Coincidence? Local punk act in logo dispute with English quintet
Since they formed in 2011, local punk act, The Caulfield Cult, has considered a logo of a white umbrella against a black background emblematic of its identity.
But an uncannily similar branding popped up on English metalcore quintet Bring Me The Horizon’s social media pages the past week, seemingly to promote their upcoming album.
A case of pure coincidence?
The Caulfield Cult’s vocalist-guitarist Nick Wong, 22, has since spoken out, claiming it as the band’s intellectual property and something that they deeply connect with emotionally.
He told music news site Unite Asia that it was an icon he personally drew four years ago and has been used to actively promote the band over the years.
Together with fellow co-founder of the band and bassist-vocalist Brian Chiong, they had the meaningful logo tattooed on their legs in Gainesville, Florida last year after a show that is considered a highlight in their music career.
He said in the emotional response: “Yes, it’s a pretty common tattoo design. And yes, it’s probably a coincidence because we are an unknown band and bmth has definitely never heard of us. Or maybe they saw it somewhere or someone wearing a shirt and forgot about it and then thought of it some time later, the similarities are pretty incredible, we don’t know, doesn’t really matter.
“We can be homeless musicians with only 50 likes on our facebook page and 2 followers on our instagram pages, how the logo represents us and what it means to us will not change. what disturbs me is, they are going to make millions of dollars from their marketing campaign of what seems like a new album or whatever, from something that is extremely similar to something we put on t-shirts and sell for 10 bucks a piece to try to scramble enough money to buy gas to get to the next show on tour.”
Tour
The Caulfield Cult, who recently performed at the annual Baybeats Festival and last released their Half Empty EP in May, will embark on their European tour on Friday (July 10).
The band also comprises guitarist Feroze McLeod and drummer Andrew Koh.
Bring Me The Horizon are busy teasing new music, a follow-up to 2013’s Sempiternal.
Wong, who had also addressed the issue on his personal Instagram account, stated that the band “is not pissed off or taking any further actions other than trying to let people, especially (their) friends, know what’s happening and what this originally means for (them)”.
Fans of both bands have taken to his Instagram post to voice their support or disdain.
Others slammed him for kicking up a fuss over “just an umbrella” and argued that the logo had been used even before 2011 while others fiercely backed him for voicing out.
Wong also took to Twitter to urge fans and friends to search for Bring Me The Horizon on Instagram and comment “#thecaulfieldcult” on every umbrella photo.
It is not known if Bring Me The Horizon is aware of the branding conflict but frontman Oliver Sykes, keyboardist Jordan Fish and guitarist Lee Malia have all unveiled matching umbrella tattoos on Instagram over the past two weeks.
Stickers of Bring Me The Horizon's logo can also be found pasted at various public places in different cities to fuel the hype surrounding their new music.
Sources: Unite Asia, Instagram, Twitter
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now