Indie pop duo Cults are the epitome of New Yorker-style coolness. Though both originally from the west coast, Madeleine Follin and Brian Oblivion met while both studying film in New York. While they were both music lovers, and had musical backgrounds, neither had previously set out to make music.
"Everyone in my family was making music, but I figured I was the one in the family who was the black sheep who wouldn't be doing anything cool, so I was kind of like 'ah well, I guess I'll just study film'," Follin explains.
However the couple were soon feeling encouraged by all the creative projects happening around them, and began writing and recording music to share with friends. They first garnered attention after posting three songs to their Bandcamp page in 2010 and quickly found a fan base with their 60s-inspired, swinging guitar pop, releasing their debut self-titled album in June last year.
Their band name isn't just an arbitrary label, it's the result of an ongoing interest in the notion of cults, and has been reflected in their music, with the video for early single Go Outside tying it directly to the story of the Jonestown Massacre.
"We'd just watched one documentary at college, and then it kind of spiralled, and we got obsessed, and we ended up watching endless hours of YouTube clips about cults, and that was around the time that we started making music."
