THE CULT Singer: 'This Band Is Vital, It's Virile, Aggressive, Guttural'

Karl Lean of Australia's Heavy magazine recently conducted an interview with THE CULT singer Ian Astbury. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On the band's heavy touring schedule:

Astbury: "It's what we do. Since we started we've been live musicans, it's always been live first. Recording, record deals, career and everything else came afterwards. It was really just about playing in bars to start with."

"The band's been rolling pretty consistently the past 7 or 8 years, and we just don't want to stop. We've got momentum, we've got the album out and it's going strong.

"'Choice Of Weapon' did really really well. Previous to that, we did the Capsule collection, and previous to that, we did the 'Love' tour, which was great. That was kind of inspired by seeing Bowie do the 'Low' album, probably one of the first artists to go out and play an album, an iconic record in its entirety. So for us, we're between albums right now, but we want to keep playing."

On performing the "Electric" album in its entirety:

Astbury: "A lot these songs we've never played live.

"We don't really think of this material as 'old'; the action of playing live makes it all become fresh. It's always like kind of an external perception of what we do; there's memories and connections to a piece or body of work. So for us, 'Electric 13' is those 'Electric' songs brought alive again. We're probably better musicans now than we were then; we're at the top of our game right now. The shows have been amazing. The band's on fire. It's the most consistent lineup we've had. We've been playing together for 7 or 8 years, so it's really tight."

On offering plenty more than just a nostalgia trip for older fans:

Astbury: "We don't identify ourselves as classic rock. To me, that term is like an old custodian. But this band is vital, it's virile, aggressive, guttural. It can be sublime, it can be violent, it can be poetic. Within that is the essence of THE CULT. We have 9 studio albums and a history of working different genres — from hard rock to modern alternative post rock; very eclectic. We are still here."

On the ups and downs of touring life:

Astbury: "Touring has always been a grind. It's a tough lifestyle. It's not like every day you get to be in Sydney, or Tokyo, or New York, or Paris.

"Touring is basically going from venue to venue. We just drove 10 hours from our last gig to here in Biloxi, Mississippi. Tomorrow we'll do a 14-hour drive to the next show.

"The drives are really long, especially here in the States. And it's the down times that you get into trouble. You try and keep your head together and not get into trouble.

"I much prefer driving to flying, though; all that sitting in airports. You don't get offstage until after midnight, and you'll have a flight at 9 in the morning. By the time you get cleaned up, you never sleep; you're constantly tired, living on caffeine. That's what it is.

"You chose the lifestyle and I'm not going to cry about that; it's just the reality of touring. But once you do get on stage, it's like catharsis, a release — that's the time you really get to express yourself and it's gratifying having an audience that has stayed with the band for so long."

Read more from Heavy magazine.