UPDATE: Just 48 hours after Ariel Pink attended the Jan. 6 Donald Trump rally at Capitol Hill, the musician was dropped from his record label, Mexican Summer. The label actually revealed the news on Twitter, saying, “Due to recent events, Mexican Summer and its staff have decided to end our working relationship with Ariel Rosenberg AKA Ariel Pink moving forward.”
Ariel Pink rallied along with other Donald Trump supporters in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6, nearby the scene where a Trump-supporting mob also stormed the U.S. Capitol. Fans were horrified to learn that the 42-year-old singer was part of the rally after filmmaker Alex Lee Moyer shared a photo of herself in a hotel room with Ariel and another musician, John Maus. “The day we almost died but instead had a great time,” Alex captioned the photo, which she gave a Washington D.C. location tag.
its true- i dont and never have advocated for violent confrontation or rioting. must be my boomer upbringing.
— Ariel Pink (@arielxpink) January 7, 2021
A Twitter user reposted the photo as “proof” that Ariel and John attended the rally, and Ariel jumped into the conversation. Read on to find out what he said, and to learn more about the controversial indie singer, who was born in Los Angeles in 1978:
1. Ariel defended his attendance at the Trump rally. “Its true- i dont and never have advocated for violent confrontation or rioting. must be my boomer upbringing,” Ariel wrote in response to the fan who posted about his attendance at the Trump rally in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6. He added, “i was in dc to peacefully show my support for the president. i attended the rally on the white house lawn and went back to hotel and took a nap. case closed.”
i was in dc to peacefully show my support for the president. i attended the rally on the white house lawn and went back to hotel and took a nap. case closed
— Ariel Pink (@arielxpink) January 7, 2021
2. He once said “gay marriage stuff pisses [him]” off,” among other unsettling comments. Ariel’s quotes from interviews over the past few years continue to disturb fans: “I’m very old fashioned, very traditional in my values. I don’t understand what all this gay marriage stuff is about, it really pisses me off. I don’t really even support marriage, per se,” he said in a 2012 interview with Pitchfork Weekly. In the same interview, he added, “I love necrophiliacs [sic].”
He also said that he “love[s] the Westboro Baptist Church” because he loves “being able to remind people that this a country where you can say, ‘You’re going to go to hell,’ and you won’t go to jail” in a 2014 interview with Pitchfork. The Westboro Baptist Church is known for its extremely homophobic and anti-gay protests.
3. Ariel has a cult following in the indie, lo-fi music scene. He has put out 18 albums since 2002 (his earlier records were attributed to Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti). Ariel is known for his “bedroom music” style, after recording his earliest songs on an 8-track cassette recorder.
4. Ariel was college roommates with John Maus. Ariel and John, who attended the Trump demonstration together, were college roommates at the California Institute of the Arts. They went on to collaborate in music together. After the rally, John cryptically tweeted a link to an encyclical about nationalism that Pope Pius XI gave in 1937.
5. Ariel is now facing major backlash on Twitter. “Me deleting the 3 Ariel Pink songs I have saved in my Spotify library,” one fan tweeted along with a photo of someone crying, while another person tweeted a paragraph about Ariel’s past controversial remarks and wrote, “People shocked about Ariel Pink turning up to the Capitol riots but can you really be surprised, whether it’s for controversy or not, hasn’t he always been a scumbag?” Verified users also chimed in, like @helen who wrote, “ariel pink has always been one of the biggest mega losers in music. like not even in his little genre like in ALL of music since the dawn of time.”