# Event Details - **Event Name**: CULTS w/ zzzahara at Motorco Music Hall - **Event Start and End Date**: Wed, 11 Jun, 2025 at 07:00 pm - **Event Description**: —andmoreagain presents— Cults w/ zzzahara at Motorco Music Hall Durham, NC doors 7pm // show 8pm $30 adv Tickets on sale now —— CULTS Cults sound like the moment dawn breaks. Akin to light piercing a dark corner, the multiplatinum New York duo, comprised of multi-instrumentalists Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion—temper shadowy cinematic soundscapes with flickering melodic singalongs. This uncanny ability to balance alternative sonic architecture with unassuming pop songcraft has threaded their music into the DNA of 21st century culture. True outliers, they persist as the rare phenomenon equally comfortable collaborating with The Weeknd, rap titan J. Cole or maverick indie director Jim Jarmusch. Simultaneously, they’re a dynamic presence that’s just as at home on stage at Coachella as they are supporting The Pixies and Vampire Weekend. All the while, their music has surged through popular television series and films. However, the pair confidently and clearly perfect their signature vision on their fifth full-length LP, To The Ghosts [IMPERIAL]. “Without knowing it, we’ve spent our whole career building a world of our own,” observes Brian. “We just try to create the emotion that we want to feel. This record is another piece of the picture, but the picture isn’t done yet. We’d be in Cults no matter what. It’s the way we live our lives.” “We’ve never known life any other way,” agrees Madeline. “We began the band in college, and we haven’t stopped. Cults is life.” The group first materialized out of New York in 2010. Thus far, they’ve built a world anchored by four acclaimed albums, namely Cults [2011], Static [2013], Offering [2017], and Host [2020]. Along the way, the staple “Always Forever” reached RIAA platinum status, and Offering’s “Gilded Lily” endured as a phenomenon. It took TikTok by storm with 200K-plus “creates” in 2022 and notched a gold certification. Their loyal legion of fans includes early devotees, as well as new converts who organically discovered them along the way. Their virality is a testament to the band’s relatable lyricism and authenticity which consistently resonates with audiences. Expanding their impact, they appeared on J. Cole’s 6x-platinum smash “She Knows” [feat. Cults & Amber Coffman] in addition to co-writing with everyone from G-Eazy to Freddie Gibbs. Beyond selling out venues on headline tours and shining on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, they graced the bills of Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and more. Not to mention, they have garnered tastemaker praise courtesy of NPR, Paste, Clash, Pitchfork, and The Ringer, to name a few. They’ve quietly gathered over 1.5 billion streams and regularly averaged north of 12.7 monthly listeners on Spotify. Their music has also powered campaigns for Garnier, Madewell, and Vuori as well as landing major syncs on NETFLIX, HBO, Showtime, and ABC. Embarking on the next chapter, they carefully crafted To The Ghosts, writing and recording in Brian’s apartment. The earliest ideas dated back to the Pandemic when they crafted music on weekdays from 10am-5pm without a deadline. In 2022, they traveled to Los Angeles in order to collaborate with longtime producer and trusted creative confidant Shane Stoneback because “nobody can read our minds like he can,” jests Madeline. This time around, stream-of-conscious vocals set the process in motion. “This is the first record where I would pick up the microphone and sing whatever I was feeling,” recalls Madeline. “The vocals and the lyrics really helped inform the direction rather than the other way around. Every track brings me back to what I was going through at the time.” “Sometimes, we used to work on a song for a year, put a vocal on it, and redo it,” Brian goes on. “This time, we tried to get in front of everything. As soon as put down some chords and a rhythm, it was like, ‘Let’s start singing.’ We really focused on the sentiment, emotion, and vibe.” Cults introduce To The Ghosts with “Crybaby.” Right out of the gate, symphonic bells toll above a tribal beat laced with a dissonant guitar riff. Shaky tambourine gives way to a swooning horn section, and Madeline’s croon echoes with a lament, “Crybaby, you waste a lot of time it seems.” “‘Crybaby’ was the first key that opened the box,” notes Brian. “It got us back-to-basics and opened up the possibility to do something that was us. You could say it’s the most ‘Cults song’ on the record.” “It’s so us,” Madeline concurs. “It’s very straightforward and honest too.” Ethereal guitar wraps around a hypnotic backbeat on “Left My Keys.” The synths shimmer, and Madeline exhales, “I can feel it happening again.” “It’s about growing up and feeling like you’re being left behind,” she reveals. “You think you’re missing out on things and not accomplishing enough. You get a little bit older and realize you don’t care anymore. All of those things you were worried about don’t matter. You become comfortable where you are. It’s freeing to let go of the feeling that you need to be a part of something.” “It’s a bright spot,” Brian goes on. “With this being To The Ghosts, ‘Left My Keys’ is dedicated to the ghost of your high school memories with an element of fondness.” Then, there’s “Knots.” Keys twinkle, drums roll, and lithe guitar resounds as Madeline leans into dreamy intonation, “When you told me to stay, even though it’s a lie, I told you that my hands are full.” “I like how it unfolds,” Brian says. “It’s actually got a similar chord structure to ‘Rave On,’ which was the best cut on our first record.” An off-kilter groove underlines “Onions” as quirky words writhe over a steady beat, “I chop onions then I cry. Funny no one tells you why. We’ve been eating things that can hurt us for a long time.” “It’s the pinnacle of Madeline picking up the microphone and singing what’s on her mind,” grins Brian. “We’ve realized we don’t have to be serious all the time.” The closer “Hung The Moon” hinges on a sparse beat and loose bassline. Its woozy sway evokes a David Lynchian fever dream as Madeline serenades, “Let it saturate, a love in bloom, I know it’s you, you hung the moon.” Her vocals feedback into a siren’s wail, and the sound dissolves into silence. “It has a Twin Peaks, roadhouse vibe,” notes Brian. “It’s a sweet nursery rhyme set to an ominous tone. It goes back to the concept of growing up. Life doesn’t stop when you check all of the boxes; it gets crazier. There’s always possibility, adversity, and fun up ahead.” “Overall the music is more romantic,” Madeline states. “We started this at 20-years-old. It’s really scary to put your feelings out there to be judged at that age. After doing this for a long time, I’m less self-conscious putting my thoughts out there.” In the end, Cults welcome everyone deeper into their world with To The Ghosts. “I hope we create the moments my favorite bands created for me when I was in high school,” Madeline leaves off. “They changed my life and made me who I am. If we have any effect at all, maybe you’ll feel seen when you hear us.” ・Listen: open.spotify.com/artist/3Oim8XBPbznAa8Jj8QzNc8 —— ZZZAHARA “I decided to just let myself go,” Zzzahara says of their new record, Spiral Your Way Out. “I think I finally came to this acceptance that I don't have to be perfect. I want to be a good role model to my fans and stuff like that, but I also don't want to hide who I am.” Zzzahara’s music wades into the deep waters of love, lust, and self-discovery in a part of the world where artifice and authenticity co-exist. Emerging from the heart of LA’s alternative music scene, their sound is raw in feeling and rebellious by nature. Their 2022 debut album, Liminal Spaces, chronicles a coming-of-age in Highland Park, following painful childhood memories through to late-night, live-fast coping mechanisms, and the changes the neighbourhood has endured over the same period of time. Their 2023 follow-up, Tender, marked a period of slowing down, looking inward, and embracing a softer side of being. To be released through Lex Records in early 2025, Spiral Your Way Out sees Zzzahara evolve again. Emotionally, its foundations are built on scorched earth. The album finds Zzzahara in the aftermath of a relationship spent trying to fit someone else’s mould, being jerked around by indecision, and then hitting “emotional rock bottom.” Made in a three month burst that let all their pent-up frustrations loose, Spiral Your Way Out is in part a work of self-reclamation, swapping Tender’s meditative state for something fiery and more assertive. “I was going through such a tough time, but I felt like I didn't have anyone to reach out to,” Zzzahara says of the period leading up to the album, which was a chaotic blur spent mostly on tour or in isolation. “When I finally sat down in the studio I just had all this fucking anger – towards that person for treating me badly, but mostly towards myself for not walking away. I think in that situation I just kind of let things be, and I was mad at myself for letting myself isolate for so long and never putting my foot down. In the end, I just took it all out on the record.” Spiral Your Way Out marks another sonic evolution as much as an emotional one. Zzzahara’s songs have always come wrapped in a warm glow that reflects how they were written – namely at home in their bedroom. That glow remains on Spiral Your Way Out, but it also packs an ambitious streak and a gutsy punch. Taking a more collaborative approach than usual, Zzzahara worked with a range of producers including Jorge Elbrecht (Japanese Breakfast, No Joy, Sky Ferreira), Sarah Tudzin (boygenius / Cloud Nothings / The Armed), former Ducktails guitarist Alex Craig (Jelani Aryeh / re6ce) and Halsey tour drummer Nate Lotz, who helped harness their intimate style of writing and blow it up into something more panoptic. “A lot of the instrumentation is either a group effort or just two of us in the room, so it felt nice to have that weight off my shoulders,” they explain. “It felt comfortable to have them lead or translate what I’d written and make it better.” Tracks like “If I Had To Go I Would Leave the Door Closed Half Way” and “Pressure Makes a Diamond” refine familiar territory, all sun-drenched guitars and aching vocals. But Zzzahara’s usual open-hearted confessionalism comes with newfound jagged edges. “I was so mad I couldn’t think / All I did was lay in bed and scream,” they lament on opener “It Didn’t Mean Nothing,” whose cocktail of jangly riffs, walking bass lines and emotional sting recalls The Smiths. Single “Head On A Wheel” is a lash-out garage rock jam “for everyone feeling discontent, apathetic, or just dead inside,” while “In Your Head” looks for comfort in the opposite direction, laying its head down in slow burn melodies and fuzzy shoegaze guitars. With a broad church of influences, zzzahara’s vocal style and knack for earworm melodies act as a throughline without tying the album to a specific genre. One distinct thread through Spiral Your Way Out is Zzzahara's unabashed embrace of their formative emo and punk influences for the first time, revisiting artists like Bright Eyes and Broken Social Scene while going through a newly minted Elliott Smith era. The reeling riffs and heartsick lyrics of “In Your Head” evoke early Title Fight, while stripped-back moments like “Ghosts” and “Wish That You Would Notice” take a page out of the Scene Aesthetic and Dashboard Confessional playbooks. The vocals take the lead, allowing the most painful emotions to stick out like exposed nails. Of all the tracks on the album, zzzahara says “Wish That You Would Notice” was the biggest weight off their shoulders. It poured out fast and straight from the heart in just five minutes. “The perspective that I wrote it from was just like letting somebody drive the car. I wrote it about my ex, and it felt like she was always driving the car and instead of being vocal or communicative. I felt like had tried so much by that point that I just let the car drive. That song was me just spitting bars about how I felt.” There is a certain ease to zzahara’s music that's rooted in the ebb and flow of their life. They pick up the guitar and write every day, clinging to the most memorable riffs and melodies like lights in the dark. “Music for me is therapeutic. I'll listen to something and be like, ‘this is my mood for the day,’ and that’s what I want my songs to feel like. Could this be a vibe for the day? Could I listen to this at night and cry? Could it evoke a feeling?” they explain. “It could be sadness, happiness, angst… If the chords feel good and the BMP makes you want to move, then that’s the thing I want to make,” they explain. “I want to evoke a feeling, and if I can do that then I want other people to have it.” Zzzahara’s approach to song writing is an instinctive one, and the headspace of Spiral Your Way Out was the result of taking a more instinctive approach to life too. One of the biggest influences on the album was embracing a side of themselves they moved away from on Tender – going out, “spiralling,” meeting all sorts of weirdos and collecting the kinds of experiences that make for good stories if nothing else. The lyrics are playful and cutting, inspired by the books Zzzahara was devouring at the time – a lot of lowlife literature like Post Office by Charles Bukowski (reverb-washed ballad “Bluebird” is named after one of his poems) and Choke by Chuck Palahniuk, as well as the observational “realness” of California girls Joan Didion and Eve Babitz. The recklessness on full display within the works of all these writers is something Zzzahara finds “comforting, in a way.” “My favourite thing about Bukowski is that he just doesn’t care,” they laugh. “He lets it all rip. He’s this dysfunctional alcoholic misogynistic dude, and my shit kind of lines up with his in these a way: how he’s raised, the alcoholism, the countless women... I feel like a lot of encounters in my life have been like that. Ever since I was 12, I was always with different girls, doing drugs and drinking. As I’ve gotten older I’ve started to get [more] tender, but I'm not opposed to that lifestyle either.” After a year of upheaval, Zzzahara finally feels “calm.” The musical equivalent to going several rounds on a punching bag, Spiral Your Way Out finds solace between extremes. It licks its wounds in a place where pain and love, healing and abandon, sit side-by-side. If it has a message, it's one of standing tall in your own shoes – scuffs and all. “My whole life, all I've known is destruction. Having a dysfunctional family, trying to figure out where I lie in this world… I feel like that’s the kind of life I lead. Very spirally, very chaotic. It’s one big fucking mystery,” they smile. “It takes so long for me to feel comfortable in any place, but working on not giving a fuck has been my vibe recently. Like, I could spiral out of control, but that’s just who I am. That's what I figured out at the end of this journey: I don’t need all this therapy. I don’t need to be sober. I can just be, and it'll be okay.” ・Listen: open.spotify.com/artist/26j38hvhD7PjC0a4EqdaSn - **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/durham/cults-w-zzzahara-at-motorco-music-hall/200028236829802 - **Event Categories**: music, entertainment, art, literary-art, meetups, live-music, raves - **Interested Audience**: - total_interested_count: 17 ## Ticket Details ## Event venue details - **city**: Durham - **state**: NC - **country**: United States - **location**: Motorco - **lat**: 36.00351 - **long**: -78.9004 - **full address**: Motorco, 723 Rigsbee Ave, Durham, NC 27701-2138, United States,Durham, North Carolina ## Event gallery - **Alt text**: CULTS w/ zzzahara at Motorco Music Hall - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events1/banners/a1eafc0c20bcb8236a05d14637ec44ac6880b0959a9e8f2d3100d27521f57eec-rimg-w1200-h1036-dc1e0708-gmir?v=1749661927 ## FAQs - **Q**: When and where is CULTS w/ zzzahara at Motorco Music Hall being held? - **A:** CULTS w/ zzzahara at Motorco Music Hall takes place on Wed, 11 Jun, 2025 at 07:00 pm to Wed, 11 Jun, 2025 at 07:00 pm at Motorco, 723 Rigsbee Ave, Durham, NC 27701-2138, United States,Durham, North Carolina. - **Q**: Who is organizing CULTS w/ zzzahara at Motorco Music Hall? - **A:** CULTS w/ zzzahara at Motorco Music Hall is organized by Andmoreagain presents. - **Q**: Who is this event for? Is it right for me? - **A:** CULTS w/ zzzahara at Motorco Music Hall is ideal for live music fans, concert-goers, and anyone who enjoys unforgettable performances from their favorite artists in an electric live atmosphere. Whether you're a first-time attendee or a longtime enthusiast in Durham, this event is thoughtfully curated to deliver a standout experience worth every moment. If CULTS w/ zzzahara at Motorco Music Hall sounds like your kind of event, don't wait - spots fill up fast. ## Structured Data (JSON-LD) ```json [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Event", "name": "CULTS w/ zzzahara at Motorco Music Hall", "image": "https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events1/banners/a1eafc0c20bcb8236a05d14637ec44ac6880b0959a9e8f2d3100d27521f57eec-rimg-w1200-h1036-dc1e0708-gmir?v=1749661927", "startDate": "2025-06-11", "url": "https://allevents.in/durham/cults-w-zzzahara-at-motorco-music-hall/200028236829802", "location": { "@type": "Place", "name": "Motorco", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "723 Rigsbee Ave, Durham, NC 27701-2138, United States,Durham, North Carolina", "addressLocality": "Durham", "addressRegion": "NC", "addressCountry": "US" }, "geo": { "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": "36.00351", "longitude": "-78.9004" } }, "eventAttendanceMode": "https://schema.org/OfflineEventAttendanceMode", "description": "—andmoreagain presents—\nCults\nw/ zzzahara\nat Motorco Music Hall\nDurham, NC\n\ndoors 7pm // show 8pm\n$30 adv\nTickets on sale now\n\n——\n\nCULTS\n\nCults sound like the moment dawn breaks. Akin to light piercing a dark corner, the multiplatinum New York duo, comprised of multi-instrumentalists Madeline Follin", "organizer": [ { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Andmoreagain presents", "url": "https://allevents.in/org/andmoreagain-presents/18675827" } ] } ] ```