Standing at the forefront of the Post-Metal scene for 20 years now, Cult Of Luna is one of those bands that is often imitated but rarely equaled. Their dark, threatening sound is the musical representation of a bad omen. The guitars’ attack, coupled with the drums’ pounding and the vocals’ desperation build a relentless wall of sound and yet, they manage to incorporate just enough progression and calmer moment to make climatic parts even more epic. We spoke to vocalist/guitarist Johannes Persson, ahead of the band’s North American tour, starting this week.
Cult of Luna’s 2019 LP, A Dawn To Fear, is available through Metal Blade Records.
What have you been listening to the most lately?
To be quite honest, when I go from and to work, I mostly listen to podcasts. Just because music I listen to has mostly been songs I need to learn. I’m doing a set with JULIE CHRISTMAS in April. There’s a bunch of songs that I need to learn so yeah, the honest answer is mostly Julie Christmas and Christmas affiliated song.
Otherwise, if I start going through my record collection, I’ve been pulling out some RADIOHEAD, some BLUENECK. I’m just looking at the records right now. I listen to some old school Hardcore too, INTEGRITY, a bunch of stuff.
Can you name five milestone records that had a strong impact on your musical evolution and explain what makes them so special to you?
There’s a bunch of them and I think whatever record I’m gonna say now, I’m going to regret so let’s say this is just for now. When it comes to Hardcore and when I got into that whole scene, one of the most important record was Start Today by GORILLA BISCUITS. Still one of my favorites, although I don’t go back to it that often. It is very important to me because it introduced me to Hardcore and Punk.
Later on, I’d like to say UNBROKEN Life. Love. Regret. is without a doubt, the most impact a record had on me. I started listening to it at the right point in my both my personal life and the time when I actually learned to play the guitar and learn to write songs. You always need a record that you can relate to, and a band that you want to copy and that was the band for me.
Then it’s so hard, I mean, there’s so many albums that I love. I could say RADIOHEAD Amnesiac or I could say AT THE GATES Slaughter Of The Soul. Or ENTOMBED. MORBID ANGEL Domination. NICK DRAKE, Pink Moon. It’s great, one of my favorites. I mean, I could go on for ages mentionning records. DISMEMBER, their album Death Metal is also one I listen to religiously. I listen to a whole lot of music and a wide variety of genres so it is almost impossible to limit to five records only. Is it for musical reasons, for personal reasons? There’s so many layers. Let’s not forget either the local favorites, REFUSED. This Is The New Deal, the first EP, was nothing like I’d ever heard before. It was rough Hardcore and actually from my own city and that kind of opened my eyes. Again, there’s many reasons for many records to be important to me.
Another one that is super important to me is 16 HORSEPOWER or David Eugene Edwards’ later project Wovenhand…ah, I could go on for weeks! But yeah, 16 Horsepower, the album Folklore is another eye opening one because I grew up in a house with a lot of Swedish Folk music. Of course, you hate your parents’ music when you grow up and then you go back to it eventually. It holds a special significance. What I found in 16 Horsepower is kind of Americana, not Folk music but it has the same references as things that my parents listened to but it was new, and darker so that album really got to me. I love all of David Eugene Edwards’ work.
Oh, I just remembered one record that I need to mention. There was this sale at a local record store and I found this CD, a Peel Session from a band called JOY DIVISION. That’s a record I go back to all the time. I actually found it later on bootleg vinyl.
Is it still your go-to Joy Division record? Despite, I assume, having dug into the discography later on?
Yeah, I listen to Closer and Unknown Pleasures too but there’s something special in those sessions. Also, it was the first I heard from them so it remains special recordings. The production is rougher and darker than the actual records. That’s the one I go back to most, even though I love the two albums and the singles.
Peel Sessions are recorded live, yet it’s still in a studio. Do you have any pure live records that you absolutely love and find that the live version is better than the studio version?
No, actually. You’re talking to the wrong person, I don’t listen to live records. There’s probably a song or two that I might have thought was better than the recording but I always listen to the record.
John Peel unfortunately passed a couple of years before we got to the studio. We actually recorded three songs in that studio. We’ll see if that ever gets released but it was a very special atmosphere and I think the recording was quite good.
Back to Refused, were they the big local band, when you were first coming up in the scene?
Yeah, there were tons of bands but REFUSED was the biggest band. They got the most international and national attention. But right now, I’m looking at the ABHINANDA record The Rumble, not my favorite of them but it’s still a good album. There was tons of bands.
I remember the moment when I saw the record cover for the first time. It was on the school bus -I must have been 13 or 14 years old- and somebody showed me the CD. There was this kid from school on the back cover doing a stage dive or something like that and it was huge seeing this person you knew on the record.
What was the first concert that you
saw?
It was a local Hardcore show in ’94 with a bunch of
smaller local bands, one of which I actually ended up playing with a
couple years later. It was just people playing music and then go into
the audience and some people in the audience went up on stage. But
there was also Abhinanda headlining this show and that was huge for
me to be able to to see them. I think that was October ’94 and a year
later, I was standing on stage myself.
What band was it that you ended up joining?
Well, my first band was called REVIVE. That was some old school Hardcore, mostly ripped off, not good at all! But you need to start somewhere and that’s where we started.
After that first show, what are some of the most memorable shows that you’ve seen?
When you’re young and you see new stuff, everything can become magical. I remember seeing EARTH CRISIS when I was 16 in a packed school hall, 600 people going bananas. Seeing NEUROSIS in 1998 was something I never thought that I’d be able to see live. They came on stage and crushed us. It was something I had never seen before.
I saw RADIOHEAD for the first time a few years ago, it was the best show I had seen in decades. I thought I’d lost passion for music because even though I really love bands, I can’t stand for two hours. But that Radiohead show, they could have gone on for two more hours.
What’s the first thing that strikes you when you listen to new music? Is there anything special that you’re looking for?
I actually try to understand myself. What in music appeals to me, when I really get into something? I mean, I listen to such a wide variety of music, but it’s actually very hard to pinpoint. I try for my own sake to figure it out, in everything from (Fever 8??? to CANDY, or like everybody else, Lana Del Rey or newer stuff like BRUTUS or ???), newer stuff that I get into. I think it needs to have some melancholy.
Is there any artists or bands that you didn’t like at first but learned to appreciate eventually? Or perhaps something that you missed out on when it first came out and discovered way later?
Um, yes and no. Not in the sense that I didn’t like them and then started to like them but one band that I got into very late is KILLING JOKE. I don’t know why. Maybe it was the band name or something that put me off but I never gave it a chance and then two or three years ago, I realized they have everything I love. They have the melancholy, it’s dark, the willingness to experiment, I mean, there’s so many aspects of the band that I love.
BOLT THROWER is another one of these bands that I don’t understand why I didn’t get into earlier, but I really got into them a couple of years ago. Then there’s other bands that really got better, like this Swedish band called BREACH. They started out playing kind of generic Metalcore and then, on one record, they changed their style of music and Breach’s It’s Me God is probably in my top five records of all time. I can’t compare it to anything else. It’s UNSANE meets NEUROSIS meets Rock and Roll meets something you never heard. Then they released two more records after that, Venom and Kollapse, on which they continued to experiment. I would say it’s probably one of the most important Swedish bands for me, in my musical process of learning how to write songs.
Do you have any musical hidden gems that you would like to mention? Perhaps an artist with this huge popular album that everyone loves, yet to you, their best material is found on a completely different release? Something that’s not the common go-to, for most people.
Well, we had a discussion at the office today, which BAD RELIGION album is the best? Apparently, most people say No Control is the best album but I don’t think it is. We had this long debate and I think Recipe For Hate is probably the best Bad Religion record.
Interesting choice, I respect that. Personally, No Control was the first one that I really listened to so it has a sweet spot for me but Recipe For Hate is a killer too. Skyscraper might be one of their best songs.
Yeah. Talking about this subject, I realized how old I am. We talked about the different records, especially from Suffer to Generator. After I discovered them, Stranger Than Fiction was the first one that came out and to me, this is new school Bad Religion. But that was 25 years ago! I’m getting old! *Haha*
But back on topic, we could talk about very obscure bands. I think very few people will agree with this but I have a sweet spot for this vegan, militant Metal band called ABNEGATION. They had that SLAYER influence that I really liked back in the days. I don’t think very many people agree with the quality but I really liked them.
Yeah, they were good. They kind of flew under the radar. Personally, they weren’t one that I listened to on the regular but they were good.
I don’t listen to them regularly either but I don’t think anyone I know even knows about them.
Do you have any unpopular music opinion that you would like to defend? A band, album or even song that you can hardly find anyone to agree with?
Yeah, I have one. I haven’t been able to listen to REFUSED’s The Shape Of Punk To Come in one single sitting. I have never been able to listen to it, I don’t think it’s that good. It hurts because they’re my friends and they know I love most of their work. I just never got into it as much as most other people. It’s not a a bad record, it’s just not as good as the rest.
Another unpopular opinion, I think The Fragile is NINE INCH NAILS’ best work. I never really got into The Downward Spiral. I’m not big on Industrial music and The Fragile is way more atmospheric and I just think it has better melodies and better constructed songs. That one of the few genres that I didn’t ever got into. Maybe I should get into MINISTRY someday! *Haha*
What are some up and coming artists that you’d like to recommend?
Both artists on our last European tour, I know that they’re both getting some recognition now. I already mentioned BRUTUS, on Sargent House. Amazing Belgian band. It’s hard to describe their music. People should check out their latest album, Nest. That’s really good.
Also, A.A. WILLIAMS. She’s coming out with an album that I’ve actually done some vocals on. I heard the whole album and it’s amazing.
In closing, do you have any projects that you would like to promote?
Yeah, me and James Kent, most commonly known as PERPETRATOR, we’re writing 60 minutes of music for the Roadburn festival. We’re going to perform and I don’t know if it’s ever gonna come up on records but that’s what we’re writing now. The project is called Hollow Road and sounds like…a mix between Perpetrator and me! It’s exactly how it sounds! *Haha* I’m actually going to Paris on Friday to practice some of the songs, see what we come up with.
I’m a big fan of Perpetrator so I was glad that he asked me. Me and my girlfriend, we’ve been together for 14 years and I listen to music pretty much all the time but Dark Wave is the kind of stuff that she can come into a room and go “Who the hell are you? What are you listening to?”
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