Billy Duffy has been talking about how Rick Rubin transformed The Cult despite being, in the guitarist’s own words, “not musical - at all.”
Duffy was speaking on Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt’s Rockenteurs podcast about how the band came to work with Rubin on their 1987 album, Electric.
"We were trying to progress as a band, but we hadn't really," the guitarist said. "It was, like, one foot in each camp."
The band’s 1985 album, Love, had established them as Premier League goth rockers, albeit ones with a slightly psychedelic edge, but both Duffy and frontman Ian Astbury wanted to beef up their sound. "A long story short, we'd heard of Rick Rubin. We'd heard from a friend in Canada. He'd done the Beastie Boys' Cooky Puss, which is basically Back In Black riff with a beat."
"And we met Rick in New York, and the whole deal was, Rick was gonna just mix. He said, 'I'll remix your whole album, but you must let me record one song from the ground up.' That was the deal. So we said, 'Okay.' The record company weren't gonna let us re-record a super-expensive album again."
Using hired gear, the band went to New York and starting with the track Peace Dog “deconstructed” the album bit by bit. "I believe we were the first band he ever produced that had an organic drum kit, you know. And we went to Electric Ladyland, we set up in the main room, and we did multiple old-school takes."
Rubin is not actually a musician himself, and Duffy revealed that he had a team behind him to help deliver the album. "He did hire Andy Wallace to be the engineer. He's not stupid. And George Drakoulias was there all the time. Rick and George were like a team.
"I would say Rick was the senior partner, but George and Rick were like literal partners because George was more musical. Rick's not musical... at all."
"We literally deconstructed the album on the spot. I went from a Gretsch with the Roland and the chorus and the echoes. And he was like, 'Well, that's a Marshall, that's a Les Paul, off you go.’ It was quite traumatic for me, I gotta tell you."
As we all know, the plan worked. Duffy’s effects pedals were almost entirely ditched. Big riffs were in. Electric transformed The Cult’s fortunes, especially in America where it went platinum and is still regarded as one of the best rock albums of its era.
