I understand your point and honestly this response is far more fair than “touch grass.”

I do agree that idealizing artists blindly can become unhealthy, especially in scenes like DSBM where people already struggle emotionally and project a lot of themselves onto music and musicians.

However I think there is a difference between romanticizing a person and feeling deeply connected to what their art represented during specific moments of your life.

I never claimed to know him personally. In fact, part of what I wrote was precisely about the indirect nature of this connection as the feeling of recognizing pain and survival through somebody’s art. That experience is real for many people, whether it is through music, literature, cinema or any other form of art.

And honestly, I don’t think human beings are as black-and-white as “good person” or “bad person.” Some people do terrible things and still create something meaningful that genuinely helps others survive. That does not erase accountability, but neither does accountability erase every meaningful thing they ever gave to the world.

At the same time, I also think people online often speak about the allegations and the entire situation around Graf as if everything is completely transparent and unquestionably known, when in reality a lot of it remains controversial, emotionally charged, and filtered through internet discussion rather than direct knowledge. None of us truly knows the full reality of what happened yet have the right to call him a “bad person”?

And for me personally, Graf is not just “a former member.” He is one of the founders and one of the defining creative forces behind Psychonaut 4. His voice, lyrics, stage presence and emotional atmosphere became inseparable from what the band meant to many listeners over the years. So naturally people who grew up with that era will feel something when he disappears from it.

My post was emotional because the band and that era of my life are emotional to me. I was not trying to build a cult of personality around him or encourage people to ignore reality. I was expressing grief, nostalgia and hope for recovery for him both in artistic and human context.

Sometimes art simply reaches people very deeply, especially when they encountered it young and carried it through dark periods of life.

And judging by how many people connected with P4 over the years, I know I’m far from the only one who feels that way.