The Cult’s Ian Astbury Is ‘Awaiting Great Enlightenment,’ Not Waiting for Coachella Invitation

(Ian Astbury of the Cult performs at London’s O2 Academy Brixton in February 2016. Photo by Nick Pickles/Redferns)

In October 1990, Ian Astbury, frontman of the Cult, convinced concert promoter Bill Graham to help him stage a two-day music festival. The unprecedented event, called “A Gathering of the Tribes,” featured an eclectic roster of artists, including Soundgarden, Ice-T, Indigo Girls, Public Enemy, Iggy Pop, and Joan Baez. Not only did both shows sell out, but the idea also inspired Jane’s Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell to launch the Lollapalooza tour, which boasted acts from a similarly wide range of genres.

Then came Coachella.

Recognizing the cultural significance of the Cult, Coachella organizers invited the band to play the opening night of the festival’s second weekend in 2014. Unlike numerous other acts, however, the Cult have not been invited back. When Astbury confronted the promoters to find out why the Cult aren’t considered Coachella-worthy, he says he was told his band is too aggressive.

“They said the Cult will never play Coachella again because we’re associated with the genre of metal music,” Astbury gripes to Yahoo Music. “Never mind that we’re not metal. Never mind that Guns N’ Roses just played and AC/DC played. Never mind that Motörhead has played. In today’s market, for the great unwashed of cultural editors, if you’ve got a guitar, you are a relic from the 20th century. You belong somewhere else.”

It’s hard to fathom why Astbury would get so worked up about not being invited to an event that has transformed from an enclave of outsiders to a popularity contest – a place to be seen, not develop a scene. Nonetheless, Astbury feels genuinely and deeply insulted.

“We really want to be a part of the firmament. We deserve to be part of the conversation,” Astbury continues. “Look at a song like ‘She Sells Sanctuary’ [from the Cult’s classic 1985 album Love], which was the cornerstone in many ways, and the template for a lot of people who loved hard rock music. We loved Led Zeppelin and Hendrix, but we also loved Joy Division and Public Image Ltd., and the Pistols and the Velvet Underground and the Stooges. To me, it was totally OK to like Zeppelin and Joy Division. It’s totally cool. It’s OK to like psychedelic music, electronic music, and Giorgio Moroder. It’s OK to like all this music and just do it in your own way, in your own style. That’s what we did and that’s what Coachella is supposedly all about.”

Astbury provides convincing evidence for how the Cult have been mistreated and mislabeled as a metal act. In the process, he explains how he feels he and Cult guitarist Billy Duffy created music that paved the way for what became alternative and even grunge. And when he gets on a roll, any semblance of modesty – and sometimes rationality – goes out the window.

“We had a song on Love called ‘Nirvana,’” he says. “Now, I’m not saying Kurt Cobain took the name of our song for his band, but it was certainly in the ether. We were undoubtedly the first to plant that seed. Probably the British part of me goes, ‘Oh, don’t blow your own trumpet, it’s gouache,’” Astbury continues, becoming more revved up by the second. “But in America today, everybody will stick a trumpet in their ass and blow it as hard as they can. And usually what comes out is nothing – a trickle, a fart, something insipid. We were a lot of things but we were never insipid. Our 1987 album Electric was unprecedented in its day. All of a sudden it was like, ‘Holy s—, it’s OK to play three chords through a Marshall with a Les Paul.’ And then everybody and their uncle started doing it.”

Astbury may be full of what his fellow Brits like to call piss and vinegar, but he’s not just a bitter misanthrope who feels wronged by society. Sure, he reveals his scars for all to see, but as he complains about being misunderstood, he strives for a greater grasp of the world around him. The Cult’s latest album, Hidden City, the third since the band emerged from a six-year hiatus with 2007’s Born Into This, explores such duality.

The cover art depicts lovely white flowers splashed with drops of blood. It’s a striking image that reflects the dichotomy between violence and beauty – or so it seems. There are numerous references to blood on Hidden City, including the songs “In Blood” and “Deeply Ordered Chaos.” But the blood that spatters even the cover of the record isn’t only meant as a symbol of destruction.

“Blood is a symbol for sex,” Astbury says. “If you’ve ever been present at a birth, there’s plenty of blood there. Blood can stand for so many things: the body of Christ, the woman’s menstrual cycle and the mysteries that holds. Then there’s blood as a vital fluid. If you take the blood out of the human body, it ain’t going to work. So it does have a mystic quality to it as well as a literal quality. In the song ‘In Blood,’ I’m referencing the energetic, mystic symbol. The lyrics about ‘bleeding out’ could be the end of a career, it could be the beginning of a death and rebirth. There are many ways to look at it.”

The same goes for numerous themes on Hidden City. For example, Astbury always has been fascinated by the transcend powers of meditation, the wonders of Indian and Native American culture and the potential we all have of fulfilling our dreams and living up to our potential, and such concepts have resonated through albums like 1991’s Ceremony and 2001’s Beyond Good and Evil. The new record covers such ground as well, but it also expresses the idea that modern society has lost its path and spiraled into a netherworld of artifice and consumerism.

“A lot of this record refers to the existential spiritual crisis that we are collectively involved in,” Astbury says. “We worship celebrity culture, we are worshipping the veneer. [Famous ethnobotanist, mystic, and teacher] Terence McKenna once said, ‘The best of us are led by the least of us.’ I think that’s brilliant, and it explains the rift we’re seeing throughout the world.”

Astbury doesn’t pretend to have any solutions, but he’s convinced having an awareness of our lack of awareness is critical for navigating the troubled waters. “We need to recognize the need for a transition through chaos and accept there is no supreme intellect,” he says. “There are great mysteries out there that are beyond explanation.”

What does all this have to do with Hidden City? Nothing and everything. From one perspective, the Cult is a rock ‘n’ roll band that has always thrived on excess, indulgence, and drama, be it interpersonal or strictly musical. On another level, however, the band is about transcending beyond the limitations of music and using rock as a vehicle to explore philosophy, theology, sociology, and art. And Astbury willingly admits that sometimes the two have nothing at all to do with one another.

“There’s an exception to every statement, and you can express one idea one minute and then say the exact opposite the next and that’s perfectly OK,” Astbury explains. “The management reserves the right to change its opinion every goddamn time it wants to. Contradiction is fine. It’s healthy and it inspires growth and debate.”

The singer illustrates his point by singling out two spiritual icons and the flexibility they’ve exhibited over time.

“The Dalai Lama said, ‘If something can be proved by science I’ll adapt the Sutras, I’ll adapt the Buddhist teachings to accommodate that information. I’m not going to throw that away because of tradition. I’m going to incorporate that,’” says Astbury. “He’s a student of quantum physics, a very inquisitive man. He’s always looking for the fresh and new. And having people with that openness explains why we’ve got the Pope we have now. He’s also more of an enlightened, spiritual leader. And this is the rift we’re seeing within the world. We’re seeing certain acolytes and leaders are waking up to the fact that we are in an interdependent global situation and the environment links us all together.”

Astbury points to new Cult songs like “Birds of Paradise” and “Sound and Fury” to illustrate how Hidden City is a reflection of how contemporary society seems to be in a condition of peril, but is more likely in a state of transition that will bring greater awareness.

“The lyrics in ‘Sound and Fury’ say the life that was in you dying is now reawakening,” Astbury says. “It’s about realization and rebirth, which are central ideas of Hidden City. The hidden city is within. It’s the spiritual awakening, and when I say I’m optimistic about the future it’s because of brilliant people like Terence McKenna who realized there is a shift in human consciousness. It is occurring!”

Astbury takes a deep breath, drops his voice, and continues: “We’re seeing more and more women in positions of power. We’re seeing our cultures diversify in terms of tolerance and openness to new and fresh ideas. It’s no secret Steve Jobs took LSD. So the psychedelic revolution that came out of the ‘50s and ‘60s and even before that, and all the great philosophy of Nietzsche all the way through theosophy, the spiritualism of the late 1800s, and the questioning through science and religion and the Eastern influences is all beginning to find a home in our modern society.”

Even diehard fans of the Cult may marvel at how Astbury bounces between talking about how Coachella supposedly shafted him, to pondering the illumination that can surface from upheaval. But to the vocalist, linear thought is the equivalent of self-censorship. He much prefers the stream-of-consciousness mode of expression.

“Everything has to do with everything else; it’s all interconnected,” he explains, then spins off into another esoteric exhortation. “There’s a higher law at play that’s beyond anyone’s control or comprehension. Science can’t even explain it. The guys at CERN [the European organization with the most powerful particle accelerator] are saying, ‘We don’t know where the [Higgs] boson particle goes.’ [Some scientists consider this missing particle to be the biggest quandary in particle physics.] They can’t explain it and these are some of the brightest minds in science. Five percent of the universe is known and then you get into dark energy and dark matter, which nobody can understand because when it comes to evolution, we are like children. We’re in our infancy. And we are awaiting a great enlightenment.”