve her more across Dreams. I’ve taken Reigan’s calls and responded to her messages right away including reaching out a month ago to try and further resolve this without everyone expending more in legal bills, to which Reigan’s reply was ‘I think its best to leave coms, lawyers to lawyer’.
“The past few weeks I have been the target of Reigan’s ‘followers’ which have now escalated to death threats. I’m sure you can understand why I had to block people as no one should ever receive death threats or abuse online.
“At every stage over the past few months, we have been trying to work with Reigan and her legal team to come to an agreement, accommodating precisely her recent demands (including ongoing royalties and feature credit) even though a deal was clearly made last year.
“We thought we’d reached an amicable commercial resolution 2 weeks ago- so that she would be recognised at the ARIAs, across DSPs and YouTube, but we have been waiting for Reigan to sign the agreement. So I’m really surprised Reigan took this path on the eve of the ARIA’s when we had already agreed to settle this matter.”
Derry took to Instagram on Wednesday to share her frustration and disappointment at Petch and his label, TMRW Music, saying she feels “invisible and powerless” and is “embarrassed and exhausted” following the legal negotiations.
Derry said she now has over $8,000 in legal costs.
A fan of the former Australian Idol favourite set up a GoFundMe to raise money to cover her legal costs, with $100 of a $10,000 target donated by 11.30pm AEDT on Wednesday.
That GoFundMe has since disappeared.
Derry has posted to Instagram since Wednesday, asking fans not to send absute towards Petch or anyone who works at TMRW Music saying “it’s just not on guys.”