Photo by Tim Cadiente
During the 1980s, The Cult became one of the most popular rock bands in the world, with massive hits such as “She Sells Sanctuary,” “Fire Woman,” and “Love Removal Machine.” But in a nod to the British band’s pre-fame days, they’ll also include a set of songs from Death Cult, a previous iteration of the group, when they embark on a North American tour in October (full dates listed below). They’re also offering another nod to their past on October 17 when the Cooking Vinyl label will reissue two of the band’s albums, Choice of Weapon and Hidden City (which were originally released in 2012 and 2016, respectively). But as singer Ian Astbury explained during a recent call from his home in Los Angeles, none of this is a nostalgia trip, but rather a reflection of (and perhaps a remedy for) these tumultuous times.
How did you know it was the right time to do another North American tour?
IAN ASTBURY: Everything kind of falls into natural cycles. Touring, you don’t want to be overly present anywhere, [but] I don’t think we’ve played a proper Cult North American tour for several years. So it’s time. And we haven’t toured Death Cult in the United States, period, except for two shows in Los Angeles.
The tour is called “Paradise Now.” We want paradise, we want it right now. We find that ultimately, we’re responsible for that within ourselves, and that takes practice and work and courage and vulnerability and all the rest of it. I mean, it’s hard to stay fired up when we’re in this moment. So paradise now, I take that to heart. That’s what I’d like to radiate right now, is that frequency of paradise now, of harmony. Let’s all take a breath. Let’s take a step back. Let’s get the temperature down.
It’s unusual for artists to go back and play a set of songs from a previous version of their band. How did you know to do this?
IAN ASTBURY: Instinctually. It felt like a zero point. Perhaps there is this dystopian whirlpool that we’re experiencing right now in the 21st century. Certainly, the 21st century hasn’t been getting off to a great start so far. It mirrors in many ways the environment that we originated from. Late ‘70s grown-ups, kids, the music we were listening to was mostly punk and post punk. I think a lot of the themes of just being disenfranchised or feeling like the outliers, it continues. And in some ways, what was in the DNA of Death Cult – lyrically, symbolically, the tonality of the music, the structure of the music – feels current. And it’s also part of the DNA of The Cult. I mean, we have experienced an entire full realization of a lifetime career. We’ve already done that, from being literally street kids to achieving incredible commercial success, and then destroying that and starting all over again. And then finding ourselves in this flow where we’re just responding to influences, lived experience, travel. When we knew we were going to be touring in the fall, it came to me: “Oh, Cult and Death Cult together.” It’s almost like taking our DNA and reshooting it back into ourselves. We regenerate ourselves.
Both Billy [Duffy, guitarist and co-songwriter] and I have experienced quite a life. Uniquely ours, but I don’t feel that we’re special in any way, or better than or less than anybody else. It’s not really an occupation. It’s more of a calling. I mean, I got asked to join a band. I didn’t aspire to be in a band. I fell into it. And the next thing you know, you’ve been through four decades.
I’m not a great nostalgist. I’ll use it as reference points, but my POV isn’t looking in a rear view mirror going, “Wow, that was a great ride.” What’s happening in the present moment is what interests me the most. The context of Death Cult, in many ways, for me, is more to do with existential concepts of impermanence and the human experience and [is] probably more informed from indigenous or Buddhist philosophy. I’ve often been called a contradiction, as an individual. But I feel that if we’re honest, we’ve all been through moments of contradiction or changing our viewpoint. So The Cult has had many different facets, many different lives. Many different expressive moments. There are certain negative connotations around the name “Cult,” yet we are not a cult, we’re not promoting anything. If anything, we’re aspiring to an enlightened life, to mutual respect.
What do you think it is about the music you’ve created that makes it resonate with people like it has?
IAN ASTBURY: I think it’s perhaps [that we’re] constantly revising and attempting to improve the creative process, make better work. You know in your gut when you’ve done something that’s, “I want to leave that.” We can always come back and revisit our work and edit and change it, but ultimately we just keep moving, we’re on to the next thing.
I literally went from the street to moving into a house, having a roof over my head, [and] within a very short period I was asked to join a band. And that band immediately, within five gigs, had a review in a major music paper, Sounds in the U.K. We only had six songs. I mean, it’s crazy. Sometimes I think about it and I go, “How did that go down?” Because it happened so quickly. I wasn’t prepared for it. I didn’t go to school for it. I learnt from reading, and experiencing, and looking, and communicating, and traveling.
If you didn’t intend to do this as your career, how was it discovered that you have this kind of voice and songwriting ability in the first place?
IAN ASTBURY: I don’t know. I mean, how does the hummingbird know to be a hummingbird? It could be generational. I may have an ancestor who was an aspiring musician. My father was definitely an aspiring artist. He dreamed of being a painter, yet societal circumstances denied that for him; he wasn’t able to study at art school or pursue an artistic life. He chose to support his wife and children as opposed to going for himself as an artist, as a creative. Our house was full of music; it was full of art. We didn’t have much, but we did have a set of encyclopedias. My father invested in some encyclopedias, and they were always available, and they just resonated [with me]. I remember they were called World of Knowledge. That became a world of real interest to me. I would sit with those things. There was so much I saw through the lens of these encyclopedias. There were photographs in there, photographs of the cultures, animals, geographical locations, cities. We didn’t have color television when I was growing up. If you wanted to go see Technicolor, you went to the movies and you saw The Jungle Book, or maybe a David Lean film like Lawrence of Arabia or whatever. That was the most colorful thing probably in our lives growing up in northern Britain in the late ’60s and the early ’70s. Or I would go to an art gallery and I’d see a Van Gogh or something, and that would stick in my imagination.
I lived in an area that was heavily bombed during World War II, so [I have] early childhood memories of playing in bombed out buildings that still hadn’t been repaired. I grew up near Liverpool, and that was the second most heavily bombed area in Britain. Over four thousand people killed, and a lot of the area was just rubble, and we used to play in the building sites. And then Britain was coming back online and there was a new generation coming through in the ’60s and the ’70s. It’s well documented, the kind of music that was coming out of Britain [then]. Definitely some incredible music coming out of that.
Anything else you’d like to let people know?
IAN ASTBURY: We’re all in the human experience together. I speak for myself as a creative: I’m hoping that we can add to solution [and] dialogue, where it’s a conversation. It’s a two way conversation; it’s not a one way conversation. So I sincerely hope that our art contributes in a positive way to us finding more harmony on our little blue orb.
