Formerly known as Ghoste, Cult Member was a member of both Thraxxhouse and GothBoiClique. Today, he’s making techno.
It’s a rainy evening in Montreal, home of the 21-year-old producer Cult Member. Formerly known as Ghoste of Thraxxhouse and GothBoiClique, his apartment is filled with various keyboards and drum machines. Sounds of the recent Chanel Resort fashion show echo down the hallway from the TV. He keeps his gear scattered throughout the room, a drastically different setup compared to his early days making music as the cloudy, autotune-heavy Ghoste.
After being introduced to artists like Chris Travis, Spaceghostpurrp and Gravity Boys by his older brother during high school, Cult Member began his craft by making his own cloud beats and rapping in his bedroom with only a laptop and a mic. “I remember I saw the music video for ‘Bleach’ by Ecco2k and Bladee back in 2013 and I thought shit, this is it dude,” Cult Member recalls. “The day I saw that, I went on eBay and copped that same Fred Perry Jacket.”
Only a few months later, he would be working with names like Coldhart, Horse Head, Wicca Phase, and Black Kray, sending tracks back and forth over Facebook. “I knew this one dude and he linked me up with Coldhart, and it kinda went from there,” he explains. “I remember I added Horse Head on Facebook one day – he had a cool profile picture – and I was like, shit, this is the dude that produced that Black Kray song ‘Flexican Gudda Luv.’ We just started messaging. He’d send me beats, I’d send beats back, and we started making stuff.”
Throughout 2013 and 2014, Ghoste was one of the up-and-coming names in the Soundcloud rap scene, known for autotuned, reverb-heavy vocals about drugs, love, and designer clothing. Ghoste became a member of Thraxxhouse, and later GothBoiClique, without actually meeting any of the members in person. It was only a few months later that Ghoste would disappear from the scene, and his friends, without any warning.
“I went on exchange to Europe for my last year of high school. I didn’t really have time for music,” Cult Member explains. “I wanted to enjoy where I was and not focus on the internet because I felt like I spent the entire year prior doing that sorta stuff. Like Friday nights, hanging out in chat rooms and shit. I just wanted to get away. But shouts out to the GothBoiClique guys, it’s all love.”
Though his rap tracks are no longer available on his SoundCloud, you can still find a number of them scattered across the internet, including his 2014 EP with Horse Head Almost Angels. The project includes their track “Mercedes,” which he considers his favorite song he’s made as Ghoste. The Tycho-sampling “Mercedes” is the first and only track that he ever performed live as Ghoste, after finally linking up with Gothboiclique and performing with Horse Head during the Montreal date of Lil Peep’s Peep Show tour.
The last project under the Ghoste name was the tape Suede in 2016, which features a handful of tracks with vocals, but slowly transitions into the techno sound that we’re now familiar with as Cult Member. Elements of his new electronic sound start to emerge in the tape, which we can now hear fully developed on his newer releases like Club Water and See U At The Mall Baby.
“I think “Glo Girl” was like my last thing as Ghoste. I wrote that song for my girlfriend on her birthday,” he shares. Cult Member also credits his girlfriend for coming up with his name while they were watching a documentary about Heaven’s Gate.
“I grew up like, going to schools where art was not a thing — being like artistic — so I think at the time it was just my creative outlet. You know what I mean? I don’t think I’ll ever go back to the rapping thing, cause it was like a period in my life, but I feel like it’s over now. I’m in a different place and I have new friends and … I dunno,” he trails off.
After finishing school abroad and moving to Montreal for University, Cult Member developed an interest in hardware and analog gear. “I linked up with my friend Linus who was living in Montreal, and he had so much gear, it was crazy,” he remembers. “The first time I walked into his apartment, it was one huge table with cables and synths everywhere, it was fascinating.”
Cult Member’s studio room is home to a constantly rotating cast of equipment, which right now includes an Elektron Octatrack, a Tascam Portastudio 424, and a Roland TR-08. His advice for anyone getting into gear? “Honestly, just buy the cheap shit,” he says. “You really don’t need much to do cool shit.” He points, referencing a Korg Poly 800 that his friend Thomas found on the street, and his tape machine from the Salvation Army.
While his sound has changed significantly, Cult Member isn’t the only one from the Soundcloud rap scene to have transitioned into other genres. “I think my music interests just changed over time. You look at other producers, and they make house now. I lost like 2000 Soundcloud followers when I started making house. I don’t even give a shit. Things are going well,” he laughs.
Cult Member plans on launching his own record label Occult Media Group (OMG) in the near future and pressing cassettes and vinyl for other techno, electro, and ambient artists. In addition to launching his label, he has vinyl releases lined up for the end of summer, shows booked in Canada, and reissues of previous tapes on cassette.
Dropping June 30 via Pure Life, his newest project Ethernet is composed of material he’s been working on since his performance at Montreal’s electronic music festival Mutek in August of last year. “I think it’s the best Cult Member project yet,” he admits. Having already forever left his mark on the world of cloud rap, Cult Member is ready for whatever comes next.