The Retirement Of Ween Archived - Official Statement

Hello, this is Arin of Ween Archived. I’ve seen a lot of confusion concerning the state of the channel, and at first I was hesitant to respond, but I feel it important to set everything straight.

I started Ween Archived in 2021 or so, I think at least. I was 15 or 16 at the time, and Ween was the first music that ever connected to me on a level beyond basic appreciation. I became obsessed with listening to everything the band had produced, especially the b-sides, demos and outtakes, which the band had plenty of. One thing led to another, and I had started a channel uploading and remastering this material. Of course, I wasn’t the first to do this. Nor will I be the last. But it was a fun pastime that I eventually became more and more engrossed in as my love for the band grew.

To skip the backstory, I have been doing this for a few years now, and I still love the band for their music, themselves, and their fanbase. So, why am I retiring my work?

To put it simply, online trolling. In the past few months I have received plenty of harassment through my YouTube page, Discord, Reddit, etc. I don’t know who the individuals responsible are, aside from the basic pseudonyms they use. Normally, I would ignore these trolls and keep doing my work for the parts of the community I love. But the level of harassment has reached a point where I don’t even find enjoyment in the bands music anymore. And the one thing which has pushed me over the edge into retiring all together, are the leaks.

I have much more unreleased Ween material than I have posted online. But I don’t release all of it out of respect for the band. As an example, I put out a Chocolate and Cheese demos compilation with plenty of high quality unheard material, but only after the official deluxe edition of the album was released. Putting out material that the band would be able to make money from through deluxe sets harms their ability to make money from their own art, which they’ve earned.

I knew about this release 2 years in advance and held onto the material until I was sure the band didn’t have plans for it. The only material on my channel which goes against this courtesy are things which were already leaked online prior, or material which I was given to me by someone insistent on leaking it already. I mention this because a group of trolls online seems to be under the impression that I was “gatekeeping” a lot of material out of a selfish greed, and refused to listen even after I explained. And, to my horror, bits of unreleased material began to leak online. I understand loving Ween, and wanting to hear more, but I can’t feel comfortable in this community if my work will end up going against the bands wishes and ability to profit off their work. These trolls also claim that I used my Patreon to lock uncirculated Ween songs behind a paywall, but that is just not the case. Nothing unreleased was ever shared that which wasn’t also accessible from the YouTube or Discord Server, often in lossless format too. The Patreon existed mainly for remasters I would do of online material, anyone subscribed in the past can attest to that. And the Patreon has since been shut down. If the YouTube account doesn’t exist, neither can the Patreon.

To name a few other brief occurrences, this group of trolls sent me fraudulent emails pretending to be Ween associated people in my circle, messaged old friends of mine to “dig up dirt”, and uploaded fraudulent albums to the Ween Last.FM under racist and homophobic titles targeted towards me (all thankfully have been taken down).

I hope this explains a bit of why I don’t feel comfortable in this community anymore. The harassment has even continued after I took down everything, and I have considered staying quiet to hope they’d give up from lack of attention, but my friends in the Ween community also deserve full answers.

I hope that, despite the attempts of some nameless individuals in the community, you all can remember Ween Archived for what it did do, not what it didn’t. I truly appreciate all the support and hope everyone understands. All I ask is that my privacy is respected and I can move on to the next chapter of my life. Thank you. -Arin