By Keith Walsh
There’s a vibrant goth music scene in and around Austin, Texas, and a lot of it features electronic instruments. And though goth artists often wear black clothing, the creators of these sounds are quite colorful. I met Erik Gustafson of Adoration Destroyed after interviewing other goth artists in the area, including WeirdWolves and Autumn Stay.
When I heard Adoration Destroyed’s version of Billie Eilish’s “You Should See Me In A Crown,” I loved how he transformed the fragile sounding tune into something even more complex. Gustafson told me: “I heard that song on pop radio, and I thought ‘this is a cool song. I’m going to take it darker.’” The cover appeared on their 2020 EP that takes the single as its name.
Adoration Destroyed covered the 80s hit “Voices Carry” by ‘Til Tuesday on their 2016 album Ritual Damage. “I felt that had a mystique to it,” he explained. “I’ve always loved that song. I kind of gender flipped the roles with that, and the same thing with the Billie Eilish.”
Studio Work
Using Logic software in a Mac environment, Gustafson creates his music using mostly software synths, “in the box,” as he put it. He’s also the vocalist and guitarist for Adoration Destroyed. ”I started my electronic music journey on hardware and stuff,” he said, “some borrowed equipment back in the day, and then upgraded to buying a Roland JP 8080. But then, as software has gotten better, I kind of migrated over to that.”
Gustafson told me: “My main go-to bass synth is actually a built in VST that I tweaked. It’s on all my songs, and it’s called ES2. Also even though we’re friends and I’ve hung out at his studio a couple times, I was surprised that myself and Kevin Gutierrez, Autumn Stay’s producer, share the absolute love for the “Rompler” type of synth called Nexus 3 by ReFX. That thing is a producer’s Swiss Army knife and it sounds flawless out the box. It’s also on all of my material and remixes.”
Gustafson said he gets help from his friends in the studio and live, including from Ritchard F. Napierkowski and Patrick Fears, on synths and percussion, respectively. Adoration Destroyed started out as a touring band doing shows with UK act Grendel – with whom they will perform “a couple of British dates and German festival in November. I’m hoping that’s going to happen,” he said.
I asked Gustafson about the vocal sound on his albums. ”I’m really more akin to a crooner, in a way, but one of my biggest influences is the band Alice In Chains. I think they’re either 7th or 5th scale harmonies, giving that sort of weird, not atonal, but that strange harmony.”
Gustafson mentioned that during the mixing process, Austin, Texas-based producer Daniel Stapleton would treat the vocals further. “He did a lot of things where he would route my vocal out through an analog amp and compressor, giving it a little bit of overdrive. Then he put it back in the box. He would route my vocal out into analog and then back into the computer.” Gustafson also pointed to Gary Numan and Orgy as influences.
“Witchy Imagery”
It’s a strange contradiction that much of goth music features religious imagery in lyrics and artwork while rejecting Christian beliefs. I asked of about all of this, including the artwork on the band’s 2016 album “Ritual Damage.”
“So that album concept was inspired by an idea of my graphic designer, Martin McCreadie,” explained Gustafson. “He had seen some 1920s sort of witchy imagery. And with the goth scene recently, there’s been an aesthetic shift away from what you might consider classic goth, like Siouxsie And The Banshees style, into more sort of modern imagery. So very witchy stylings. That was also kind of a style choice going with where our scene was going.”
I told him I’m not knocking these artistic choices, that the genre has the potential to unite like-minded people around music, in ways that could be healing. “For sure,” Gustafson said. “And as far as religion and stuff, I would probably consider myself an atheist. I’m not a Satanist. And nor do I believe in Gods — I really don’t have a stake in either.”
I asked Gustafson about the lyrics in goth – there seems to be a lot of trauma there. Are these more theatrical in nature, or is he pulling from emotional experiences? “I’ve always been into darker music” he told me, “whether it be death metal, or 80s darker music, so it’s sort of a mix of the darker aesthetic, as well. Also, it’s just relatable emotion. I wouldn’t say trauma per se, but one of the best things as a creative or songwriter that you can do is make a piece of art, be it visual or audio, and you’re saying something about yourself in just the right way to the listener, who then applies it to their own experience.”
Gustafson also is boss at Erik Gustafson Cinematography, where he creates visually stunning videos for Adoration Destroyed as well as artists near him in Austin, Texas. (Check out his recent collaborations with WeirdWolves and Autumn Stay.) Creating his own production studio was a natural consequence of his work in music. After getting signed to Cleopatra Records in 2016, “I was searching for a videographer and I found a couple people with various different quotes and qualities, and I was thinking to myself ‘You know what? I’m nerdy and technical enough. Yeah, I’m just going to do this myself.’ So I invested in camera equipment and found out I’m kind of good at it. So that’s how it started.”
Gustafson is currently working on a remix for his wife Eva X, who creates electronic pop, as well on a music video for her. New music by Adoration Destroyed is coming soon.
Adoration Destroyed On Bandcamp
Adoration Destroyed On YouTube
Adoration Destroyed On Facebook
Eva X On Bandcamp
Erik Gustafson Cinematography
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