Costume

Costume makes electronic/orchestral-infused art-pop you can dance, kiss, cry, and run away to. The theatrics, fashion, visuals and androgynous croon are intended to transport you to a place where you are and are not yourself. The songs are about metamorphoses, growth, doubles, prudishness, and sit somewhere between chamber pop, electronica and new wave. Costume is the moniker of Adam Ouston. Costume’s debut album, Pan, was recorded in October 2018 in Reykjavik at the iconic Greenhouse Studios (Björk, Sigur Ros, The xx, Kanye West). The album was produced by Adam himself and mastered by Greenhouse founder, composer Valgeir Sigurðsson (Björk, Anohni, Múm, Oneohtrix Point Never). There are four videos made for Pan. The first, ‘Horns’, was shot around Iceland by Canadian filmmaker Blair Alexander (Damien Rice). The latter three, ‘Running Boy’, ‘Feeling’ and ‘Bang Bang,’ were filmed in Tasmania by director Briony Kidd (Stranger with My Face Festival) and cinematographer Sandi Sissel (Michael Jackson’s ‘Black or White’, Master and Commander, The People Under the Stairs), in a crumbling, decrepit mansion on the outskirts of Hobart. Collectively, the four clips comprise something of a short film. As well as music, Adam is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. His work has appeared in national literary magazines and arts and culture publications. His writing has earned him the 2014 Erica Bell Literary Award and the manuscript prize in the 2017 Tasmanian Premier’s Literary Awards. His first novel, The Fetish, was published as part of The People’s Library collective artwork in 2018. Adam also holds a PhD for his monograph on the travel writing of Robert Dessaix. (Robert appears in the videos for ‘Bang Bang’ and ‘Feeling’.)