Lithuanian musician and producer Ten Walls has apologised following comments he posted on Facebook that referred to those in the LGBTI community as people of a “different breed”.
Ten Walls, whose real name is Marijus Adomaitis, scored a top 10 hit in the UK with Walking with Elephants in 2014. He has since deleted the posts from his personal Facebook page, but his comments were picked up and circulated by publications including Gay Star News.
“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,” he began.
“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.”
As well as stating, in “the good 90s … these people of different breed where [sic] fixed,” the post compared homosexuality to paedophile abuse by Catholic priests.
“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. 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.”
Adomaitis, who performed at Field Day in London over the weekend, later issued an apology: “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.”
In the wake of his apology, Ten Walls has been dropped from both Pitch festival and Creamfields, while electronic artist Fort Romeau has cancelled his support slot with Ten Walls at Koko in London in November. “It’s easy to romanticise electronic music culture and imagine it as a bastion of social liberalism and progressive ideology,” reads Fort Romeau’s post on Facebook. “But the reality is that it simply reflects the larger social context where homophobia and (particularly) sexism are normalised and worse, codified into law”.
