Former Cradle of Filth member Zoë Federoff has revealed a potential touring contract from the band, which her lawyer allegedly called, “the most psychopathic contract a session musician could ever be handed”.
Former Cradle of Filth keyboard player Zoë Federoff has continued to pull the curtain behind the scenes for her former band. Yesterday, the keyboard player took to social media to issue a final statement on her’s and her husband’s decision to leave the band.
Federoff first made the announcement on Monday via Facebook, announcing she would be departing the band in the middle of Cradle of Filth’s South American tour. She would keep details light, and ask fans to be kind to her successor.
The artist would later explain in the comments that her departure was not due to any infidelity in part of her husband Marek “Ashok” Smerda, who was also the guitarist for Cradle of Filth. In a follow-up post, she would reveal that both her and Ashok had planned to leave the band after the tour had wrapped, however due to circumstances, had chosen to leave promptly.
A day later, Ashok would also issue his own statement through social media, confirming that he did intend to finish the tour with Cradle of Filth. However, he would publicly reveal private information about the group, sharing annoyances about low pay and high stress of touring. Ashok revealed he had also requested all compositions of his be removed from upcoming releases, including an Ed Sheeran collab.
In response, Cradle of Filth would fire Ashok promptly and issue their own statement calling both Ashok’s and Federoff’s statements an attempt to “illegally defame and derail the band”.
Now, Federoff has gone scorched earth and revealed Cradle of Filth’s session musician contracts which reveal some pretty damning information regarding low pay.
In her post, Federoff claims both Ashok and herself frequently had issues with the bands management. Federoff would claim they were “dishonest, manipulative” and were trying to take money owed to Federoff and Ashok.
She would also call out Dani Filth himself, stating “He might not get his hands dirty, but in the end, he directs [management]. The atmosphere he creates is threatening and abusive and constanly exploits us for very low wages,” she wrote.
Federoff would then include screenshots of her contract, sharing that “Our lawyer called it the most psychopathic contract a sessions musician could ever be handed. We did not sign and decided to leave this year instead.”
The contract, Federoff would share, revealed that musicians were only being paid £200 per day they were required to perform, record or rehearse for performances. Musicians would also be paid £150 for days spent travelling.
It also included a clause that should the artist terminate the agreement, or breach any provisions, they are entitled to pay Cradle of Filth up to £1 million (2,073,145.00 AUD).
The contract would also stipulate that session musicians are exclusively bound to Cradle of Filth. Ashok would allude to this in his statement, airing grievances over how the low pay of the job combined with needing to perform exclusively with the band hinders their financial freedom.
Dani Filth and Cradle of Filth have yet to issue a statement in response to Federoff’s latest post.
You can read her full statement below.
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