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 06 July 2008 21:43 BST

Black Ghosts: Mixing horror, Star Wars and peyote

Wednesday, 12 Mar 2008 10:59
And if two Black Ghosts were sitting on a wall...
Set for huge things in 2008, the Black Ghosts are Simon Lord and Theo Keating, formerly of Simian and the Wiseguys respectively.

While Simon's vocal stylings are the driving force of the Justice vs Simian mega-hit We Are Your Friends - which angered Kanye West when it defeated his Touch the Sky in the best video category in the MTV Europe Music Awards - Theo's knob-twiddling skills have been powered by influences as diverse as the glamorous electro-pop of Daft Punk to the fear-inducing movies of Hammer Films. Though that's a family matter…

inthenews.co.uk's Lewis Bazley talked to the pair following the release of their new Mixtape album, which hit the shelves on March 10th.

How did the Black Ghosts form?

SIMON: We 'met' when a mutual friend introduced us on the internet knowing that Theo was looking for a vocalist and I was interested in working on some electronic music. We started sending each other bits of music and ideas and songs quickly started coming together. We only decided it was worth meeting in actual person when we had a bunch of tunes finished!

And where did the name come from?

SIMON: When we eventually met in person we just chatted about all the music, films, books, art and stuff we are into. We decided that our music should have a name that was part B-movie horror film, part psychedelic rock band and part 80s street gang, the Black Ghosts fitted the bill and also suited the imagery we wanted to play with.

In a musical sense, who are your inspirations?

SIMON: We have loads of influences, I really like psychedelic soul, early electronic experimenters, analogue disco music, some of the new dub-step scene... most of my inspirations are people that put their own mark on music, did things that stand out, there's too many scenesters sharing the gold. Pulling some names out I'd say Jamie Lidell, Beck, Eno, Prince, D'Angelo, Tim Hardin, Daft Punk, Robert Wyatt...

THEO: My influences come from all over, but the key ones would be Daft Punk, Pete Rock, and David Axelrod. Plus a whole load of electronic dance stuff, old library records and assorted oddities that are added to on a daily basis.

Is a diversity of influences reflected in the different styles of the music?

SIMON: Yes definitely, we never wanted to stick to one style but to experiment with splicing together all our influences.

THEO: I tend to be quite schizophrenic in my production, anyway. I find it very hard to just make one specific style or tempo of music constantly. But we wanted the album to be varied in mood etc, and Simon's voice was the thing that really tied it all together. We have so many different points of reference that we'd find it weird to limit ourselves to just one thing.

Do you feel you can be pigeonholed into one genre?

SIMON: No way man, back off you pigeonholers... we are as free and undefinable as the wind... you can't tie me down suit boy!

Simon, are you proud of your work with Simian?

SIMON: Yes I'm very proud of Simian, it was my first band and I think we did some great songs and also paid real attention to the artwork and gigs like 'the church of Simian' that most bands can't be arsed to do these days. We also learnt our trade through Simian, we used to produce everything ourselves and I think it set everyone up for what we're all doing now.

What is it about We Are Your Friends that made it such a popular song?

SIMON: My incredible rousing vocal refrain of course! No, I dunno, I think it was a coming together of lots of elements - the lyrics, Justice's remix - that made it become an anthem for all the new music coming out at that time.

And did you find Kanye West's reaction at the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2006 irritating or amusing?

SIMON: I thought it was hilarious, just wished I'd have been there to shake his hand! I mean the ego of the guy is so over-the-top and ridiculous you have to laugh.

So Theo, your bio says your family pushed you into watching Hammer Horror films at an early age - true?

THEO: Ha ha. Well that stems from one incident. My godfather directed for Hammer, and one of his films came on the TV when I was about 6. He said it was fine for a kid so we all sat down to watch it. It scared the living s**t out of me, and my mum and dad gave him loads of grief. But I'm glad - it gave me the taste for horror! It was called The Two Faces Of Evil and it's a bit of a cult classic - people still go on about how scary it was.

Has that had any effect on the darkness of Black Ghosts' music?

THEO: Who knows? I definitely have a taste for the dark side, but our music is just as much light as dark.

And Simon, when did you learn about your grandfather's extremely cool musical contributions to Star Wars and Day in the Life?

SIMON: I found out really casually, I was discovering the Beatles albums and my dad was like 'Oh yeah, your granddad played on that', he's totally blase about it, he's much prouder of the classical stuff he did. I'm lucky in that I came from a musical family so it was never a struggle to get them to support my decision to do music full-time... though they're sometimes my harshest critics!

Where does your lyrical inspiration come from?

SIMON: I'm really into lyrics that are surreal and tend to try to pull things from the top of my head that make images... I've been going through a stage of writing about more personal stuff about relationships and things going wrong but I really want to get back into writing about weirder more surreal stuff again... taking ideas from impressionism and William Blake, maybe I should take more drugs to get things flowing...anyone know where i can get some peyote?

Why did you decide on a mixtape?

SIMON: We wanted to display the sort of thing we do when we play live, and also showcase some of our own productions and remixes to give people a taste of what's to come.

THEO: So many DJ mix albums just feel like a compilation of promos that have been assembled by some boring putz on his computer - you get these emails from DJs who are putting them together and all they want is everyone's newest racks regardless of whether they've ever heard them before, let alone played them out! Whereas a mixtape is a more personal, thought-out thing. It's not just a bit of soulless PR, but something with a bit of care and thought put into it - something that will last longer than a selection of "hot" new tracks. These are all tunes that we love and have played out.

While there's some familiar names on there such as Gossip and Armand Van Helden, there's a few obscure ones too - how did you choose who made the cut?

SIMON: We chose our favourites from our live sets and some new stuff that's exciting us... we tried to make it eclectic to cover everything we're into from pop stuff to weirder tunes and obscure releases.... we don't want to be seen as left-field chin-strokers or mainstream cheese-mongers... we just know what we like.

THEO: But even the more familiar names are offered up in an unusual form - by way of non-obvious remixes. Our selection was based on knowledge of what tracks worked when we played them out in clubs etc. Producers/remixers who had a strong and unique style, plus we wanted to represent our clan - Boy 8-Bit, Fake Blood etc.

And what're the plans for the future? Will you be playing festivals in the summer?

SIMON: Yeah festivals around the world and also getting our album out there so people can blog the s**t out of it!

THEO: Yes definitely some festivals and travels to exotic climes. This summer will be a total laugh.

Lewis Bazley

Click here to read the inthenews.co.uk review of the Black Ghosts' mixtapeEnd of story


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