Cain Culto is the kind of artist who makes contradictions feel holy. He lives at the intersection of pop spectacle, queer mysticism, and religious iconography with the volume turned all the way up. A classically trained fiddle player who studied marketing and biblical studies at seminary, Culto flips faith, folklore, and raw sexuality into something cinematic and unapologetically horny. 

When we speak, he’s in Santa Ana, battling the cold and preparing to take his live show on tour with Sudan Archives. We find him giving an old electronic violin a makeover, and building props to create the world of Cain Culto on stage. In a world where careers are launched in 30-second clips, Cain treats TikTok and Reels like movie theaters, turning short-form content into a full-blown production. That dedication has paid off, pulling in queer icons Brooke Candy and Peaches for the latest remix of his song ‘KFC Santería’ remix and cementing Culto as an artist who understands that pop can be a ritual, a protest, and most importantly, a source of queer joy. 

 

Cain, where are you right now, and what are you up to?
I’m home here in Santa Ana, but it’s so cold! In the wintertime, it’s hard for me to… muster up the energy to start my day, but I have to cause I’m prepping for my live show.

You’re going on tour with Sudan Archives. How did that come about? 
Yeah, I’m super excited! People were tagging us because they were like ‘Oh, you need to check out this artist, their work is similar to the work you do’ and we just became great friends. We did a song together, one of the ‘KFC Santería’ remixes. On the shoot for that we just realized we’re kindred spirits. It was such a fun shoot.

How’s the prep going?
Good. I’m a little stressed because, as with everything, I’m trying to be more ambitious.

I don’t think there is such a thing right?
Well, I’m trying to really scale up my live show, including making a lot of props. I had this old electronic violin my Dad gave me and I’ve totally overhauled it to fit in with the aesthetics of this tour.

You put a lot of effort into your visuals, and your videos are visually stunning. Do you have an art education? 
My parents put me in a performing and creative arts high school, but I actually went to uni for seminary. My major was marketing but my minor was in biblical studies.

You’ve released a couple of remixes of ‘KFC Santería’. Your latest has included the queer electronic icons themselves Brooke Candy and Peaches. How the hell did that happen?
It was all through social media. Last year I put a lot of effort into content creation and put out a load of shorts on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Brooke and Peaches found me through that and I saw my opportunity, took it, and pitched it to them. They are like the OGs of the underground, raunchy, electronic scene, and ‘KFC Santería’ seemed like the perfect fit. It’s funny, if you look at the playlists I have on Spotify of my inspiration and the people I look up to those two feature heavily so it was just huge for them to notice me.

The perfect ‘KFC’ combo.
I thought I’m gonna shoot my shot and asked them, ‘Would you guys jump on the remix?’ and they were just so gracious to want to do it.

Did you get to be in the same room with that queer energy?
With Brooke, yeah, she lives in downtown LA, so we shot the video together in person, but with Peaches, it was remotely. However, when she does her LA show, we’re gonna hang out and yeah, maybe I might pop out and perform that song!

Going back to the idea of content creation and shorts. Even your reels are cinematic and stylized, tell us more about that.
I feel like the music video isn’t what it used to be; it’s a little bit dead. It doesn’t move careers anymore. But TikTok and reels are the way now so I thought if that’s how people discover me I want to make sure I’m still communicating the artistry that I would provide within a full length video. Last year, I put so much effort into just storytelling, creating, communicating my aesthetic, and my perspective as an artist through the short form, and like I said, that’s how I got noticed by Peaches and Brooke.

You have a varied background. Can you tell me about it?
Yeah, my Mom’s from Nicaragua, and my Dad’s from Bogotá, Colombia; both immigrated here as kids to the States. I was born in Florida and grew up in Kentucky.

That, combined with the religious background, sounds like a lot of influences to draw from.
Totally! I want to throw it all into my art. Specifically for this record, I would say the references are mainly Bluegrass and Colombian Folk music. Those are the main two. Obviously, it’s packaged in a Pop, Rap, Club Kid, underground kind of vibe, but those are the two sonic references that I’m really drawing heavily from on this record. Honestly, everything I’ve released before this I’ve really been discovering my sound and, finally, once I realized I wanted to tap into my training as a fiddleist and then my love for Folk Percussion music, I realized that’s kind of what’s unique about me, that’s what sparks me up.

A lot of your songs, like ‘KFC Santería’ and ‘Brujería’ have this dark sexualised twist on religion. Does this come from your past relationship with faith?
For sure. I think the instinct to pursue my curiosity for more alternative spiritual traditions is out of being immersed in evangelical Christianity. I think at my core I’m a mystic and I’m curious about the mysteries of life and the unknown. I’ve met queer people who are so enamored by witchcraft and these kind of things because we’ve been unaccepted or we don’t fit cleanly into the main religions. We’ve had to carve our own path and that’s been my journey.

Let’s be honest, you make religion look sexy in some of your videos! 
I think that is because my own sexuality was so repressed. It was my shadow. I was afraid of it. So, within my art, within Cain, this persona becomes a safe place for me to express that in a very liberated way. I think people expect me, because of my art, to be more um… explicit in person, maybe raunchy, and I’m kind of not. I keep that in the bedroom, but with Cain, I put it on social media. This live show in many ways is a strip show. So I’m fully owning that. I think Pop has always been that. I love pop stars. I love Madonna. I love Gaga. I love Beyoncé. I have always admired them for their fearlessness, and  that they channel their sexuality into their art, and it becomes this image, for people to admire and look up to, and it liberates people. So I hope to do the same with my art.

Speaking of your reverence of pop stars, you covered ‘Like A Prayer’. Was that a little gay boy’s dream come true? 
I used to idolise pop stars but was also really judgmental of them. I thought what they were doing was quite evil. Now I look at Madonna and that song that I thought was sacrilegious at one time, and to perform it feels super liberating to me.

Talking about being so sexually open on the ‘KFC Santería’ remix, you have the lyrics ‘So faggy, fucking gay. When I take two dicks both in the butt, I don’t lose grip’ Can you…expand on that?
Ha, yeah! Every remix I do, I always want to write new lyrics for my verse not just slap on a feature. So with each song, I feel like I need to push it to new extremes, taking the political message further, taking the raunchiness further. The version before that was about sniffing poppers.

We have to touch on ‘¡BASTA YA!’ Did you deliberately set out to write a protest anthem? 
I wrote that song two years ago, towards the beginning of the genocide in Gaza. It started from a place of frustration. But later it evolved into what’s happening here at home in LA with the ice raids and everything. I did have an obvious intention for that and then I just wanted to make sure I got a feature on it with someone who I felt really understood the heart of the issue and the message. And so I asked Xiuhtezcatl who is a long time friend and amazing activist.

Finally, Loverboy is named after the biggest-selling single of 2001. So we always ask, what is your favourite Mariah Carey song?
So it’s a little bit before my generation, which is so embarrassing to say but my partner Omar has been introducing me to her music videos. I love the one where she is beating her alter ego up in the bathroom, what’s it called?

‘Heartbreaker’?
Yeah, love that. It’s so fucking funny. That’s my favorite.

The single ‘KFC Santería (Peaches & Brooke Candy Remix)‘ is out now

Cain Culto will be playing with Sudan Archives
06/02 at Madison, WIMajestic Theatre
14/02 at Seattle, WANeptune Theatre

Main image: Jordan Kirk