The Cult, SXSW: Ian Astbury Looks Past Festival to Political Concerns

The Cult has played SXSW before, but lead singer Ian Astbury can't remember when and says he has more important things on his mind.

"I'm becoming less and less interested with narrow concerns," says Astbury, who will front the Cult when they headline the free outdoor show at Austin's Auditorium Shores this evening (March 17).

The singer was less enthralled with talking about this festival, his band and the Cult's forthcoming 'Choice of Weapon' album -- which will be released as a special edition fan pack on May 14, followed by digital and double vinyl on May 21 and CD and deluxe CDs on June 4 -- than he was with actor George Clooney being arrested outside of the Sudanese embassy during a Washington, D.C. protest on Friday.

"It's like looking down a telescope the wrong way," says Astbury, who says most people today are wrongly more interested in celebrity over meaning and quantity over quality, and that attention spans have shrunk to alarmingly low levels. "We're in cultural gridlock right now. If there's a crowd, I tend to go in the other direction and see what's around the corner."

Astbury was a British immigrant who grew up in Hamilton, Ont., and hung out with Aboriginal kids because he claims they embraced him as a fellow societal outsider. He's maintained his interest in North American indigenous culture through his career as a rock star and has taken it to a new level with a film company called Love Cult Productions that he's building.

One project is a documentary he produced titled 'Conquest,' which deals with "sexual violence and Native American genocide" and exposes "an untold massive injustice carried out by white America on its indigenous people" in the 21st century through native women were being sterilized without consent and other atrocities.

Astbury, who says he prefers being behind the camera, can't devote as much time as he'd like to films because he spends so much time singing in front of thousands of people with the Cult. But he admits that those audiences aren't as large as they were during the band's heyday in the '80s and early '90s when albums 'Love,' 'Electric,' 'Sonic Temple' and 'Ceremony' were being certified gold and platinum.

That's why Astbury says 'Choice of Weapon' is "a comeback record in some ways" and has a theme of "a life lived and redemption and snatching victory from the jaws of defeat."

Astbury's distinctive voice (he played the role of the late Jim Morrison with Doors members Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger in The Doors of the 21st Century in 2002) and longtime musical partner Billy Duffy's guitar remain the Cult's signature sounds on 'Choice of Weapon,' which was recorded in New York City, Los Angeles, the California high desert and the band's Witch Mountain studios in the Hollywood Hills with producers and past collaborators Chris Goss (Queens of the Stone Age, U.N.K.L.E.) and Bob Rock (Metallica, Aerosmith) between July and December of last year.

A worldwide tour will support Choice of Weapon as Astbury returns to his "nomadic" lifestyle. While Astbury, Duffy, drummer John Tempesta and bassist Chris Wyse live in Los Angeles, the frontman claims, "Earth is my main base," and he feels a much stronger affinity with New York City than he does with L.A.

"You have to take the rough with the smooth," is how Astbury succinctly sums up the Cult's 30-year career. "We can't all be like Neil Young, who's a godlike genius."

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