Lithuanian producer Ten Walls had kind of a good thing going. The rising house star, who last toured Australia back in November with Dusky, had solidly established himself on the global stage with his 2014 single ‘Walking with Elephants’.
In addition to buzzed-about singles and Australian tours, Ten Walls, real name Marijus Adomaitis, was becoming a hot property on the festival scene, booking slots at Sonar, Creamfields, PITCH, Mysteryland, and a raft of other prestigious events.
Then, he threw it all away. As Consequence of Sound reports, festivals are dropping Adomaitis left right after he published a homophobic tirade on his personal Facebook page, in which he compared gay people to pedophiles.
The comments were quickly picked up and circulated by numerous publications, including Gay Star News. It wasn’t long before the post, since deleted, went viral and Adomaitis was drawing ire from the LGBTQ community and festival promoters.
“I remember producing music for one Lithuanian musician, who tried to wash my brain that I don’t need to be so conservative and intolerant about them,” Adomaitis wrote in the rant.
“When I asked him ‘what would you do if you realised that your 16-year-old son’s browny (anus) is ripped by his boyfriend?’ Well he was silent.”
Adomaitis also referred to homosexuals as “people of different breed [sic]” and in his closing comments, likened gay sex to Catholic priests abusing young children as he recounted an early tour in Ireland.
“One of my first gigs in Ireland, on my way to [my] hotel I saw a church with a fence decorated with hundreds of baby shoes,” he said. “Naturally I wondered why? Unfortunately a priest’s lie for many years was uncovered when children were massively raped.”
“Unfortunately the people of other breed continue to do it and everyone knows it but does nothing.” The comments have seen him dropped from Sónar, Creamfields, PITCH, Urban Art Forms, and the list keeps growing.
As Stoney Roads reports, Holland’s Mysteryland is the latest event to distance themselves from Adomaitis, writing on Facebook that his “homophobic expressions” do not fit the festival’s vision of “love… diversity… [and] giving everybody the opportunity to be the person they want to be”.
Meanwhile, the organisers of UK’s Creamfields wrote, “Whilst we respect freedom of speech, we find his defamatory and prejudiced comments about the gay community extremely offensive and feel that this is not in line with the spirit of Creamfields or an opinion that we support.”
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Indeed, Adomaitis’ comments set him apart from other musicians who’ve drawn ire for less than tolerant public statements. This wasn’t a case of the producer dropping a homophobic slur during an interview (which would also be abhorrent), this was an extended tirade issued via Facebook.
Nor was this a case of special interest groups pressuring the festivals into dropping Adomaitis from their lineups. Instead, organisers independently decided to distance themselves from an artist whose views they decided would compromise the integrity of their events.
No doubt Adomaitis can already see his career circling the drain. He’s issued several hurried apologies, including one in which he announced that he would be “taking a break” from music, though it looks as if he may not have a choice.
“I want to apologise for the former post in my account. I am really sorry about its insulting content which does not reflect my true opinion. I hope this misunderstanding will not provoke any more thoughts and opinions. Peace,” he wrote on Facebook.
This is how you deep-six a music career, folks, by being a completely bigoted, ignorant douchebag and thinking your dimwitted opinions are worthy of public exposure. This stuff just doesn’t fly in 2015, Ten Walls.
Last week I wrote a Facebook post that was wrong and completely out of character and the result was a badly written post…
Posted by Ten Walls on Monday, June 8, 2015
