Astbury does not sing, conjure. When The Cult emerged from the post-punk mist of Great Britain in the ’80, Ian Astbury was already A prophet in his own religion. First as Sout-Hern Death Cult, then like Death Cult (until the name of The Cult) came up, his voice rose as a storm on sharp guitars and war drums.
With first albums such as Dreamtime (1984), Love (1985), Electric (1987) y Sonic Temple (1989), marked his destiny: a Wild combination of psychedelia, stadium rock and tribal mysticism. The rest is already history.
He was born in Heswall’s hac Personal mythology. It was in Canada where rock found it and possessed it. There the howls of Jim Morrison of The Doors (great influence) and the shadows of the New York poet-corker Jim Carroll woke up an ancestral call. Today lives in Los Angeles.
Angels and demons
Astbury defines as “an oasis, an esoteric territory.” And calls it “the city of Los Angeles.” It is explained: “It is the fate of many occultists, people who did not subscribe to the orientation imposedor from Europeans who came to be free … the theosophers, the writer Helena Blavatsky, the scientist Jack Parsons, artists such as Marjorie Cameron, all occultists. ”
It stands out to one of those “angels”: Christopher Isherwood. “He comes to Los Angeles from England to write A single manHe, a gay man. David Bowie’s great influence. Translates the Bhagavad gita From Sanskrit to English … In my neighborhood there are laboratories for the propulsion of airplanes, they are making missions to Mars. The writer Ron Hubbard lived, who began the Church of Scientology. This is the angels. The Vedanta Ashram, Hindu philosophy center right next to the highwayhe is there since 1920: he is the ashram older. The Dalai Lama comes to the always, the Buddhist nun Pema Chodron also and Tibetans visit us. There are Buddhist temples, Zen, synagogues. There are also Anglicans, Masons. Yoga is practiced. It is an esoteric site. For something, Aldous Huxley came to live here. “
On the other hand, when Astbury defines angels as “a vortex of spiritual exploration”, he does not forget that the manifestation of angels is done through cinema: Hollywood. “Let’s think about the name: Holly-woodthat is, the sacred tree, ”he warns.
“The symbology of the sacred tree is that, above and below, the tree carries oxygen, processes it, and goes to the ground. This is very important. Los Angeles is a psychedelic city which was built by visionaries and psychedelics. We know that in mystical schools there is evidence of psychoactive substances. There is evidence of Mesoamerican culture and psychoactive cultures in the indigenous world. “
The free mixture of religions and beliefs ends up defining Astbury’s decision to live in the. “In my neighborhood there are Latinos, people from Thailand, India … there is a Sikh temple (a monotheistic religion of the Indostan) next to my house, just after, a Tibetan Buddhist temple of Kadampa meditation. It is violent, chaotic, there are earthquakes. Nature is powerful with its coyotes, wild cats. There are gaps and mountains in the middle of our streets. “
-How did the fire of the month of January affected you?
-We had to leave, we evacuated us. A nearby park caught fire. I think the director Werner Herzog described him when he spoke in his Fitzcarraldo about nature. He said that nature is not a paradise where everything is equanimity. No, Nature is brutal and violent. As the feminine is not soft and beautiful. Can you see that the most dangerous entity in nature is a woman who protects her baby? Do you think men are strong? Do you see how the female protects her young? It will eat you alive, if you approach. Moreover: the village will eat you.
The female force
For the singer, the female force in nature is a original beat, A flow that runs through the earth, water and wind with its ancestral breatha seed that sleeps in the dark belly of the earth, the moon that guides the tides, an equally subtle and overwhelming energy, which supports life in perpetual cycle of birth, growth and rebirth. Also, death.
“You will grab the razor to shave your hair/burns the dress you hate/you no longer have to cry/you no longer have to hide/Do you dream in color?/Do you think in others?/There is a demon in your mouth/but an angel in your heart/All the things you said/destroyed this world”, Sings this man in Devil’s Mouth, material from his solo album Spirit\Light\Speed.
“I feel that in many ways the force is always feminine,” says Astbury. “The Indians studied it by millennia: our relationship with the external universe and the internal universe, in the center of this there are This male-femenine dynamicbut they are not separated, they have different aspects and mix. “
-What is the place of men in this way of seeing the world?
-There are in a place where men are lost. Traditionally, men have been educated to work in factories, and are now completely lost. They have no leadership. The industry is gone. So we have this masculinity that is unexpected, and that has metassess in a very cancerous way. Women, with His internal strength and emotional intelligencethey are moving very quickly through all data points and are leading. Most of my information comes from women.
-And you don’t think that maybe it always happened, but now we imposed it by force of fighting?
-We are in that. And it doesn’t matter if it is Lady Gaga or if it is Mariana Enriquez, or others less known as Michelle Amo or Elizabeth Owens. The women raised the torch. It is you who now show the way, and it is not that they did not do it before, but now, finally, we have eyes to see it.
-You are often referring to American native culture or British post-pitch, even cinematographic influences. Do you think that rock musicians should be more aware of cultural narratives beyond music? Don’t you think that is missing?
-Yes, there is a fault, of course. But this is also due to two aspects: one is the way in which artists are fed by institutions. Institutions symbolize that they have the way. The Academy Awards, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Grammy: “We will give them the prize”, “This is the laureate.” That is not “the truth.” The relationship between the information and the process of her that is put in the work you do matters. Now we are currently resurfaced. Everything is quantum, and consciously used, it can be incredibly effective. But unconsciously used can give dissociated results. Let’s end with such claim.
His passage through Buenos Aires
In early March, The Cult was presented again at the works stadium in Buenos Airesas he had done in 1991, the first of many visits to our country. The last two shows that made here, plus an aggregate at the last moment in Vorterix, confirmed it: the presence of Astbury on stage is part of a ritual.
Ian Astbury during a show in Madrid. Photo: EFE.Sing, or better, invokes. It does not move, it is delivered. Is The medium of an ancient energy that transforms the air into fire, which makes each concert a ceremony. Their lyrics talk about love and death, forgotten gods and flames, interior trips, women of fire and lost paradises.
-This, in the show, did you end with a Buddhist prayer?
-Practical many different things. I took those words from the four great votes of Bodhisattva, of the practitioners in the Buddhist traditions Mahayana. And many joined. It was spontaneous.
Women, with their internal strength and emotional intelligence, are moving very quickly through all data points and are leading. My information comes from them.
Ian Astbury, líder de The Cult.
-You were happy the other day, right?
-He was very happy. When I saw that answer, I thought: “Well, here is the truth. Something is happening. I know something is happening, I’m sorry, it transports me. And they know it too. We are animals, we can feel it”I speak of the instinct, of course. We can hear it. We have the same molecular structure, a large energy conductor.
For Astbury, Buenos Aires emits a very special energy. This is what it says: “This specific region has something unique, very unique. One of my best friends is from Buenos Aires. It is an architect, it has a technological company and makes movies, a polymata. I ask: what is that? Buenos Aires, the Argentines. Well, well, Something that is happening here. The mixture of Europeans and indigenous people, something very wise, intuitive, artistic. Definitely, there are places like this that are a meeting of mystics, intellectuals, people who are exploring their body autonomy. ”
Astbury says this and much more. He was a father again for the third time, he says that he reads Borges, who is bound to a essay work that will take immersive forms, a spiritual type, and at the same time, physical.
Today he is still on the road with an intact voice and visionary look and unwavering delivery. Astbury is a traveler between worldsa night animal that is still looking for the answer in the fury of a song. Or a mantra. A true sorcerer. Because some are born to sing and others to invoke thunder.
