In a new interview with The Rock Hard Radio Show With Kim Rennie, GHOST mastermind Tobias Forge spoke about the band’s new single “Satanized”, which came out last month. The track is taken from GHOST‘s upcoming album, “Skeletá”, which will arrive on April 25 via Loma Vista Recordings. Asked if “Satanized” represents a change in his songwriting style compared to 2022’s “Impera” album. Tobias said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “ Possibly. I don’t know. Maybe. I’ve tried to create a different record than ‘Impera’. One simple fact was that on all the previous records, there’s always been a certain degree of instrumental tracks that were purely instrumental. And in this case, it turned out to be 10 vocal tracks. So what I felt I wanted to do in order to make a record that had more flavor and balance was to write certain songs deliberately a little bit more excursive and I don’t wanna say ‘experimental’ because it sounds like I’m… I mean, it’s not freeform jazz we’re talking about, but it’s definitely straying from your verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, chorus, chorus, chorus.”
When Rennie noted that “Skeletá” sounds “harder, music-wise” and “more difficult to approach” than “Impera”, Forge said: “Yeah, possibly. Just because you mentioned radio and I’m obviously talking on the radio right now, and I must underline, underscore that I grew up with a radio on, so I have nothing against the format. I am also a songwriter and I’m also very, very interested in the art of writing hit music. So there’s nothing bad about that. But for as long as we have, with GHOST, experienced some sort of what you might call mainstream success, where radio has been an element through which greater success could be achieved, it has been a little bit of a question mark, exactly what are the elements needed in order to succeed? And I think that the biggest element of surprise was some years ago when I had written a song that, according to the lore, of course, was written 50 years ago, but was a song that I had written and recorded, and I showed it to the label and I was, like, ‘How about that?’ And they were, like, ‘What?’ ‘It’s pretty good. My kid likes it.’ And they were, like, ‘Okay, it’s a good song, but it’s like a B-side. It’s not meant for…’ It was just like a question mark. ‘What do you mean? It’s like an old song, right?’ I was, like, ‘It doesn’t matter. It’s a good song. Okay, regardless, I’m gonna play it live.’ So we started playing that immediately, the moment it came out. And I felt like, ‘Wow, that’s amazing. One of the best songs I’ve ever written is like just a B-side. Fine.’ A few years later, it turned out that was gonna be, so far, the biggest song of my career. That turned a lot of heads within the label world because they were, like, ‘Oh, we didn’t know.'”
Tobias added: “What it told me was just like, we have no plan — I have no plan — so I’m not gonna chase that. I am gonna write songs — I’m gonna write the best songs I can ever write — and we’ll see what happens with them because there’s no clear way of telling exactly how it’s gonna materialize to a song that is worth anything from a hit point of view. And I felt that is not even a bad thing, because I’m in a great spot anyway. I can make a record filled with songs that are maybe too hard or maybe too this or too little of that or just thematically sits together. If it’s a hit, it will show itself, it will materialize. If it’s not a hit, that’s fine. We can play the other hits too. We’re blessed, for lack of a better, more fitting word, to be able to go out on tour. And we have a lot of fans and we have a lot of support anyway, and that, to me, actually alleviated me from a little bit of that stress because I’m, like, ‘I’m not gonna chase another big hit.'”
The “Satanized” music video introduces the new character who will be fronting GHOST for its 2025 touring cycle: Papa V Perpetua.
GHOST‘s sixth psalm, “Skeletá”, is its most unflinchingly introspective work to date. Where previous GHOST albums dealt largely with chronicling and/or observing outward facing subject matter — such as “Impera”‘s meditations on the rise and fall of empires and its predecessor “Prequelle”‘s evocations of the ravages of era-defining plagues — “Skeletᔑs lyrics render the distinct individual emotional vistas of each of its 10 songs in one-on-one fashion, at times as if in a dialogue with oneself in a mirror. The end result is a singular collection of timeless, universal sentiments, all filtered through a prism of a uniquely personal point of view.
GHOST has also launched an interactive element dubbed The Satanizer, a first-of-its-kind music video experience for fans who wish to be “Satanized.” Developed in partnership with Jason Zada (Elf Yourself),The Satanizer will morph its users into characters featured in the song’s melodramatic video. With a quick upload of your photo, The Satanizer will send out a personalized music video clip featuring the participant, who can in turn share via social media that they too have been “Satanized.”
Forge performed as a “new” Papa Emeritus on each of the band’s first three LPs, with each version of Papa replacing the one that came before it. Papa Emeritus III was retired in favor of Cardinal Copia before the release of 2018’s “Prequelle”. In March 2020, at final show of GHOST‘s “Prequelle” tour in Mexico City, Mexico, the band officially introduced Papa Emeritus IV, the character who fronted the act for its “Impera” (2022) album phase.
As previously reported, GHOST will embark on a world tour in 2025. The European leg of the trek will kick off on April 15 in Manchester, United Kingdom and 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 GHOST‘s worldwide Top 10 box office smash feature film debut “Rite Here Rite Now” was made available on December 6, 2024.
Source: blabbermouth.net
