Cult Of Luna talk Beyond The Redshift

This weekend the Cult Of Luna curated festival Beyond The Redshift comes to Camden Town. We caught up with frontman Johannes Persson to find out just how it happened...

What made you decide to curate your own festival?

“It was actually our agent, Haydn at Northern Music, that came up with the idea. I am always up for a challenge and love getting into unknown territory so I got into the idea right away.”

How much input did you have with the bands that are playing?

“A few of the bands that I hadn’t heard before were presented to me by Haydn and I gave everyone a fair chance. I said no more often than yes and I can honestly say that I had the final word. There is no artist on this festival that aren’t very good at what they are doing.

There are the obvious bands who were natural first picks for me like God Seed and Jesu, and most choices are bands who we have played with before – it’s like a class reunion from 15 years of touring rolled into one festival. Some bands however were relatively new to me, like Amplifier, who I’ve been listening to a lot lately.”

How will Beyond The Redshift be a different festival experience?

“I don’t think there is a festival like this. The musical variety between the bands is quite big, but I believe that everyone on the bill treat their music as an art form which I think will resonate very well with the audience.”

Who are you most looking forward to catching?

“I hope I get to see everyone, at least one or two songs. I know it is a cowardly diplomatic answer but it is the truth.”

Will this be the last time UK sees Cult Of Luna for a while?

“Yes, there has been a lot of speculations about our status. We will not quit and we are not taking a planned hiatus, we just don’t have anything planned at the moment and prefer it to stay that way. We might do something next year but probably not.”

Beyond The Redshift takes place in Camden, London this Saturday. Find out more info and buy tickets here.

Luke Morton joined Metal Hammer as Online Editor in 2014, having previously worked as News Editor at popular (but now sadly defunct) alternative lifestyle magazine, Front. As well as helming the Metal Hammer website for the four years that followed, Luke also helped relaunch the Metal Hammer podcast in early 2018, producing, scripting and presenting the relaunched show during its early days. He also wrote regular features for the magazine, including a 2018 cover feature for his very favourite band in the world, Slipknot, discussing their turbulent 2008 album, All Hope Is Gone.