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PRESIDENT respond to ‘industry plant’ comments: “It couldn’t be more DIY if it tried”
PRESIDENT’s leader has seen the accusations from some corners of the internet, and stresses that the band’s success is “nothing to do with this big machine pushing it”.
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- Emily Garner
Ahead of this month’s highly-anticipated debut EP King Of Terrors, the mighty PRESIDENT arrive on the Kerrang! cover for the first time this week, revealing everything about what’s gone into the most talked-about new band in heavy music.
Indeed, having exploded from pretty much out of nowhere earlier this year, their mysterious frontman – known as President – has come up against some accusations online that they’re ‘industry plants’. In fact, he stresses to Kerrang!, he did the forthcoming EP entirely by himself, and there was no “big machine” conjuring it all up behind the scenes.
“I see this word ‘industry plant’ chucked around a lot, and I find that a really bewildering phrase,” he says. “It’s ironic in a way that we’re called PRESIDENT because I see a lot of misinformation put out about this band.
“People can’t get their head around the fact that a band can be selling out a tour because it doesn’t make any sense. I can’t answer those questions, but what I can absolutely, categorically answer is that it’s nothing to do with this big machine pushing it. I self-produced this record, I played every instrument, and I put it out without a label. We got some friends to help us make a video and put it up online. It couldn’t be more DIY if it tried.”
Unsurprisingly, he’s also had to contend with questions over who the members of PRESIDENT – completed by guitarist Heist, bassist Protest and drummer Vice – are. President says that, “It doesn’t bother me at all, man. That was obviously going to happen. But I’m hoping that over time, who is in the band will become far less relevant and it’s more about the artform.
“If anyone thinks that one day there’ll be an unmasking, there won’t. People can talk about it as much as they want but it’s not going to change anything.”
King Of Terrors is due out on September 26. PRESIDENT head out on their sold-out UK Campaign Trail in April 2026.
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