Australian electro band The Presets have told fans to stop listening to their music if they believe in the execution of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
"If you believe in state sanctioned murder, are against compassion and think you are above making mistakes ... please ... unfollow us, delete all our music and stop listening to us altogether. Peace," the duo posted on their official Facebook page.
Debate has since raged between a number of their 228,000 fans and the artists known as Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes for a number of days after they posted a message of support to the condemned drug smugglers and their families late on Saturday night.
While many supported the musicians pledge for mercy, several fans criticised their compassion for the two men who are set to be tied to wooden planks in a field and shot about midnight on Tuesday.
"Trust me, when you f--k up and make a total dickhead out of yourself, I won't kill you over it," they replied.
"If you agree with murder, lack of compassion and openly display those views on our page then yes, you are a total c--t and can f--k off. I don't care if that offends, if you truly have delicate sensibilities then surely you are not a passive murderer."
OK. Obviously that all got a bit out of control yesterday. I feel strongly about this issue but that’s still no excuse...Posted by The Presets on Sunday, April 26, 2015
The pair are no strangers to politically charged issues. The 2007 single My People was inspired by the plight of asylum seekers during the Howard era.
"I felt so horrible about the way we treat these destitute people that I wanted to write a desperate-sounding song. The line 'Let me hear you scream if you're with me' could be understood to come from the perspective of someone who is locked up, needing to hear that there are people outside who are behind him and supporting him," Hamilton told the now defunct Rave Magazine at the time.
The song spent more than a year and a half in the ARIA top 100 singles chart and was later used by Channel Seven to promote coverage of the Beijing Olympics.
