Hardly Static – Cults discuss new album and the band’s ever-developing sound

Cults will perform Saturday at 4:15 p.m. at the Ritual Stage at Voodoo Fest in New Orleans. For more information, click here.

Cults blasted into the music world with a sleeper hit, “Go Outside.” With prominent praise and Columbia Records picking up the New York band’s homemade, self-titled debut, Cults’ Brian Oblivion and Madeline Follin have kept moving.

What once started as a hobby has become a fever dream for the duo—releasing a sophomore album, Static, on Columbia, playing more than 300 shows a year across the globe, and constantly obsessing over being busy.
Below is my conversation with Oblivion.

Matthew Sigur: What was the recording process for Static?
Brian Oblivion: The last record was done completely on my laptop in our apartment. It had fake keyboards, drums, fake basses and organs. That was just used to develop the sound. We just kept using those instruments even though we weren’t in the real studio. For the new album, we wanted to go for the genuine article and use real instruments whenever possible. That made a tremendous difference. These songs all started with the rhythm section, whereas the last songs we’re written on an acoustic guitar. We wanted the songs have a strong catchy rhythmic base before we built anything on top of it. We got to work with a few New York drummers we really liked. We jammed the songs before we went and recorded them. We hadn’t done that before. We had done the reverse of that.

MS: What does the title of the album allude to?
BO: We’ve always been a band that likes working within restrictions, but also following our obsessions. [Working within restrictions] is what the first record was about. For this one, we were obsessed with the cultural idea of static. We’d fallen in love with the look and sound of it. During our span of touring, we started to use that imagery on stage. We like the idea that it can have a different associations, too. It can point to the overload of digital information, disconnection between you and another person, the white noise quality that comes through on the speakers. I’m hesitant to nail it down to one thing, though.

MS: It’s an interesting title, because it can also refer to the lack of change or movement from one place to the next. Cults has consistently played shows and kept the plate full.
BO: Yeah, we did a lot of shows, and we keep doing a lot. We don’t really know any other way to function. From the beginning of our band, when our songs immediately took off on the Internet, we knew we had a lot of work to do. The other thing is we get really anxious when nothing is required of us. The worst feeling in the world is after you have created these opportunities, then there’s this weird hole where no one will call you or ask you to do anything. We like being busy.

MS:: You recently spoke about the major label being a plus for your band…did you get any flack for that?
BO:: Definitely, we got some bad responses. When I did that SPIN interview, there was stuff going on outside of the interview and it became this way bigger thing. I had been up all night, fixing a record for my friends who are on a small label. The small label thought the song didn’t sound punchy enough; so I’m remixing it for them. I was frustrated. I was tired. We love our label, and I’m tired of it being a talking point. It doesn’t have anything to do with our music. I was trying to stir the pot. It’s not about indie’s right and the majors are wrong. It’s a lot more confusing than that these days.

MS: Did you imagine when the band was first starting, that you would be in this position with a sophomore album, touring, and on a major label, though?
BO: No, not at all. When the band first started, it was a non-thought. It was Madeline and I in her parents’ house or in a basement, recording with a $100 microphone that I borrowed from a friend six months. We didn’t have ambitions. We were both in school for totally different things at the time, too. We had different dreams. Life throws you some weird things sometimes. That’s why we can enjoy it. It’s a bizarre chapter of our lives we couldn’t have anticipated, that we never dreamed about. We’re making the best of this moment that we can.

Check out some bands appearing at this weekend’s Voodoo Fest on the playlist below.