Ian Astbury faces Poptones.co.uk's QUESTIONS OF DOOM and talks about The Doors, The Libertines, Velvet Revolver, Oliver Stone, Tatu, Primal Scream and the Cult!

 

Will the Cult get back together?

I don't know.

What it's like playing with the Doors 21c?

It is happening at an incredible pace. The intense level of the playing ... is so high that Ray and Robbie let the veil of the conscious mind fall away. It is complete hypnosis. And as a performer it is fantastic. I have no need to hide. They give me pure confidence and energy.

It is like the Royal Tour being on the road with the Doors. We played in Acropolis at this huge Amphitheatre and you could see the mountains, all dusty, almost like you could see the people making offerings to Dionysus. And I look down to twenty-five year old guys weeping and people kissing....

Are you recording with the Doors 21c?

Potentially. The process is quite monolithic. And Ray lives in San Francisco and Robbie in Santa Monica. But I can't say I am the outside gun to their inner sanctum. The material that we have worked is intense. If it is recorded I would like to see it done as an arthouse project with some more outside players.

Oliver Stone asked you to play Jim Morrison in his 1989 epic The Doors. You turned him down but in 2004 you are now playing with key Doors members. Why the change-of-heart?

You have to realise that was in 1989. I was wrapped up in being Ian Astbury in the Cult. So when I got the call from Oliver Stone I had to say no. And I would have said no because I didn't relate to Hollywood people. And I felt that Oliver Stone was a voyeur to rock'n'roll. It was all so shallow and laughable.

Never mind Jim Morrison, how does it feel to be stepping into Iggy Pop's shoes.

Ha ha. Ray worked with Iggy in the seventies. He came to the rehearsal naked. Ray said: "That's great, we've seen your manhood now can we rehearse'?

What solo stuff are you working on at the moment?

I just finished a session with Gordon Raphael. Three songs. Three really good songs. It was done with a few friends in a get-to-know-you type session. I loved it. Gordon has a great energy in the studio.

And I finished working on some material with Trent Reznor. That is probably going to see the light of day in 2008 considering what a perfectionist Trent Reznor is.

He's like the industrial Brian Wilson with his material isn't he?

With Trent that is historical. He did sessions with Maynard from Tool – as Tapeworm that still haven't seen release. But Trent is monolithic. The sessions are the super predator. It is big, it is sensitive and still has an intimate sound. Something to compete with all the young modernists.

You came through the post-punk wars with The Cult - what were those years like?

I was listening to Joy Division today – just finished reading the Deborah Curtis biography on Ian. It just ripped me to shreds his earnestness and the bleakness of those times. It reminded me of myself. During the post-punk years neon hadn't been invented yet. Quick sex. Cheap drugs. Rain. Concrete. Raw. Travelling down the M1 in a van shivering in a blanket. It was a rite of passage.

What about Velvet Revolver?

I was asked to rehearsal. Was sent the tape. But you know what? I never felt it. So I turned it down. But there you go - they have probably sold about ten million records but there is no point in selling ten million records if you aren't enjoying it. I did play the completed record and there is a lot of craft, melody and it is a good record in that genre.

What of the Libertines ...?

Yes. Without a doubt. But I feel like telling Pete that the self-destructive martyr thing is worn out. But its hard for an oldster to tell a young kid that he should create a body of work worth the level of his self destruction first. It just seems so premature. He should turn down the volume and up the creativity. Just look at Nirvana, Happy Mondays and Stone Roses. Drugs ripped those bands apart. Do you think that they already did their best work? I don't. But as long as there is rock'n'roll there will always be the ones who destroy themselves on the barricades doing it for those too chicken to explore.

Primal Scream?

Yes. There is a purity in their process that is amazing. They are a true artists. They have no fear of public and critical opinion. It is art for themselves.

Tatu?

I really love Tatu. I read an amazing interview with Tatu's manager and Malcolm McLaren. Malcolm had this great quote 'We are living in a dead karaoke world pretending to be alive'. Malcolm is in Shanghai at the moment radiating his genius.

That's the strange juxtaposition of Ian Astbury - you have been named the best hard rock singer in the world a thousand times over by magazines and the people and yet there is a very much left of centre art-house obsessed side to your personality.

It's just me. I am a big-barrelled boy so I can really belt out the songs. Yet, I am learning to improve my craft with The Doors 21c - to really croon. But I see what you mean - during The Cult rehearsal I would bring down Public Image Limited ‘Metal Box' and play it for Billy Duffy and he would have his head in his hands going ‘No no no' and I would be like ‘Let's see how this changes the Cult's sound'. Public Image Limited is like my Led Zeppelin. Billy was always trying to make it mainstream hard rock'n'roll and I would always be trying to drag the Cult left-of-centre.

What's in your future Ian Astbury?

I'm putting together a band at the moment called 'Warrior of the Mystic Plains'. I called it that because I love the name even though all the press will be like: ‘that twat ... exactly what we expected of that twat. It's all hush-hush at the moment.

Thanks Ian for participating in Poptones.co.uk QUESTIONS OF DOOM. If you say that you have avoided the questions of doom - YOU HAVE LIED!

Sonny Tremaine