CF9 ORM Load Array Of Entities where value NEQ to

Hi there

Trying to achieve something in CF9 ORM and not sure whether it is possible

I am aware you can filter results within the entityLoad function, as so

<cfset artists = EntityLoad('artist',{firstname = "john"})>

But am wondering how I would restructure this to say select all artist entities whose firstname is not john...

Using the following code brings up an error

<cfset artists = EntityLoad('artist',{firstname <> "john"})>

Any ideas? I presume I would have to use ORMExecuteQuery?

Many thanks