Putting the 'Rave' in 'New Rave': An Interview with Black Ghosts

August 11, 2008 4:47 PM
by

[Interview Conducted by Michael Maryanoff]

There are officially no more rules in dance music. Gone are the days where a DJ performance consisted solely of a pair of turntables, headphones and a few dozen 12” records. Some use the term ‘new rave’ to describe all of the dance friendly acts that have popped up lately, but you could argue that they are more “new” than “rave,” favoring live performances over DJ sets. However, this isn’t the case with The Black Ghosts. They take advantage of their roots in dance and guitar music, with Theo Keating on the CD turntables and Simon Lord singing live, looping the vocals on his laptop and applying different effects. It’s very rare that a group features acoustic guitar and folk vocals on their album yet opens for new school breaks act like the Plump DJs, but The Black Ghosts pull it off without breaking a sweat.

In an attempt to get to the bottom of their eclectic sound, CoolJunkie recently spoke to vocalist and songwriter Simon Lord about spending time in the studio, psychedelic rock and why they haven’t gotten much fresh air recently.

CoolJunkie: What have you been up to lately?

Simon Lord: We’ve been doing a short tour. We started off in New York and then we went to Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. That’s where we are at the moment.

CJ: How would you describe your sound? Would you consider yourself a dance act?

Simon Lord: Our sound does have variety and although dance music is a big influence on our sound it’s not the only influence. We don’t see ourselves as a pure dance floor act. When we made the album it was important for each track to be really strong and if a few of them weren’t dance floor tracks we weren’t bothered by that. We listen to a lot of other music and we didn’t want to do just one style.

CJ: What are your biggest influences?

Simon Lord: There are so many of them it’s difficult to pick. We try to combine lots of different styles. From the dance world we really like what Daft Punk does, not just the music, but their attitude towards the way they create their visuals. It always looks amazing. Personally, I really like Jamie Lidell. He’s got an amazing soul voice and experiments with electronic stuff as well. He is from a similar background as me, white middle England, but he can sing the way he does.

CJ: You are playing at Eargasm and Chew the Fat in London, which are typically breakbeat nights. Why did you decide to do that?

Simon Lord: We played with the Plump DJs a couple of times before and they asked us to play at Chew the Fat. It’s traditionally more of a breakbeat night but I think that scene is becoming more open to stuff. There are a lot of people that are making breaks with electro and there are a lot less boundaries than their used to be. When we DJ we like to play a mixture of stuff so we probably will play quite a lot of tracks that would appeal to the breaks crowd but at the same time mix in some electro.

CJ: What does a live performance typically consist of?

Simon Lord: When we play live it’s based around the DJ set, but there is a live performance development to it as well. When we drop our own tracks I sing the vocals live and I can overlap the vocals onto the song. It’s based around the DJ set, but it’s got a live twist to it. We don’t have a band because we didn’t want to go that way. That isn’t what the record is about. We made it as electronic producers and it didn’t feel right to have a band just for live performances.

CJ: Before The Black Ghosts you were in Simian Mobile Disco and Theo was in The Wiseguys, two very different groups. Do you think your different musical backgrounds compliment each other?

Simon Lord: The sounds of the two bands are quite different but we share a lot of influence. Theo’s specialty is beats and production whereas my specialty is songwriting and vocals. In that way we work very well together. We each have a role that we stick to. It makes it really easy because I can concentrate on the song side and Theo can concentrate on the beats and production. We compliment each other really well because we don’t step on each other’s toes.

CJ: What are your hobbies outside of making music?

Simon Lord: The music has taken over recently. (laughs) We’ve been busy with gigs and we have other music projects that we are involved in along with The Black Ghosts. I’ve just done an album called Skyway which is more of a solo thing and I’ve also worked with other producers. I still play guitar and I like playing in that style as well. It keeps everything rounded so that when we come back to the Black Ghosts we’ve got some fresh ideas that are being expressed. Theo’s making other records as well but more along the dance club route. We’ve been so busy with music we haven’t had a lot of time for other stuff.(laughs) Maybe I’ll take up something that involves a bit of fresh air. It’s going to have to happen at some point.

CJ: What is the process like when you are in the studio?

Simon Lord: Theo uses Logic and I work on Ableton. I like to make the writing process quite spontaneous. When you’re doing vocals it’s really good to record ideas as they come. I like to keep that organic feel. Once you’ve got that backbone you can tighten it up with the more programmed element. With The Black Ghosts album it’s quite important for us to have this strong backbone to it and add the programming and production to that. If we have a process, it’s to come up with simple ideas for tracks, I’ll start writing a bit of an arrangement into a song, I’ll send it back to Theo and he’ll add more layers. We have a to and fro between the two of us.

CJ: How did you guys meet each other and get together?

Simon Lord: We met years ago and it just happened that we have a mutual friend who gave Theo my e-mail address. He got in contact with me and sent me a bunch of ideas and songs. I was working on solo stuff that was more guitar-based and it was interesting to start working with electronic producers again. I started writing some ideas and vocals to the tracks he sent me and I sent them back and we did that for a little while. Before we knew it we had five or six finished songs that we were really excited about. This was before we met in person. When we got a certain number it just seemed right to meet and talk about where this is going. We discussed the band and what we wanted to do and came up with the name The Black Ghosts. The music kicked it off and gave it momentum.

CJ: Do you have a concept or idea going into this first album?

Simon Lord: No not really. The album was written with us experimenting and trying out different styles. There wasn’t any master plan or concept. Most of the time we didn’t’ even think of it as being The Black Ghosts, it was just us making music that was fun and trying out our influences. It was only until afterwards that we realized the sounds fit together and work.

CJ: Why the decision to put the videos which each song?

Simon Lord: We had a friend who ran part of this organization that knew all these creative people around the world. She really liked the album and came up with this idea and got in contact with these young directors around the world to make a short film. We liked being involved in the visual side of music as well as making tracks. It just seemed to us like a cool way of getting the album out there and getting people to see it, to connect it with all these little films.

CJ: What do you enjoy more, live performances or being in the studio?

Simon Lord: They’re very different. Doing a really great gig is a real buzz. Getting a really good crowd and traveling around is fun as well. But it’s also a real buzz, for me even more of a buzz, to be in the studio and to be on a track that has got real legs. We’ve been doing a lot of touring and I think we both have itchy feet to get back in the studio and start working on some new ideas. If you stay in the studio too long ideas can start getting a bit dry so it’s good to do a bit of both. Performing live is a good way of trying out new ideas and seeing what works. It’s going be interesting going back into the studio having done loads of gigs and seeing which songs work really well live.

CJ: Do you think the fact that your songs have been getting a lot of buzz on the dance floor has helped increase your popularity?

Simon Lord: Yea, definitely. Theo’s background is as a DJ in the clubs so I think that even though some of the songs aren’t strictly dance tracks, they have that feel to them. All of the remixes that have come out have really helped to get different people listening to the tunes. We are happy with all of the remixes we’ve got. It’s been really good for us.

CJ: What do you have in store for the immediate future?

Simon Lord: We’re doing a few more live dates in the UK and then we’re really quite keen to get back in the studio and start writing some new ideas. We’ve been touring on and off for the last year or so and haven’t had a lot of opportunity to write some new music, so we’re looking forward to doing that, especially when the winter comes. It’s a good time to lock yourself away in the studio. (laughs)

CJ: Will you be coming to Miami any time soon?

Simon Lord: Miami is one place in the U.S. we’ve not been and we’d definitely like to head out there.

Click here to hear more from The Black Ghosts.