Last week, ElectroniCON announced the lineup for its 2023 edition, which takes place in August this year. John Maus was listed as a headliner along with festival co-curator George Clanton, but after vaporwave fans expressed their displeasure about his appearance on the lineup, the musician is no longer set to perform at the event.
In a lengthy statement on social media, Clanton wrote:
Due to the response by our ElectroniCON family of performers and fans, we have decided to move forward on this year’s festival without John Maus.
I, George Clanton, apologize to everyone who felt unseen by this lineup decision, and the artists who have been unduly dragged into controversy. ElectroniCON is defined by its focus on outsider, underground electronic music and inclusive environment. We selected each of the venues that have hosted ElectroniCON events carefully as spaces that have historically held an inclusive space for POC and members of the LGBTQ+ community. We will never allow our singular event to turn into an unsafe space for our POC and LGBTQ+ fans and artists on the bill.
As longtime fans of John Maus’ music, we looked to his lyrics, crowds drawn during recent festival appearances and his statements denouncing white supremacy, fascism and violence against LGBTQ+ as evidence that his inclusion on our lineup wouldn’t attract a vitriolic crowd at ElectroniCON. We underestimated the division this booking would sew amongst our community and did not anticipate a toxic war of words to potentially move beyond the internet into our concert space. John Maus and team agreed the best thing for all is to step away from the show.
I regret that this has given cause to anyone to question our vehement stance against fascism. I, along with 100% Electronica and the venue, assure our incredible fanbase that ElectroniCON this year, along with all others past and future, will continue to be an inclusive event for all.
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Beyond that, I know for some of those more deeply involved in the ongoing discourse – your questions cannot be answered by a simple statement. I will be appearing tomorrow on a special edition of the @hottakesvapor live podcast at 9PM ET to answer your questions in conversation. As well as fielding user submitted questions through @vwnewsnetwork podcast later this week. More on that to follow
In 2016, Maus was featured in the alt-right Adult Swim show Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace. Several musicians whose music appeared on the show, including Chastity Belt, Ovlov, and Molly Nilsson, shared statements condemning the series and creator Sam Hyde’s views. Addressing his involvement in a Noisey interview, Maus said, “I don’t want to make any apology, but I also didn’t want to… The guys I met were nice. They weren’t burning crosses or doing anything like that. In other words, I never had, from what I know about it, any indication that anything other than certain instances of a sort of trolling was going on.”
On January 6, 2021, Maus was pictured attending the pro-Trump protest on Capitol Hill, which he has yet to comment on. He has also been accused of homophobia due to the lyrics of his 2007 track ‘Rights for Gays’. Maus’ most recent US show was at Los Angeles’ Substance Festival in November 2021, and he has some shows lined up in the UK and Europe this year.
I know all of your questions cannot be answered in a simple statement, so i will be appearing on @hottakesvapor tomorrow at 9pm et to answer questions in conversation, and taking user submitted questions via @VWNewsNetwork to be responded to in podcast form later this week. -gc pic.twitter.com/lrWwF98JF8
— 100% Electronica™ (@100pelectronica) June 27, 2023
