Cedric Bixler-Zavala, vocalist for The Mars Volta and At the Drive-In, went after Spotify on Instagram this week after Backline — a mental health and crisis support service for music industry workers — announced a partnership with the streaming platform for a mental health and songwriter summit in Nashville, Tennessee.
In a post shared via his Instagram story, Bixler-Zavala addressed Backline directly: “With Spotify? How are we supposed to take you fucking serious? Ain’t nobody at Spotify give a fuck about mental health. Fuck outta hear with this shitty propaganda. This is like forced religious arbitrations with your gremlin abusers. Wake. The. Fuck. Up. While they sit there listening to your humanity, Spotify contributes financially to death of children via military war applications they invest in.”
The anger is rooted in a controversy that flared in 2025, when it emerged that Spotify co-founder and executive chairman Daniel Ek had led a $693.6 million funding round for Helsing through his venture capital firm Prima Materia. Helsing develops AI-based military applications, and that association prompted a wave of artists to pull their music from the platform in protest. Bixler-Zavala‘s remarks are among the latest to connect Spotify‘s ownership ties to those military investments.
