For the current Paradise Now Tour, The Cult’s Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy are asking their fans to hop into a time machine.
The duo doesn’t only want attendees to experience the music of The Cult, their current band, but go back and delve into Death Cult, the earlier incarnation of the group. For Astbury, whose belief system is pulled from Buddhism and quite a bit of Native American mysticism, the purpose of The Cult’s current string of dates is to embark on a spiritual journey that goes beyond a legacy band solely trotting out nuggets from its canon.
“This is this time, and we’re doing what we do in this moment and we’re fully conscious of where we’re at,” Astbury said. “We’re not trying to do a revue or something nostalgic. I’m going on with my Yoji topknot and head shaved. I’m not leather trousers, cowboy hat and long hair. That kid was then, and this kid is now.”
“That kid” was in his early 20s when Dreamtime, The Cult’s 1984 debut, dropped. A slab of gothic post-punk, this platter is infused with hypnotic rhythms and a dash of psychedelia — perfect for Astbury’s indigenous-inspired musings that come across in songs like “Horse Nation,” “Spiritwalker” and “A Flower in the Desert,” the latter two having evolved from Astbury’s prior two bands, Southern Death Cult and Death Cult.
The latter outfit came out of throwing in with kindred spirit Duffy. For Astbury, it was part of a learning curve that started with being a reluctant participant in Southern Death Cult, a band initially dubbed Violation that rehearsed in a reggae shop in Bradford, England. The opportunity to be in an independent film about young punk musicians on the dole led to Astbury and his compatriots being thrown into the deep end of considerable exposure.
“Our drummer’s brother was a local promoter who was approached by a Yorkshire television film crew doing a documentary on youth cultures who were unemployed,” Astbury recalled. “He asked if we were interested, and I said we didn’t even have a name. He said to get one because it was an opportunity. The very first time we walked on a stage was for a documentary. We only had three songs and had only been together for about six weeks.”
He added, “I had to come up with a name pretty quick, and I was reading about indigenous American Indians in this anthropology book, and I saw this name Southern Death Cult, and it resonated for me. After I split from those guys, which was heartbreaking, I was hungry to keep going.
“I was blinkered about getting songs right and working with the right people. I wasn’t thinking about career, getting on TV or anything like that. But my first experience was getting on TV, being filmed and getting interviewed. And I had no skills at all. I had no idea what was going on.”
A chance meeting Astbury had in 1983 with Duffy, then playing guitar for Theatre of Hate, led to the former rejiggering his prior band’s name and re-emerging with Death Cult. The first part of the moniker was dropped soon after, and the duo became The Cult.
“On the momentum of Death Cult, we wanted to make a distinction that it wasn’t Southern Death Cult, so we took Southern out and was left with Death Cult,” Astbury explained. “After eight months, we thought that Death Cult was a really heavy name and we were going to ostracize so many people. What we really wanted to do was communicate the songs, our ideas and what we were doing creatively. We thought it would be easier to take Death out of the name, and all of a sudden, our audience just opened up.”
Having grown up the son of a Merchant Navy seaman, Astbury’s creative appetite was whetted by his father bringing home a myriad of recordings and books. (“My [pop] traveled the world and came back with things like Paul Robeson records and deep gospel. We had books and music in the house other families didn’t have because what money he had was spent on something like an encyclopedia set. That was our Internet.”) A brief move to Canada with his family in 1973 exposed Astbury to American pop culture.
“I went from black-and-white Britain to vibrant color North America, and everything was coming from the United States,” he said excitedly. “Everything was coming culturally — CBS, NBC, ABC, sports, music, culture. I would sit and watch Soul Train religiously every Saturday morning and try and copy the dancers. I’m watching Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, American Bandstand and The Midnight Special. I’m seeing the New York Dolls on TV, and my mind was blown. It was gone — that was it.”
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As a teenager with a foreign accent dropped into middle school at a time when cliques are fairly solidified and non-conformity is ostracized, Astbury found his tribe with First Nation kids who were his classmates. But it was a school trip to a local reservation that sparked his curiosity and passion for Native American culture.
“When I emigrated to Canada when I was 11, I was treated like an outsider,” he said. “The first people that embraced me at school were the indigenous kids. They were my friends. I was in and around their culture, and they treated me with respect and dignity. When we went on that field trip, I’d never seen anything like that in my life. I’d never seen kids riding around on horses in the middle of the day when we were supposed to be at school. We were hanging out, and some kids were playing lacrosse. I just felt really comfortable and at home.”
But it was the Thin White Duke who not only made a seismic impact on the young Astbury, but continued to be a guiding light for him up through the current day. It’s an influence concert-goers can expect to experience on The Cult’s current tour.
“David Bowie has always been my personal North Star as long as I live,” Astbury said. “Bowie would always re-arrange and represent his songs in a wonderful way. A lot of the audience would be wondering what he was playing, and then it would turn into ‘Life on Mars’ and they’d be like, ‘Oh, my God.’”
“For our tour, we’re going to be mixing it up,” he said. “What I like to do is make it unscripted. We’ll do things like play ‘Spirit Walker,’ and play it for 25 minutes.
If anyone asks where I come from, I say I’m one of the children of Bowie.”
The Cult will be appearing on Oct. 14 at The Beacon Theatre, 74th Street & Broadway, NYC. For more information on The Cult’s show, visit beacontheatre.com or call 866-858-0008.
