Tobias Forge: “I Could Definitely Picture Myself Getting Someone Else to Sing” for Ghost
One day, there will be a Menudo of metal. By which I mean a band (“band”) in which the brand is truly more important than any one individual member. Somehow, Babymetal didn’t end up being it (at least not yet) — when one of their ranks departed, they didn’t replace her. My guess is that the band in question will be one that wears masks. Kiss already came closer than any other band, dolling up Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer to look like Ace Frehley and Peter Criss. It would be even easier with a Slipknot or a Mushroomhead or a Ghost, because you wouldn’t even necessarily have to tell the audience they were seeing someone different. Actually, it might truly be easiest to pull this off with Ghost, whose members aren’t just hidden beneath masks, but are literally “Nameless Ghouls” without identities and a “variety” of “different” singers.
So it’s not entirely shocking to hear that Ghost’s mastermind, Tobias Forge, tell Chicago’s 101 WKQX that he doesn’t necessarily consider his status as the band’s frontman permanent. In fact, he says, when he started Ghost, he intended to be the band’s primary songwriter and guitarist, not its singer:
“Obviously, I’m conditioned into being the singer guy, but if I had my way and definitely in an alternative future, if whatever happens, I could definitely picture myself sort of getting someone else to sing and I just play guitar.
“I love playing those songs myself. Obviously, I don’t do it very often and if I’m just given a guitar, I have to refresh my memory and the more time I spend jumping around doing other things, the less I play guitar.
“Every time I come home, I play a little bit more, and then I go on the road and I play a little bit less. Then as soon as I go in the studio again, I have to really get my chops up again.”
Would fans accept a Ghost not fronted by Forge? Again: assuming you found someone who sounds convincingly similar, you probably wouldn’t even have to tell them. Or you could leak the news like six months after it started as a way of proving no one even noticed. Point being, a lot of people won’t be able to tell who that is under the make-up of the latest Papa or Cardinal or Pope or Rabbi or whatever the character is that album cycle.
This would, of course, not be a 100% Metal Menudo situation, since Forge would still be in the band. But you have to wonder how long it would be before Forge said “Fuck it, touring sucks, no one knows it’s me under there anyway, just send out whoever.”
[via Metal Hammer]
