Back in September, Kris "Rain Man" Trindl filed a $5 million lawsuit against Yasmine and Jahan Yousaf of Krewella, alleging that he'd been kicked out of the group after he took some time to rehab his alcohol addiction. His allegations told a story of what appeared to be a plot to have him axed from the group without properly compensating him for his time as a producer and third member of the group. At the time, the sisters sad they would be responding to the lawsuit, and today their side has come out via Hollywood Reporter, painting a different picture.
Through documents presented by their attorney Richard Busch, the sisters alleged that Trindl had been "pretending to DJ," a problem that was blown up due to his admitted alcohol abuse. They detailed how he'd show up to performances inebriated and would mess up their live performances, to the point where his gear was being unplugged (which he apparently wouldn't notice). They go on to specify that while he received production credits on all tracks from their debut album Get Wet, he "only wholly contributed," didn't do much on four of the tracks, and the rest of his work was actually done by outside producers.
After months spent trying to work through Trindl's issues with alcohol, the sisters apparently realized in the spring of 2014 that they needed to fix this, and for the dates that Trindl wasn't touring live, all three agreed to not have him represented on flyers until he came back on tour full time. There's mention of an intervention that they believe Trindl attended to while high on weed, ultimately telling everyone he wouldn't be attending a sixty-day rehab stint (which he did mention in his lawsuit). It appears to be that this was the breaking point, and negotiations were being conducted to figure out where Trindl stood in the group; the sisters allege that Trindle ended up resigning in June of 2014.
The most interesting point is that, even though they say he resigned in June, Trindl had still been getting his one-third share from live gigs, to the tune of $1 million from the 12 months prior.
Dina LaPolt, who is Kris Trindl's lawyer, made the following statement regarding their counterclaims: "Yes he's an alcoholic and an addict. The point that it took him a while to get sober doesn't give them right to arbitrarily throw him out and deny him his third share." And while they say that Kris doesn't know how to DJ, Dina also hit them with the following zinger: "When they met, [the sisters] didn't know what a middle C was on the keyboard. They still don't. The only notes they know are bank notes."
While Rain Man recently debuted a new project, Hunter Square, the EDM Internets was abuzz today over a change to Krewella's logo and Facebook posts dropping one phrase: "Say Goodbye." They announced that they'd be speaking out—apparently via live stream—this Sunday at 5PM PST. We'll see what they say; word is that "Say Goodbye" is a new track, but who knows what their livestream will entail.
