Ghost Frontman Talks About Being Unmasked
While Ghost frontman and creator Tobias Forge’s identity had been bandied about here and there since at least 2014, the secret got out in a big way last year when former members of the band filed a lawsuit against him. Ghost had made a career up until that point very much based on the mysterious air surrounding the band (great songs didn’t hurt either), so it was only natural to wonder how the un-masking might impact public interest in the band going forward.
If the hype surrounding the band’s upcoming new album Prequelle is any indication, it hasn’t changed things one bit: people still fucking love Ghost, even more than ever. But it’s still interesting to hear Forge speak on the topic, as he did in a recent interview with Billboard:
“I’ve always tried to point out that there is a great difference between being anonymous and being unmasked, and I still will put a lot of effort into preserving the latter.
“The thing that I tried to achieve originally and what I’ve been trying to maintain is the sense of theater rather than a classic kind of rock ”n’ roll [presentation]. My idea is – Ghost is basically a theater show that you could come and see, like Hamilton, and you don’t have to worry too much about the real stories.
“I guess I’ve become a little bit more of a normal rock artist, but now it’s my job to do my darndest to preserve the aesthetic and the theatrical qualities, and I’m going to do my absolute best to do that.”
Indeed, Forge still puts great effort into the “anonymous” aspect and into the mythology surrounding the band. About the lawsuit in particular and how it affected the new record, Forge added:
“I had a personal situation that urgently told me to salvage the situation and reclaim what is mine and also justify that it was mine to begin with. This was a record about survival through trauma. The end result is positive, but it’s about taking a very negative situation and forging it into something great that you can learn from.
“It’s just growing pains, and all of this shit has been the result of things going well, not the opposite. You have to be glad with what you have and cherish that. That’s what I’m doing as we move forward.
“My mission has always been to take it further and forward. That’s still highest on my priority list.”
Read the rest of the article at Billboard and check out Ghost’s new single “Rats” below. Prequelle comes out June 1st.
[via Ultimate Guitar]
