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CULTS GO OUTSIDE
BUZZWORTHY BAND PLAYS MUSIC BOX IN MARCH

At a recent event during Los Angeles’ Fashions Night Out, New York-based indie-pop band Cults hypnotized a sizeable crowd the likes of which seemed to take up every inch of the parking lot outside designer Phillip Lim’s showroom. The performance was riveting and raucous, no doubt partly fueled by the shots of Jameson that band mates Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion threw back in the VIP room shortly before taking the stage and powering through their 45-minute set.

Cults are on an ongoing tour bus ride, the likes of which they probably wouldn’t have even imagined a year ago. Fate, luck and talent all seem to compete for a leading role in facilitating the band’s increasing trajectory toward the top. Follin and Oblivion met in early 2010, while en route to New York from San Diego. Madeline was Brian’s “first”; the first to sing the first songs he’d ever written. After hesitantly putting them up on a Bandcamp Page in February 2010, the single “Go Outside” started to gain momentum, eventually being released as a single on Forest Family Records, the startup from Gorilla Vs Bear who posted the unknown demo to rave response.

After a few standout performances at the 2010 CMJ Festival, the large labels started courting the band and Columbia ended up signing them. And by last fall they headed into the studio to record their self-titled full-length release.

Cults’ sound draws influence from dreamy melodies that herald back to the days of girl group-inspired pop with classic R&B chord progressions and reverb-laced lyrics. But the candy coating stops there.

“I think what makes something beautiful is when it’s pretty but there’s something wrong with it too,” says Oblivion. “So where our music is upbeat and uplifting, behind that, there are heartbreaking lyrics and quotes from Charles Manson, Patty Hearst. Quotes of ugly people saying beautiful things; someone who is so obviously disagreeable in every way can then say something perfect – that’s beauty.”

Recording the self-produced album in New York, the band found themselves completely immersed in the process, so much so that by the end of record, they were finishing each other’s sentences.

“Generally it was very isolated,” says Oblivion. “We’d start working at like 8 p.m. and then we’d stop working around 12 in the afternoon the next day, go home and sleep for the entire afternoon. Then we’d head back into the studio at 8 p.m. It was like this everyday for weeks at a time, not seeing sunlight. We never even listened to music either. We would just sit down and work non-stop for hours and hours. You know when you’re around the same person or people that much, you start speaking your own weird language. Whatever people would come to visit us [we] would be kind of weirded out and put off ‘cuz we’d go hours without speaking - it was kind of like a version of insanity.”

As the band continues to accumulate road warrior points and frequent flyer miles, they still manage to maintain a sense of humor even though exhaustion may be shadowing them. The band likes to play with their moniker and often call themselves The Colts, especially when arriving at certain destinations.

“I don’t think our name is that controversial but sometimes if we’re at a border crossing or truck stop, we’ll call ourselves The Colts – a country western band with long hair,” Oblivion notes. “We’re a real all-American band!”

Catch Cults, with special guest Spectrals, at The Music Box, located at 6126 Hollywood Blvd., on Thursday, March 22.

Text by Roxanne Rubell
Photography by Graham John Bell
Location The Avalon Hotel

Go Outside, by Cults from Boing Boing on Vimeo.