This New York duo have some scary stuff to sing about. But, they say, nothing’s more terrifying than boredom.
\n![\"\"](\"\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Wonderland_The_Cults_001_final.jpg\" "\\"Brian")
\nCults singer Madeline Follin looks worried. Later, her band \u2013 in essence a duo, completed by guitar-playing boyfriend Brian Oblivion, but tonight featuring a host of additional (it must be said, hirsute) hired hands \u2013 will play the White Heat new band showcase at Soho\u2019s Madame JoJo\u2019s. <\/p>\n
Right now the 21-year-old singer is outside the venue, toying with her in-ear monitors, bemoaning how hard it is to hear herself above her bands pretty, but not especially gentle, 60s-indebted pop. Beside her stands Lily Allen, herself a (now semi-retired) pop starlet but tonight acting as boss of In The Name Of, the Columbia record imprint that signed Cults as its first act in late January of this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust take them out,\u201d says Lily to Follin (who\u2019s still struggling with her earphones). She\u2019s motherly, but blunt too. \u201cIf you\u2019re not comfortable, don\u2019t use them.\u201d Follin looks unsure: \u201cYou think?\u201d \u201cYeah\u201d affirms Allen, \u201cdo what makes you comfortable. It\u2019s important that you\u2019re happy on stage.\u201d <\/p>\n
Follin now happier, the two girls proceed to giggle their way through a digital camera slideshow containing pictures of the dress Allen intends to wear to her wedding this summer.
\nLater, when Allen is out of earshot, Follin confides; \u201cI\u2019m so pleased we\u2019ve got Lily fighting our cause. She says she doesn\u2019t want us to endure the same crap she did when she was making music.\u201d
\nThe Cults singer may well be grateful for the support of Allen, but in truth, Lily is as lucky to have Cults as they are to have her. <\/p>\n
Formed \u201cabout a year ago\u201d, around seven months into Madeline and Brian\u2019s relationship, Cults is a band that is really quite special. It may now have been a few years since new bands were allowed to admit to being C86 fans without eliciting widespread yawns, but for all the quaint glockenspiel and lolloping St Etienne drums in Cults\u2019 music, its big, Motown-aping songs are just as indebted to \u201968 as they are \u201986. <\/p>\n
Cults is no throwaway twee pop outfit either \u2013 tonally the songs are often as dark as they are light: \u201cTo me, death is not a fearful thing. It\u2019s living that\u2019s treacherous,\u201d forebodes Go Outside<\/em>, the band\u2019s 2010 self-released debut 7in single, which \u2013 before the fairy dust keyboard stabs, the pretty but plundering chorus \u2013 opens with a static-drenched sample culled from an old Jim Jones recording. (For the unaquainted, Jones was founder and leader of the Peoples Temple cult, who in 1978 oversaw the murder of more than 900 of his congregation in Jonestown, Guyana). <\/p>\n Um. \u201cWhat gives?\u201d I ask, backing away, slowly.<\/p>\n \u201cAll we do when we\u2019re not playing or writing music is watch DVDs and mess around online,\u201d explains Brian. \u201cOne day we just stumbled upon all these stories about cults. It\u2019s interesting, because a lot of our songs are about teen angst-type feelings \u2013 a fear of living a boring life. To me, those cults were about similar things; they\u2019re normally populated by people who don\u2019t want to lead. or are incapable of leading, a regular life.<\/p>\n \u201cCults has always been about me and Madeline trying to escape from the real world, only in a way that isn\u2019t as destructive and extreme as the sort of things we were reading about.\u201d<\/p>\n Cults may play with the imagery and escapism of the indoctrination process from which they take their name, but they\u2019re hardly hiding away from the real world. If Arcade Fire and its Pitchfork-beloved peers have spearheaded a recent renaissance for indie rock ideals and integrity, you might see Cults as part of a second wave of bands now arriving as reinforcement.<\/p>\n \u201cI do believe soul still exists in music,\u201d says Brian. \u201cMaybe not in Jedward, but it\u2019s definitely an exciting time for music like ours right now. Arcade Fire just won a Grammy. Vampire Weekend is about to go platinum. MGMT\u2019s first record is already double platinum. Indie music is a really creative, artistic, interesting place again. The audience for weird, fucked-up music hasn\u2019t been this big since the 60s. I get angry when people don\u2019t recognise that or don\u2019t celebrate those bands\u2019 achievements. Now it feels like we\u2019re winning \u2013 how exciting is that?\u201d Madeline giggles. \u201cI\u2019m thinking about whether Jedward have a soul.\u201d<\/p>\n Not long after we\u2019ve finished talking, the band take to to Madame JoJo\u2019s stage. The crowd watching give the impression have come to judge \u2013 to form an opinion \u2013 on \u201cLily Allen\u2019s new signing\u201d. <\/p>\n Twenty minutes later, upon finishing their set, talk is of how strong the bands songs are, how haunting Follin\u2019s voice is, and just how much hair one band can have. The name Lily Allen is barely mentioned.<\/p>\n Later we catch sight of Madeline Follin, her hair drenched with sweat, no earpiece in her ear, now stood alone. She smiles. She no longer looks worried \u2013 she looks like she\u2019s surveying all that\u2019s about to be hers.<\/p>\n Photography: Nik Hartley This article first appeared in<\/em> Wonderland Issue 26, April\/May 2011<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This New York duo have some scary stuff to sing about. But, they say, nothing’s more terrifying than boredom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9419],"tags":[332,329,50,335,333,260,330,123,334,331],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nFashion: Julia Sarr-Jamois
\nWords: James McMahon<\/p>\n