Ten Walls dropped from festivals after anti-gay rant

Lithuanian musician and producer Marijus Adomaitis, who performs as Ten Walls, has been forced to apologise and cancel his upcoming performances after comments he made on Facebook comparing gay people to paedophiles and describing them as “people of a different breed”.

The musician – best known for his single Walking with Elephants, which became a top 10 hit in the UK in 2014 – made a series of homophobic comments on his personal Facebook page. Adomaitis described a colleague who “tried to wash my brain” by challenging his intolerance.

He writes that he replied to him: “When I asked him ‘what would you do if you realised that your 16-year-old [was having gay sex]?’ Well he was silent.”

‘People of a different breed’

The ranting post continued, comparing homosexuality to paedophile abuse by Catholic priests. He wrote: “[in the] the good 90s… these people of different breed where [sic] fixed.”

“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 has deleted the comments, made on his personal Facebook page but they were picked up by LGBTI publications including Gay Star News. He has since posted an apology for the “badly written post”.

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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, 8 June 2015

Since his comments emerged, he has been dropped from several major international festivals including Pitch, Sonar and UK festival Creamfields.

His public Facebook page claims he has cancelled other upcoming shows.

This afternoon Ten Wall’s booking agency released a statement saying it no longer represents him, and Phonica Records have cancelled pre-orders of his upcoming album. Mixmag and high-profile electronic act Chase and Status have disassociated themselves from him.

Cya Ten Walls

— Chase & Status (@chaseandstatus) June 8, 2015

Reaction on social media has been fierce, and many have speculated that the consequences of his comments will be irreparable.

His apology appears to have had little impact as his Facebook fan page has been deluged by comments from dismayed fans. One Facebook user, Frank Roozenstruik, wrote: “You didn’t cancel your shows, your shows were cancelled and that’s a good thing, you disrespectfull (sic) idiot.”

Being homophobic in dance music is like being vegetarian at McDonalds. You really should go somewhere else, my dear. #tenwalls

— stereogamous (@stereogamous) June 8, 2015

Respect the music

Others have commented that his work is about his music and not his opinions.

Lukas Kuchtovas wrote: “People care too much about other people’s views and opinions. Everyone’s entitled to their own and that won’t change… You might not resepct (sic) him after this, but respect the music.”

One sympathetic supporter, Juan Duke, said: “Everyone has made mistakes, it doesn’t mean he is bad, it means he is human.”

What everyone agrees on is that they wouldn’t want to be Ten Walls right now.

Think you had a bad weekend? Well at least you’re not Ten Walls.
#careersuicide

— Simon Shackleton (@S_K_Shackleton) June 8, 2015