Published
Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 08:00
- George Levings allegedly owes thousands of pounds in unfulfilled lessons to people who enrolled in his Bear Music workshop.
Revered drum & bass artist George Levings, AKA Commix, has been accused of defrauding dozens of people who signed up to his music production workshop.
The allegations against Levings—who has represented Commix solo since Conrad Whittle and Guy Brewer (AKA Shifted) left the group in 2004 and 2011 respectively—were first publicised back in June. A thread appeared on drum & bass forum Dogs On Acid accusing him of owing more than £9,000 in unfulfilled lessons to 25 of the 110 students enrolled in his Bear Music workshop.
"The amount owed is £9,299 for 237 hours," the post read, before providing a chart breaking down how much was owed to each individual. "There may be more people that are also owed money and lessons who have simply given up any hope of receiving the lessons or a refund."
Levings, who is responsible for a string of acclaimed releases on labels like Metalheadz, Exit Records and Shogun Audio, "continually lets down his students by simply not showing up to booked lessons," the post continued. "He's still taking on new students and accepting payment for lessons, and still failing to deliver on lessons and refunds."
Before long, scores of Dogs On Acid users came forward with their own stories of being scammed by Levings (the thread now has 90-plus pages of comments). "I had three out of the ten lessons booked," wrote a user called el_spanko. "This hasn't come lightly. A lot of people feel absolutely ripped off. Some have had no lessons at all. Even a bit of honesty would've helped but we've all been fed false promises."
Another user, ncode, said they paid £800 upfront and only received one two-hour lesson. "Then George didn't show up twice without notifying or replying afterwards, so I asked for a refund," they wrote. "This was January 7th. Since then, I've been chasing him for my money, but still haven't seen any of my £720 back."
The post alleges that the reasons Levings gave for missing bookings ranged from train strikes, crashing his bike and issues with online calendar software, through to depression, the death of a family member and splitting up with his partner.
"I'm not out for blood, I'm just out to stop this happening to more people," said Spencer Lievens, who started the Dogs On Acid thread. "There's people I've spoken to who've left the drum & bass scene because of this."
According to Lievens, the scamming has been going on for more than four years now. He accused Levings of using his reputation as Commix to exploit people. "There are a lot of young guys who massively looked up to him who he's then totally ripped off," he said.
RA spoke to Lievens and six others who signed up to the Bear Music programme. They all say that Levings failed to provide the music production lessons they'd paid for. "False promises, lies, excuses and unacceptable behaviour," was how Daniel Napier characterised his experience. He believes Levings acted maliciously. "There are far too many primary school excuses for this to be genuine," he said. "He knows what he's doing."
Another student, who asked to remain anonymous, said that Levings became abusive towards them when they requested a refund for unfulfilled classes. They said that this knocked their confidence as a producer and negatively impacted their mental health.
In an email seen by RA between Levings and the anonymous student, Levings suggested that the student was "suffering from debilitating paranoia," had "lost his grip on reality" and should seek professional help.
"George has essentially abused me to the point that I no longer think what I'm trying to build as a career is even a reality," they told RA. "I supported him as a fan when I was younger, but it literally feels like he's stripped drum & bass from my soul. I supported him again as a teacher, and now I have to walk away lost mentally and made to feel like I'm shit? My music is shit? Oh and I don't get my money back."
They continued: "I just want my money back and my mental health to be repaired. I barely listen to music anymore, let alone drum & bass."
Possibly the most egregious allegations aimed at Levings come from Nick Sherman, a US artist who makes music as Generic Meds. After being owed around £400 in unpaid lessons for over a year, Sherman decided to post his experiences with Bear Music on social media. In private messages seen by RA, Levings responded swiftly and angrily, dismissing Sherman as "psychotic" and claiming that his posts made him look like he's in need of "permanent care" and describing him as "a creature from under the bridge."
Sherman, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, paid for the course with what was left of his disability benefits. "I was initially planning to give it to my partner, who's been holding things together since my diagnosis," he said. "But she said 'no, use it on some lessons so you can follow your music dream or whatever.'"
He eventually received a refund, but the ordeal has had a lasting effect on him. "I got my money back but the situation continued to bother me," he said. "I stopped making music and started asking myself 'has this happened because my music sucks so much?' I was hurt. It affected the shit out of me. I still wake up every day with some level of anxiety."
Like Lievens, Sherman believes Levings leveraged his reputation as an artist to further deceive his students. "It kinda sucks that what I said was initially discounted just because he's a big artist," he continued. "It wasn't until more people came forward that these allegations started getting taken seriously."
The allegations of foul play also extend beyond the Bear Music workshop. Polish promoter Marcin Kluger said he was "fully scammed" by Levings after booking him to play at his party, Nocne Dramy, in Wrocław back in June.
"George texted me that his niece dropped his MacBook in the bath and that he was unable to provide music production lessons to his customers," said Kluger. "Then he asked me if I could transfer his booking fee earlier than we'd arranged."
Kluger obliged, but on the day of the performance, he received a phone call from Levings saying he'd missed his flight. Kluger then booked him a new flight, only for Levings to call again saying "Vueling employees didn't let him through the gate because his luggage was too big." Levings never made it to Wrocław, and despite multiple requests, is yet to return his booking fee to Nocne Dramy. "We're 1000 percent sure that we won't get our money back," said Kluger. "So wanted to warn other promoters who might fall for this scam."
Will Horton, who also never received the lessons they paid Levings for, hopes that this saga won't tarnish the reputation of other production tutors operating in the drum & bass sphere. He cites artists such as Amoss, Fanu, Myth and Molecular as "the real mentors" of the scene.
"I've had amazing experiences with these guys and they deserve all the recognition they can get," said Horton. "True teachers who care about the newcomers. This was my first experience with a bad teacher and I'm truly fortunate to have some amazing tutors by my side at the moment."
In light of the situation, drum & bass mentorship programme DNB Academy has pledged to help anyone who has allegedly been scammed by Levings. "We're offering our DNB Foundations Program—a comprehensive educational package, along with lifetime access to our live coaching calls—entirely free of charge for the victims and their families," founder Andre Soares told RA. Soares hopes the scheme can rebuild the "confidence, skills and musical aspirations" of those who've been affected.
"That said," Horton added. "It's about time George got exposed and established people in the scene pulled their finger out about this."
Levings is yet to respond to RA's request for comment.