{"id":30784,"date":"2016-11-07T08:00:36","date_gmt":"2016-11-06T21:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=30784"},"modified":"2018-08-02T11:41:10","modified_gmt":"2018-08-02T01:41:10","slug":"billy-duffy-cult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2016\/11\/billy-duffy-cult\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Duffy of The Cult"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"the-cult\"<\/a>
\n\u201cI think I\u2019m just a more mature gentleman, me and him don\u2019t own the songs, they\u2019re the property of the fans and I just try and do my best to play them with as much enthusiasm and integrity as I can so that they come and enjoy it, you know? So that\u2019s kind of where I\u2019m at with it and it brings me a lot of joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

From release: One of music’s most influential bands with an arsenal of hits including:\u00a0She Sells Sanctuary<\/em>,\u00a0Love Removal Machine<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Fire Woman,<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>The Cult bring their\u00a0Hidden City<\/em>\u00a0Tour<\/em>\u00a0to Australia this November. The Cult – founding singer Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy along with drummer John Tempesta, bassist Grant Fitzpatrick and keyboardist\/rhythm guitarist Damon Fox \u2013 is on the road now in support of their latest full-length release,\u00a0Hidden City<\/em>. Hidden City<\/em>\u00a0is The Cult’s 10th studio album and the final chapter of the band’s trilogy of releases which began with 2007’s\u00a0Born Into This<\/em>\u00a0followed by 2012’s\u00a0Choice of Weapon<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Just passing through\u00a0North Carolina, Billy Duffy called in for a chat to discuss the upcoming Australian tour, their new album \u2018Hidden City\u2019, working with Bob Rock and all things The Cult\u2026<\/p>\n

Thanks for your time, Billy. Of course you\u2019re heading back to Australia in November, what can fans expect on this tour?<\/strong>
\nWell\u2026 the band is good because we\u2019re right at the end of a touring cycle, after this Australia \/ New Zealand tour we\u2019re going to take a break for a few months, so the band\u2019s got a lot of good muscle memory, we\u2019ve really played everywhere, from the smallest club in London where Jimi Hendrix first got on stage ever in England to about fifty people because that\u2019s all it holds, to playing to a stadium in Mexico City opening for Guns N\u2019 Roses to a hundred thousand people or however many got in for free there was a lot. We\u2019ve done it all this year, so the band\u2019s pretty much seasoned and it\u2019s a great feeling, I love it as a musician and a player, the band has really solidified and gelled, we\u2019ve got a couple of new dudes in the band, got a keyboard second guitar player called Damon Fox who\u2019s great, it\u2019s really adding a different textural feeling to the band rather than just having two guitars for the whole show. The showmanship is good, the performances, we\u2019ve got a lot of good stage craft together, it\u2019s all the stuff the just comes with physically playing and that\u2019s the dilemma when you\u2019ve been around a while not everyone wants to tour as much as other people do, and I like to tour quite a lot because I get better at my job doing it, I play better when I tour that the band I\u2019m in gels better and we go to another level. You just can\u2019t rehearse that, you have to do it on stage and kinda it\u2019s a clich\u00e9 you know, a band gets tight on the road, you can rehearse and rehearse and rehearse but it\u2019s a whole other matter when you do it in front of people. So the band\u2019s good, it\u2019s a blessing really, I think we were supposed to come down in May and it didn\u2019t work out, so it\u2019s actually fortunate I think for Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve had such a great reception since coming back to Australia, what do you think it is about the band that people attach to?<\/strong>
\nYou know I honestly don\u2019t know, I think and this is a personal opinion and mine alone I think that there\u2019s an element in The Cult that people got the sort of naked authenticity of it, I mean I used to feel that when I would see AC\/DC, I saw AC\/DC with Bon Scott in 1977 in England, it was at a punk club because people thought they were a punk band, and that\u2019s my era I was sixteen in 1977, so my era was The Sex Pistols and The Damned and all that, but AC\/DC came out in England then and they blew up really quickly but initially nobody really knew what punk was, there wasn\u2019t a guidebook, it hadn\u2019t become all Sid Vicious dolls and safety pins it was just like this new thing that happened, and AC\/DC were right on top of it. So that kind of naked, I think it\u2019s the groove, to simplify it I think Australian\u2019s get the groove like rock music was pointed from the waist downwards, to me heavy metal is from the waist up, it\u2019s head banging music, it\u2019s like a different kind of power, but for rock and roll and what we try and do is about the back beat and the groove and the rock and roll which is the connection for the blues and the whole thing, it\u2019s in there, maybe people get it I don\u2019t know? I\u2019d like to think so, it\u2019s very honest music with The Cult, we\u2019ve been accused of many things but I think dishonesty is not one of them, so we do wear our heart on our sleeves a lot and I think maybe people down there get it.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about \u2018Hidden City\u2019 in a closing chapter of a trilogy starting in 2007, was it something hard to put together when you have to wrap it up or was this an album already planned from the beginning?<\/strong>
\nNone of our albums are ever planned, I think that\u2019s very retrospective calling it a trilogy, I think the purpose of the trilogy statement was to sort of identify the fact to people who might not know the ins and out of the The Cult on a daily basis but we\u2019ve made three new albums in the last ten years, in fact nine years which is maybe a bit prolific for a band that has been around for thirty plus years. I think we wanted people to have a conversation about what\u2019s new and what\u2019s going on in as much of our most talked about past which is we do it, we\u2019ve done a \u2018Love\u2019 tour, we\u2019ve done an \u2018Electric\u2019 tour, hopefully at some point we\u2019ll maybe do a \u2018Sonic Temple\u2019 tour maybe, so we\u2019re not turning our back on the past but maybe focusing on the good stuff we\u2019ve done recently which to us is like a blood transfusion, I think that bands that don\u2019t make new music it\u2019s a lot like not exercising a music it just atrophies so if you\u2019re just going out and playing the hits it gets to be like that you\u2019re your own cover band, you\u2019re not really taking any chances, you\u2019re just like the best cover band in the world.\u00a0 Maybe you don\u2019t need to make new albums maybe two or three or four new songs would suffice, I don\u2019t know what\u2019s gonna happen in the future, I don\u2019t know I haven\u2019t got a crystal ball, but I think it\u2019s important for us as a band to have some new stuff and see people react and really get into the new material off \u2018Hidden City\u2019. Like \u2018Deeply Ordered Choas\u2019 has become a big centrepiece of the live show, \u2018Birds of Paradise\u2019, people love \u2018G.O.A.T.\u2019 which me and Ian find hilarious because we just knocked that one together, it was one of the first riffs I had, I just never thought anything would come of it and it\u2019s one of those weird ones on an album where we nearly left it off the record and our manager Tom went \u201cThat\u2019s great I love that song it\u2019s one of my favourites\u201d and we were like are you kidding? That just goes to show that sometimes the most important rock and roll songs are made with absolutely no pretentiousness or seriousness behind them and maybe that\u2019s why it\u2019s good? Turn the guitars up to twelve and it works, and that goes down live and it really communicates with people too, so there\u2019s a bit of everything on \u2018Hidden City\u2019 so for all you Cult fans of old this is same varieties, so there\u2019s a bit of everything on there.<\/p>\n

I wanted to ask about working with Bob Rock again, in working with him many times over your career going back to Sonic Temple in 1989 why was he the right choice again and what was he able to bring to this album that just works for the band?<\/strong>
\nThat\u2019s a good question because if you look at the albums he\u2019s made, they\u2019re actually quite diverse sounding they\u2019re not all the same you would think oh well they went with Bob Rock because he did their biggest selling album \u2018Sonic Temple\u2019 and blahdy blah and they want to make that album again, but that\u2019s not actually the case. The next album we did after that with Bob was the eponymous album in 94, we sounded nothing like \u2018Sonic Temple\u2019 completely different, and then the album after that we did with him was \u2018Beyond Good and Evil\u2019 which was like that heavy, dark, gothic, d-tuned kind of a dark record a lot of heavy rock fans like that one, and the song \u2018Rise\u2019 came off that one. Then with this one, well he finished \u2018Choice of Weapon\u2019 because we had it produced by Chris Goss who is a very talented producer, but I think to answer your question, Bob\u2019s an alpha male, I\u2019m an alpha male and Ian\u2019s an alpha male, and I think that we need a producer that\u2019s got a set of balls on him and will stand up to me and Ian and yet get the best out of both of us and make us feel like we\u2019re being heard and being able to make the record we want to make. So that\u2019s why we keep going back to Bob, plus he is a big fan of The Cult, he\u2019s always loved English bands, he\u2019s obviously a Canadian guy he went to London in early seventies and his passion is like seventies English rock music, and so he kinda gets what I get which is what I grew up listening to just before punk and we have a lot of common ground, and obviously he\u2019s a very skillful producer, I mean he\u2019s done Van Morrison, he\u2019s done Michael Buble, he\u2019s done Metallica, you know Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, he\u2019s diverse, he\u2019s a real producer and I think that\u2019s because he tries to find the song, as much fun as me and him have doing the guitars together because we\u2019re guitar nuts, he tries to find the essence of the song in whatever artist he\u2019s working with. For us he\u2019s our go to guy to get the results you know. Sometimes people say \u2018Bob Rock, why?\u2019 really we\u2019re not trying to make \u2018Sonic Temple part 7\u2019 that would be tragic, it\u2019s actually the opposite and Bob doesn\u2019t want to do that either, he\u2019s got his roots in the right place and he knows his good rock DNA but he\u2019s reaching forwards also, as long as the journey is forwards and onwards that\u2019s all we really care about. You can borrow from the past but you don\u2019t live there you know?<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s your favourite thing about being part of The Cult?<\/strong>
\nWhat do I like about it? I\u2019m still basically a straight forward meat and potatoes guy, I love being in a band, I was talking to someone about it the other day, like most of my family grew up in construction so I don\u2019t come from a musical background or musical family, just a good blue collar working class, I grew up on building sites to be honest where my Dad was working. So I just see myself as a craftsman, as a tradesman, I\u2019m not a poet artist warrior, I\u2019m not a Buddhist priest spiritual monk guru, just a guy who learned to play guitar and it makes me feel good and I get off on it when I see people in the crowd that look on their faces when the band\u2019s on and I\u2019m cooking, that\u2019s the most joy I get out of it these days. A bit of a shift has changed I confess that probably when I was younger, I was just pretty much about what I could take from life and without getting all arts and flowers I think I\u2019m just a more mature gentleman, me and him don\u2019t own the songs, they\u2019re the property of the fans and I just try and do my best to play them with as much enthusiasm and integrity as I can so that they come and enjoy it, you know? So that\u2019s kind of where I\u2019m at with it and it brings me a lot of joy.<\/p>\n

Rather than ask you what you think has changed over the thirty years with The Cult, what would you say is the one thing that as stayed the same?<\/strong>
\nThat\u2019s a good question\u2026 what\u2019s the same? *thinks* that\u2019s a hard one\u2026 I think it comes back down to the relationship with me and Ian really, that\u2019s the essence of The Cult, The Cult started with two blokes getting together in London in 1983 kind of a simplistic \u2018hey let\u2019s start a band and write some songs\u2019 that was about as complicated as it was really. I\u2019d been kicked out of a band, he left Sudden Death Cult because he didn\u2019t feel the chemistry between the band members was right and didn\u2019t feel they were gonna last and he just sort of saw something in me that maybe I didn\u2019t even see in myself. So I mean that\u2019s the dynamic, that\u2019s the relationship that hasn\u2019t really changed, we\u2019ve certainly had our ups and downs and our falling outs, and it\u2019s been like the Cold War at certain times but there hasn\u2019t really been any super open hostility. Ultimately I respect him as a singer and I think he respects me as a guitar player and we\u2019ve got enough respect for each other as human beings, tats what\u2019s the same and once that goes then the rest of it doesn\u2019t really matter.<\/p>\n

Lastly let\u2019s look ahead to the future, finish this sentence for me, in 2017 The Cult want to\u2026<\/strong>
\nThe Cult wants to play Europe and South America, very simplistic desire but I want to do it in comfort. If anybody\u2019s been to Europe on a tour you\u2019ll know what I\u2019m talking about, if you\u2019ve never been on tour in Europe in a band you\u2019ll be like what is that guy talking about? In the last ten years in Europe on a tour bus touring, you\u2019ll know what I\u2019m talking about.<\/p>\n

The Cult Australian tour dates:<\/strong><\/p>\n

EATONS HILL HOTEL, BRISBANE
\nWEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 23<\/p>\n

ENMORE THEATRE, SYDNEY
\nFRIDAY NOVEMBER 25<\/p>\n

FESTIVAL HALL, MELBOURNE
\nSATURDAY NOVEMBER 26<\/p>\n

HQ, ADELAIDE<\/div>\n
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 27<\/div>\n

Ticket details here – www.livenation.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

Presented by Live Nation Australia<\/p>\n

You can WIN tickets to see The Cult by clicking HERE\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong>\u00a0England, United Kingdom<\/p>\n

Band Members:<\/strong>\u00a0 Ian Astbury \u2013 vocals, Billy Duffy \u2013 guitar, John Tempesta – drums<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong>\u00a0http:\/\/www.thecult.us<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest Release:<\/strong> Hidden City (Out Now \u2013 Cooking Vinyl)<\/p>\n

\"iTunes<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n