In a new interview with Riff X‘s “Metal XS”, GHOST mastermind Tobias Forge once again discussed his decision to make the band’s 2025 world tour “a phone-free experience”, with guests maintaining possession of their phones at all times, secured in Yondr pouches. Asked if the fact that GHOST‘s feature film debut “Rite Here Rite Now” was filmed over two “device-free” nights in September 2023 at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles influenced his decision, Tobias said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “ Yes. Simply put, over the last — I don’t know — five years, whatever, every year has become more and more and ever-growing distance I felt between the crowd and the band, or the band and myself. I’ll talk about myself. I felt that I have a problem with watching someone [in the audience holding up a phone in front of their face]. It’s irritating. And maybe I’m old school, maybe I’m old fashioned. I just feel that we’re having an intimate moment, and it disturbs me that you’re filming while we’re doing this together. I’m doing something for you to respond to me. And when we did the shows in L.A., I, together with everyone on stage, was amazed how great it felt and how we wish that it was like this every night, because it made us better. It felt like they were having a better time. And I just felt that I have a hard time not having experienced this. I cannot neglect that I just had an experience saying that this is so much better. And then we did a little bit of a obligatory rounds, when we sort of speak to people: ‘How did you feel? What was your impression?’ And the overall result that came back was that it was an amazing experience. A lot of people were saying what people are now talking about: how will it feel? Beforehand, you go into it thinking that it might be uncomfortable. ‘What am I gonna do with my hands?’ I stopped smoking once. I smoked for 17 years. I couldn’t even fathom the idea of going out drinking a beer [and not having a smoke]. Obviously, I’m not selling you the ideas of either smoking or drinking beer, but I started drinking beer and smoking at a very early age. That’s why I’m not very tall. So when I was in my twenties, I couldn’t even imagine not smoking, because I’d never drunk a beer without smoking, so I couldn’t fathom where to put my hands if I’m gonna drink a beer. That worked really good. I stopped smoking in 2012. No problem. Long story, long segue to that is that people were afraid, people were worried about the concept of not being able to film or being able to access the world. As soon as they’d done it, they felt so much better, and that is what I want everyone to feel. For two hours, you feel relieved of the chains that is the ether, whatever it is. Then you can call, then you can take photos and then you can do all those things. By all means, tell everyone how awful it was. But I felt that I wanted to do it this way, because it made me, and it made the band and it made all the people that I spoke to, at least from the L.A. shows, feel so much better. And that is the collective joy that I want people to associate GHOST with. That’s the show now.”
Regarding what GHOST‘s 2025 live show will look like compared to the band’s last tour, Tobias said: ”I can’t tell you much about the show because I don’t wanna give anything away, but the reason for us not wanting people to film the show is not for copyright reasons. And just because we have a phone ban, because we want people to be engaged and be there and be fun and have fun together and talk to each other, is not in order to not have any leaks. We will make sure that people will see shit from the show. That is not the issue. We’re gonna make sure that there will be like documentation and things to look at. So the show itself is gonna be… Of course, [it’s a] GHOST show, so it will resemble what you know, but as a creator, as a creative person, having made the film, there was a lot that I learned from just editing the whole thing and seeing the show. I had never really spent that much time watching what we were doing in a long time. And so the controlling director in me will definitely shave off a lot of things that I thought that didn’t make the film, basically. Anything that’s not in the film were things that I didn’t want there, and that taught me a lot about the show and how I want the show to look in the future. And a lot of the new show and its intents are based off having made the film.”
Through the use of technology like Yondr, fans are able to place their phones in a pouch that unlocks only after they leave the no-cell-phone zone. The pouch can also be unlocked at specific cell phone stations inside the venue.
Phone-free concerts are touted as a way to cut down on illegal filming and non-stop selfies that can take away from the performance.
Yondr founder Graham Dugoni said his company’s pouches were created for “phone-free spaces” where “creativity and productivity could flourish in the absence of technology.”
Phones, Apple watches and other communication devices are placed in the pouch and sealed using a magnetized lock, which can be opened with an unlocking base.
Last month, Forge told Audacy about GHOST‘s “phone ban”: “It’s an experiment. And to be perfectly honest, my 16-year-old daughter was very, very, very, very skeptical of this idea. And then she was, like, ‘No one’s gonna buy a ticket.’ And I was, like, ‘I don’t know. I have no idea what people [will do].’ I just know one thing, and that is that over the years it’s gone absolutely insane. If you have 10,000 people at a concert and 8,000 of them are holding a phone, there’s something deeply disconnected. And, obviously, this implies that I had this conversation with my daughter, but we talk about a lot of things and we speak openly about things. But I was saying, like, ‘That’s like having an intimate moment with someone and that person would just take out the phone like that.’ ‘Oh, hold on. I’m just gonna take a photo.’ I know some people do that.
“If I’m just speaking for myself — I know a lot of artists don’t care and I know that there are plenty of upsides, especially commercially because you want people that… The whole thing in the business is, basically, ‘Yeah, we want people to film because we want people to see the show, and that will sell more tickets.’ Fine. I understand that there’s a promotional tool with social media. I’m not gonna neglect that. Part of our success is obviously from social media… We started on MySpace. That was the root cause for our success at the time. I don’t know if we would ever become anything if it weren’t for MySpace. And, obviously, our TikTok has played a huge part.
“I’m not saying that all social media is bad,” he clarified. “I’m just saying that when it comes to the actual live show, my calling, my reason for being there is the connection between myself and everybody that I brought with me that are working in tandem to give you an experience, that experience is completely decocked if everybody’s just filming. Am I wrong? Am I right? I don’t know. That’s how I, and we, felt.”
Forge went on to reference the fact that “Rite Here Rite Now” was filmed over two device-free nights in Los Angeles. Tobias said: “This is where we put some practice into the theory. Some of the best shows we’ve ever done in modern time was — I mean, as far as how it felt for us, what the vibe was — was when we played in L.A., when we recorded ‘Rite Here Rite Now’. We were all taken by the fact that people were there. The crowd was there. We have never seen people like that. That was, like, 10 years ago when you saw people engaging. And I get goosebumps when I think about that. And I was, like, ‘Fuck, I wanna do that every night. I want everyone to feel like this,’ because I know — and this is the conversation I had with my daughter. It’s, like, ‘I understand that you in theory think that this is like a downside, like a bad thing.’ I want people to experience this. It’s just two hours of your life. Come on. If you hate it, okay. We all felt so good when we were in L.A., and I know a lot of people said the same thing. It was a great feeling. Fans were saying afterwards, like, ‘I was allowed to just sing along and just act… I could do whatever I want. I don’t have to worry about someone filming me or…’ I mean, I’m not gonna place all the words in everybody’s mouths here, but it’s a great feeling, and I wanna recreate that.”
Forge previously discussed GHOST‘s phone “ban” earlier in March in an interview with Planet Rock. He said at the time: “I really wanna underline that the ban has nothing to do with, let’s say, copyright control. It’s not that we wanna sit on all the material and we don’t want anybody to monetize [GHOST videos]; it has nothing to do with that.”
Tobias continued: “The ‘Rite Here Rite Now’, the film, the essence of messaging in that film was exactly that, but also I, but us collectively, working, making that film… We filmed two shows in L.A. in front of audiences where they had to put their phones into pockets. You don’t give it away. You have your phone; you don’t have to worry about that. If you need to call, you can go out. If you need to take a photo, you can take a photo of yourself out in the lobby; that’s fine. But what ended up happening was that we had such an engaged crowd that seemed joyous in a way that… I had to go back years and in time since I last saw a fully engaged crowd where everybody’s actually watching [the show]. They don’t have to watch me, but they’re watching the band.”
The 44-year-old Forge added: “I don’t wanna turn this into an ageist thing where I’m gonna tell 14-year-olds everything was better back then. But I swear that the experience of shows and the making of memories, the making of magic, was much more powerful. Some of the best shows I’ve ever been to, I have maybe not even seen a picture from that because they all live here [in my head]. They live in my core. That’s the memory I have of that. And that is an experience I wish for… Obviously, the part of our crowd that are older and more aware, maybe this becomes a little bit nostalgic then. But I really believe that the younger portion of our crowd will, as they did in L.A., come out saying, like, ‘That was not only a great concert; that was also an overwhelming experience.’ Because I do believe that you will feel that.”
Musicians like Jack White, Alicia Keys, and comedians Dave Chappelle and Jerrod Carmichael have used Yondr pouches at their shows to encourage people to live in the moment.
A number of other musicians have come out in recent years to say that mobile technology is ruining the concert experience, including SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR singer Corey Taylor. He told “Loudwire Nights” that “it’s fine” if people want to take pictures of his bands’ shows, but not so much if they are videotaping entire performances. “It’s one thing to film it, it’s another thing to just be staring at your screen while you’re filming it,” he said. “It’s right there. Are you so terrified of real life that you can’t do anything unless it’s on that little four-by-four screen? Ugggh. It’s very weird.”
Former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach in 2015 urged fans to keep their cell phones at the bottom of their pockets and just watch his performances. “Be in the moment,” he said. “You’re distracted and it’s distracting to the performer as well. Like, put your fuckin’ cell phone away, dammit! You’re never even going to watch that footage.”
The overuse of cellphones to capture grainy, blurry photos and videos at concerts has for years vexed and enraged artists like Bach, who lamented the fact that every one of his performances could be recorded and shared on YouTube almost immediately.
“If I go to a wedding and sing a song, it’s on Blabbermouth the next day and everybody analyzes it,” said Bach. “It’s a really backwards way to watch a band. It’s a drag sometimes when I go up there and the first thing I see is everybody getting their phones out and holding them toward my face. It makes you feel intimidated.”
Back in 2012, Bruce Dickinson chastised a fan for texting during an IRON MAIDEN concert, calling him a “wanker.”
When Axl Rose reunited with his former GUNS N’ ROSES bandmates Duff McKagan and Slash for the first time in 23 years at the Troubadour in Los Angeles in April 2016, the concert was phone-free.
“God, it was wonderful,” McKagan told The New York Times. “It was the old-school feeling, where people were dancing and getting down. It was really cool.”
GHOST will release its new album, “Skeletá”, on April 25 via Loma Vista Recordings.
The European leg of GHOST‘s 2025 world tour kicked off on April 15 in Manchester, United Kingdom and will conclude on May 24 in Oslo, Norway. The North American leg of GHOST‘s 2025 tour will launch on July 9 in Baltimore, Maryland and wrap up on August 16 in Houston, Texas.
The physical home video of “Rite Here Rite Now” was made available on December 6, 2024.
Source: blabbermouth.net
