GHOST - "It's Kind Of Paradoxical When We're Trying To Be A Successful Band And Trying To Remain Anonymous"
January 5, 2014, 10 years ago
Tom Valcanis at Australian Hysteria recently spoke with one of the Nameless Ghouls from Sweden's GHOST. An excerpt from the interview is available below:
Q: When you guys are out on stage doing your black ritual thing, we could imagine Steve Buscemi under those cloaks if we so desired. But is that the point? The man underneath makes no difference?
Ghoul: "We'd like to think so. We know that there are a lot of things that we set out early on for this band. Now, five years later, these goals feel very naive and unrealistic. We never considered the concept of Ghost. It's kind of paradoxical when we're trying to be a successful band and trying to remain anonymous. The idea was to have the experience be as intense as possible for people watching. The anonymity thing was just a bonus."
Q: The band has crossed over from the dark side into the evil mainstream. You're doubly unknown to non-metal crowds.
Ghoul: "I'd like to think that what we're doing is enhanced by the fact that most people, whether they're in the hall or on the field where we're playing, are a) Not aware and b) They don't even care who's in the band. It's probably not important."
Q: Black metal has a discount store theatre to it, with costumes and stage names and what have you. You guys take the ALICE COOPER shocking-apron-wearing-mothers-into-fainting thing beyond the limit. Where does the theatre come from in your musical upbringing?
Ghoul: "Ghost derives from a very fanboy point of view. It's a combination of all those big dinosaur rock phenomenons. It comes from a profound fascination with underground death and black metal. Thrash metal, too. The darker elements of Ghost comes from the early ‘90s black metal scene. We picked up a lot of those aesthetics. I was brought up in that underground. The clandestine aspect comes from bands like MAYHEM or SARCOPHAGO or say, DEVIL DOLL."
Go to this location for the complete interview.
Ghost recently uploaded a previously unseen video of 'Year Zero', performed live at Webster Hall in New York City on May 11th, 2013.
See Ghost live at the following shows:
January
17 - Big Day Out - Auckland, New Zealand19 - Big Day Out - Gold Coast, Australia
24 - Big Day Out - Melbourne, Australia
26 - Big Day Out - Sydney, Australia
27 - Big Day Out - Sydney, Australia
31 - Big Day Out - Adelaide, Australia
February
2 - Big Day Out - Perth, Australia
