In an interview with Billboard, Nick Dierl, former president of Life Or Death PR and Management, and Duncan Will, a senior publicist, discussed their plans to move forward in the aftermath of a series of allegations of sexual misconduct by Life Or Death founder Heathcliff Berru. Along with other former members of LOD, Dierl and Will plan to start a new company called Liberal Arts. Among their former clients, Killer Mike, Wet, and “quite a few of the core roster” are reportedly already on board with the new enterprise.
“It’s an amazing opportunity to start our own company,” Will told Billboard, “but I feel conflicted having it born out of these events. We needed to take steps, and within our [new] company, we put our female coworkers in positions of leadership that involves them fully in all decision-making processes.”
Dierl added, “It’s also important that we foster an environment within our company that’s very cooperative. There needs to be transparency between us, because Nick and I were not fully informed of things regarding the company before. For example, I'm now aware Domino Records stopped working with us due to the Amber Coffman incident [the Dirty Projectors are signed to Domino Records], but I was never informed about it. I want our employees to feel like they are an integral part of the decision-making processes and that we all have a personal responsibility for each other.”
Will and Dierl stressed that “[Berru] was barely ever in the office” and that “no one has ever said anything to us before Amber.”
“I never witnessed any nonconsensual behavior,” Dierl added.
“I’ve personally accepted that there are people who know us well enough and will believe us based on our actions in the past,” he continued. “I have also fully accepted that there are a number of people who will not, regardless of what we say right now, and that those people have to be made believers by our actions in the future and the environment we create with our company.”
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