NO BOUNDARIES
Singer for The Cult says musical diversity is key to band
Ian Astbury knows the pains of life on the road.
Last year, he ripped a tendon in his thigh, which didn’t heal properly.
He’s taken all the precautions to ensure a good time on the road.
“It’s been a lot of training on my part,” he says in a phone interview. “I’m about 80 percent back. Playing while injured is not fun.”
Astbury is the vocalist for the British rock band The Cult. The band, which formed in 1983, gained fame in the United Kingdom as a goth rock band in the 1980s.
In the late 1980s, the band crossed over with hits in the United States and solidified itself as a success.
The singles “Love Removal Machine” and “Fire Woman” led that front.
“We never got caught up in the success,” Astbury says. “We were always caught up in making music. Part of the reason I never let any of it go to my head was due to the fact that I would get out of bed and make my own breakfast. On stage, people look up to me. At home, I’m a normal guy who happens to play music.”
The Cult’s most recent album is 2016’s “Hidden City.”
Astbury says the music industry has changed so much over the years, it’s difficult to keep up.
“It’s a free-for-all right now,” he says. “It’s anything goes. MTV established the genres, and people started making music to fit the genre. The music I grew up with was a cross-pollination. This is what Cult music is all about. We don’t stick to any boundaries. Having diversity is really important to me.”
Astbury has worked hard in the past two decades to keep the band moving forward and relevant.
He says The Cult has been able to maintain itself over the years through all the heavy moments.
“We’ve had heavy things put on us and we continue to make music,” he says. “Over the last 12 years, we’ve been really consistent. The EPs and albums we’ve made, it’s a real consolidation of a life in music.”
Astbury says the band continues to look for different avenues in music.
“We want to keep the songs fresh and not repeat ourselves,” he says. “Could we write another song like ‘Fire Woman?’ Sure, but it wouldn’t be fun for us. The songs that have become hits are iconic, and we give them the respect they deserve. And having those songs has helped us not hold back from trying new things.”