Five Questions With… The Cult of Dom Keller

Band: The Cult of Dom Keller
Country of Origin: England, UK

Earlier this year I saw Ascend! making the rounds in various psych circles as fellow music-lovers shared their unfettered enthusiasm for The Cult of Dom Keller’s fifth full-length record. I now understand why.

The album lulls you in to a false sense of security (as cults are known to do) with a droning intro, only to deliver a ten minute-long burner of a riffed up, fuzzed out, kosmische-esque roller coaster. And that’s just the first song. The listener is gifted momentary relief with two interludes and an almost avant-classical track “Beautiful Sickness,” while all remaining songs are nothing short of an adrenaline rush laden with jagged psych licks and captivating rhythm.

Ascend! is out now on Cardinal Fuzz Records in Europe and Little Cloud Records in the USA

1. What is your desert island disc (the one album you couldn’t live without)

Chrome – Half Machine Lip Moves

2. How did the band members meet (or, for a solo musician, how did you get started)?

We were all trying to shoplift the same suicide album and thought “hey, let’s form a band instead.”

3. What is the underground music scene like in your home country?

Sometimes thriving, sometimes dying… but the under, underground is wombling free

4. What are some of your biggest influences outside of music?

Fritz Lang movies, Charles Bukowksi and Hunter S. Thompson, 60s counterculture movements, cults and UFOs.

5. Tell us about your favorite show you ever played.

Austin Psych fest 2011. Our first time ever playing live in the USA in the land of psychedelia on the same bill as Roky Erickson.

Ryan

Ryan first discovered his love of radio at WSOE FM, where he spent all 4 years of college as a DJ, 2 as program director, and 1 as general manager. While his musical tastes are fairly broad, he has a big nerdy spot in his heart for prog rock.