Industrial band Skinny Puppy invoice US government for using their music at Guantanamo Bay

The band heard that their music was being used to 'musically stun or torture people'

Industrial band Skinny Puppy have revealed that they invoiced the US government after finding out that their music had allegedly been used as a ‘torture device’ at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

Speaking to the Phoenix New Times, via The Independent, the Canadian band’s founder cEvin Key said: “…we thought it would be a good idea to make an invoice to the US government for musical services.”

He explained: “We heard through a reliable grapevine that our music was being used in Guantanamo Bay prison camps to musically stun or torture people. We heard that our music was used on at least four occasions.” The incident inspired the title of the band’s last album, ‘Weapon’.

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Speaking about how it felt to hear that their music was allegedly being used at the camp, Key said: “We never supported those types of scenarios… Because we make unsettling music, we can see it being used in a weird way. But it doesn’t sit right with us.”

Last year rapper Mos Def underwent force feeding in protest against the use of the procedure in Guantanamo Bay. Human Rights charity Reprieve recruited Mos Def to undergo force-feeding through a tube using the same method prisoners in the US camp in Cuba were subjected to, according to leaked documents. In a video, directed by BAFTA award-winner Asif Kapadia, the rapper voluntarily subjected himself to enteral feeding, with medical staff inserting a tube through his nose directly into his stomach.

Some 100 prisoners in Guantanamo were hunger-striking in 2013, protesting against their ongoing detention, despite many having not been charged or tried. Many were even cleared for release by the US Government, Reprieve said.

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