A Conversation with The Cult Sounds
So there’s been a band in the dark rock scene that’s been making waves for a little while now from my very own St. Louis. I had been dying to learn more about them so I reached out for a conversation. We set a time and decided to do the whole thing over a video call.
The day and time comes and in moments I’m greeted by Jordan who is the producer, rhythm guitarist, and programmer for synths and drum machine. Next, Bennett who is the singer and lyricist, then Ryan, who is on the lead guitars.
“Hey everyone!” I say enthusiastically. The eager greetings are returned at various times as our connections are revealed to be out of sync. A few of us leave and come back a few times before I ask how everyone is. The topic quickly turns to the pandemic and how they’ve had to cancel several shows. “Well that means more time to write though right?” Bennett who is perched up against a brick wall with long hair in his face perks up. “Yes! Lots of writing!” he says. I respond, “Well I can’t wait to see the new work, because your EP is awesome!” They thank me and we shift the topic to the band.
“So tell me about the beginning of your band.” I sit with my pen ready. Jordan takes the lead scratching his lightly bearded chin reflectively. “Well we started as a project in 2018 since we all knew each other from university and we all just meshed so well, that we just evolved in to a band.” “So it happened organically?” I propose. Bennett chimes in: “Yeah I like that term. It all felt very ““organic,”” we all had a lot of the same interests and agreed on lots of ideas.” I pose the next question “So what are some of your influences or inspirations?” Bennett responds: “We all have different influences but we all are big fans of grunge music, AFI, Ghost, and Gothic horror.” Jordan adds in enthusiastically: “We all are really inspired by wild stage presence. We’re also really big fans of 70’s rock shows cause it felt like there was kind of a culture surrounding that scene. I think that’s why old rockers are such die-hard fans because the shows would stay with you for a lifetime, we want to recapture that energy at our shows.” Bennett replies again: “Yeah, we really take the stage presence seriously, we want to be experienced not just heard, we want to be something people can really look back on.... Like I remember seeing an Alice Cooper show years back and that just really stuck with me.” I lean back in my chair a bit, listening. Bennett continues: “So yeah we just all felt that same passion and it worked. Our Bass guitarist Wyatt really helped in pushing us along too.” Ryan chimes in after being mostly quiet: “Yeah, Wyatt has been awesome!” Jordan nods in agreement before Bennett then interjects: “””WYATT IS AWESOME”” Make sure you put that in the article!” I throw up my hands mock surrendering: “Okay, okay!”
Ryan McBride front & Wyatt Eagen back.
(There you go, guys. I did it!)
We share a few laughs before we then move on to the next topic: “So what has it been like coming from the Midwest as a band?” Jordan responds rubbing his head in seeming exasperation: “Uhhhh, there is a lot of great music out here but visibility is kind of low. It feels stagnant at times.” Bennett replies talking about the music scene: “We were in so many failed musical projects...” He pushes his long hair back out of his face before leaning in and continuing. “I think that’s why The Cult Sounds works, because we were in so many projects that failed.. we know what doesn’t work.”
Bennett Huntley
I then ask: “So you classify yourselves as a dark rock band, would you like to expand on that?” Jordan responds thoughtfully: “Well each song takes on a life of its own and we don’t really stay in one genre, but it always sounds dark. So we stick with dark rock.” I respond: “Some people would get choice paralysis from that, having no real boundaries. Is that ever challenging? Allowing for so much freedom?” Jordan shakes his head, “Nah not really, surprisingly. We all have different musical backgrounds from prog metal, classic rock and etc., so we all have tons of ideas and every song will inevitably sound like us. So we just start writing the song and see what happens.” I nod before asking the next question on my mind: “So, how long have you all have been in music?”
Bennett: “I’ve been singing pretty much my whole life.”
Jordan: “I’ve played guitar since I was a kid.”
Ryan: “About 3-4 years…”
Jordan Hageman
We talk a bit more before circling back to influences and landing on the topic of childhood and what inspired us then, inevitably we talk about horror and video games. I mention how much I loved arcades although most games felt unbeatable. Jordan mentions how most games from our childhood seem impossible when compared to modern video games. “Kids have it easy these days with games.” He says jokingly. I chime in, “When I was a kid I was obsessed with the original Friday the 13th video game on NES. For years, I mean for years! I thought I just sucked because I never could beat it. Not too long ago I found out that it is mathematically impossible to beat! Imagine the rage, all these years doubting myself. It’s just sadistic!” I throw my hands up dramatically. The group laughs. Bennett adds laughing “Makes you wonder how many could be beaten at all, you know?” Ryan laughs. “Those games back then were no joke.” He adds. Jordan then asks “You ever play Castlevania?” I reply that I played quite a few editions but never beat any of the titles. Bennett then tells me that Jordan is “obsessed with Castlevania” and to “watch out.” Jordan then admits that he has logged hundreds of hours but then drops something really interesting. “I was really inspired by the music and it was the main inspiration for our single What Gets Done In The Night from our upcoming album.” (Single was released on the 14th) I’m hooked in with this bit of info: “That’s really interesting, do you wanna talk about the album some?” I ask. Bennett jokingly says “Oh we probably shouldn’t…” I laugh “Oh come on… we’re friends…” Bennett resigns in jest before beginning. “Well, it’s about the metaphorical and literal death of a star. Like what it means to be famous today in contrast with before the internet.” “So it’s like a concept album?” I ask. Bennett responds, “Kind of, but not totally. You’ll see.”
And we will see, hopefully as soon as October.💀
Check out The Cult Sounds at their Bandcamp, Insta and Facebook page and some of their music below.
Their single What Gets Done in the Night is a 3:38 song featuring a shredding echoing death rock-y guitar reminiscent of California’s death rock bands with a fusion of traditional rock’s electric guitars. I’ve no qualms with saying I love it.
For further listening, Their EP Album The Cult Sounds is a 5 song release from Nov 29, 2019 featuring Anatomy of a Car Crash and At The Mouth of Madness both of which I both recommend.