In a recent interview with Liberty Dunworth of NME, Ghost frontman and mastermind Tobias Forge was asked whether he sees a definitive endpoint for his band’s journey or if it will always be a continual evolution. Forge shared his thoughts, reflecting on both his creative process and the milestones he still hopes to achieve.
“There might be an end of the storytelling because it’s just simply not productive to sort of have this endless soap opera. If fans need the lore in order to like the band, then that’ll probably be over quite soon. If there is a way where the music and everything I’ve created is enough and that is enjoyable, I think I am as needy as anybody other artist in the sense that — what do you call it? — like statistical milestones that you wanna achieve, or, in this case, of course, there are places that I wanna play, venues, things you want, another feather in your hat of having done that. I am very lucky that I’ve been able to achieve many of those things. But, of course, there are levels of success that you still wanna achieve.”
Forge also addressed the ongoing conversation in the rock music scene about the supposed decline of new bands, especially in light of claims that “rock is dead.” He noted that Ghost, along with a few other acts, proves the opposite:
“For the last decade or so, there’s been this ongoing chatter in the music business, and especially in the rock business, that, ‘Oh, there’s no new bands coming,’ like, ‘Rock will die, rock is dead. No new bands can become big.’ And we, as well as a few others, are living proof that that is not true. I’m not saying that you can become a new AC/DC. You cannot become a new Metallica. But I think we are living proof that you still can do it.”
He continued, “There are other bands around, very much more recent, like Sleep Token, who’s obviously — they’re succeeding, so, obviously, you can become a bigger band. And then Rammstein for a long, long time — they’ve been a household name for many, many years, but in the greater scheme of rock, where there are levels, they were ‘just’ an arena band for a very long time. They sold out arenas all over the place and they were very well known for their big show, but they were playing arenas. If they were playing outdoors, there would be a festival.”
Forge went on to explain how Rammstein took their success to the next level: “And then all of a sudden they decided to do this stadium tour. And all of a sudden they went from 10, 15 thousand every night to 55 thousand three nights in a row. Where did all of those people come from?”
The conversation then turned to his own aspirations. Forge shared his fascination with stage production and how it influenced his journey: “If you just wanna talk sheer achievements, I would love to make that journey. That would be fantastic, simply because I’m very interested in stage production, and where I started with stage production, where my fascination really exploded into obsessive fandom was in the ’80s when I saw specifically Rolling Stones.”
“First I saw Let’s Spend The Night Together. That outdoor production, it was cool — it wasn’t elaborate. But when I was eight years old, they released Steel Wheels. I was a huge fan at the point, and they did a tour called the Steel Wheels tour through America,” Forge added.
He continued: “If you guys think that Rammstein‘s stage was cool, Steel Wheels tour, that’s the absolute, the biggest behemoth of industrial staging I’ve ever, ever, ever seen. And that’s basically where I sort of set the standard. That is the pinnacle. Being able to build this giant thing that people come, and it just takes over a city.”
This passion for larger-than-life performances has fueled Forge’s own ambitions for Ghost. He elaborated: “Ever since I started going to shows and going to see big shows, bands like Rolling Stones in the ’90s, and Metallica and all those things that I was coming through, I’ve always been obsessed with the idea of being that traffic-diverting turmoil that comes in and disrupts a city the way that they did.”
“When Metallica played in Stockholm Stadium in 1993, the show wasn’t there. The show started — I mean, we’re talking blocks, we’re talking miles away, because all over town Metallica fans were sort of coming on the subways and trains and buses, walking, and the closer you got, every every bar was playing Metallica music. And it was a beautiful day.”
As Ghost gears up to release their new album Skeletá on April 25 via Loma Vista Recordings, we are eager to see what’s next for the band.
