Cults on music licensing and possibly helping start the riots in Tunisia

by Ciaran Thompson

May 16, 2011

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New York City duo Cults make sweet, catchy music (see: “Make Time,” their new track, below) and according to singer Madeline Follin’s step-dad, they may have also provided the soundtrack for the revolts in Tunisia last December, which eventually led to longtime dictator President Ben Ali being ousted.

A few months before the uprisings took place, the band licensed the track “Go Outside” (arguably their most notorious song) for the first time, completely unaware of what was about to unfold in the north African country.

“The only license that we’ve ever accepted was for a telecommunications company [Tunisie Telecom] in the country of Tunisia four months before the riots broke out,” guitarist Brian Oblivion tells AUX. “Her step-dad is convinced our song is responsible for bringing political unrest to Tunisia. He was like ‘why isn’t the media picking up on this? It’s telling them to go outside!'”

Since a few of their songs were put online by Gorilla vs. Bear last year, the band’s material has been featured in various TV shows like Weeds, Skins and could have appeared in a flick about global warming had the band not done some investigating.

“We got asked to be in one movie, I don’t even know if I want to name it, but it was supposed to be an environmental documentary,” Oblivion says. “We were going to have the end credits. We did a little bit more research about it after kind of saying ‘yes’ and it turned out to be a sort of right-wing, republican answer to global warming. So that was the only one we turned down.”

Most recently the band’s music was used during promotional adverts for the 2011 Cricket World Cup. Watch the commercial for Tunisie Telecom and listen to their brand new song “Make Time” below. Their debut album comes out June 7.

Tags: Music, Interviews, Cults

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