– Hello, thanks for taking the time. What’s the band currently up to?

Hello, and thanks for having us. We just had our first gig since last November in this nice little festival called Dark River festival at east coast of Finland.

Considering that we played lot’s of new songs, it went pretty well and we are very anxious to get back on stage again. So, we are just waiting that our new album comes out

and then get ready for some more shows in Finland in September.

– First off, I hope you don’t mind to start making some history of GHOST BRIGADE…

We have known eachother from long period of time. Me, Wille and Janne have played in a band called Sunride, which was this kinda Stoner/Riffrock and Tommi and Manne

had band called Zerocharisma which was also based on Stoner/Blacksabbath style of sound (later Revolt). So we shared same kind of vision for this kind of music but not forgetting our

affection for death metal and heavier stuff. In December 2005 we had our last gig with Sunride and after that it became inactive, because lack of interest. Wille thought that

he had given everything he got for that kind of music, so there wasn’t anything more to say. But Wille also had very cool, heavier riffs in his «deskdrawer» and when he

played those for me, I was blown away. I immediately got excited and thought that the riffs were strong and it would be fun to play. Earlier Revolt had also broken up, so

there was no really question about, who’s going to play in the band. So we did

a demo/promo which came out Feb. -06 and send it to labels and check if there’s

any interest in there. We got positive feedback from couple of labels and we thought that the Season of Mist would be right for us, so we did a deal with them

and the rest is history..

 

– Why did you pick «Ghost Brigade» for the band’s name? Both it’s origin and meaning.

Well Janne liked the word ‘ghost’ and Wille took the ‘brigade’ from Mew’s ‘Snow Brigade’ -song. We just thougt it sounded cool.

Word ghost represents to me, like dark but transparent figure and same way I like to see our music. It’s heavy and dark, but at the same time

it’s not just that. It goes very diffrent directions and it’s hard to put finger on some certain genre what our music is. Brigade means obviously us, the band.

 

– And what are main musical influences for the band? As we can find in your sound elements from different styles such as Post Rock, Death, Doom and so on.

Yes, well, we all listen to allkind of stuff and everybody has their own little diffrent tastes on music.

But, you know, from DJ Shadow to Marduk and everything that sounds good to us. We try to keep our ears open for new kind of music so it doesn’t get boring.

Something that we can collectively agree on as a band, is we are not influenced by reggae 🙂

 

– I would also like to know what inspires and influences you beside music, as during these years you have managed to create an unique sound and a very own atmosphere through your tunes.

Yes, I guess we have unique sound and that’s the best compliment that band can have, so thank you. But it’s been really a natural progression for us

during these years.

What comes to influences besides music, it’s just everyday life and the experiences of that.

Lyric-wise there’s also observations of human behaviour and what shitty things people do to each other, so what happends

in world in general must be some kind of influence for us.

 

– You will soon release «Until Fear No Longer Defines Us»; what are your expectations?

Well, things are looking good at the moment. We already got some promising reviews and good feedback from people.

So I just hope, that we can have more shows at new places/cities and meet new people. Referring to previous question, travelling can be very inspiring too, you know.

So I’m really looking forward to see world more and play good shows and having good time with good people.

 

– In fact, «Isolation Songs» got an overwhelming feedback; is this a motivation or have you experienced more preassure while creating this new full-length?

Making record means lot’s of work, but mentally we we’re more relaxed and confident than before. Maybe also because experience from our previous recording sessions.

We went more with a gut feeling and trusted more our instincts, that it’s going to sound good, although there’s always little guessing in the air.

But it went smoothly, without too much pushing and we are happy with the outcome.

 

– And how could you describe the sound in this album? What are we going to find on it?

I think it’s a very organic sounding record. It sounds that it’s played by real band with bands natural flow, not too perfect, you know.

There’s dynamic changes, all the heaviness and trademark melancholic melodies. All the basic elements that maybe we are known from.

It sounds very Ghost Brigade, but from little diffrent angle compared to our previous releases.

 

– Getting a bit into this new piece; why such tittle? How does it fits the content in this album?

Referring to some of the lyrics, there’s themes like searching for your dreams and happiness and finding those things.

Fear can be powerful feeling that keeps you away from living your life to the fullest. So the idea is getting rid of it,

forget about others expectations, accept yourself who you are and start living your life the way you want, head high.

As a band, we just wanted to do a record that boldly takes different directions and turns,

but at the same time, still sounds us in a very natural way.

 

– What are the main concepts/feelings behind this record or behind the lyrics? As I could say though your music evolves with each new album, it doesn’t change that much, but the overall feeling of each album is quite different, being «Guided by Fire» quite aggressive and «Isolation Songs» more soft, melancholic and also with some more light on it.

There’s consepts about complexities of living, relationships, madness of mandkind, personal frustrations, leaving your past and start a new life.

That kind of thing. Maybe Guided by fire was more like in-your-face and aggressive record, there’s definitely more hope on these last two records.

Although there’s «heavy» subjects in lyrics, there’s also light in the end of the tunnel, so actually I don’t see our music that depressive.

 

– Some of your lyrics deal with soltiude, depression and, in general, have a quite melancholic feeling; do you daily lifes affect your

lyric? What are the main foudnations behind them?

Yes, like I said, it’s from experience of everyday life, but that doesn’t necessary mean that we are more depressive or sad people than anybody else.

Maybe quite on the contrary. But everybody haves their bad days and their moods and if you’re pissed about something and you’ve got something to say,

it’s good idea to exorcise your thoughts on paper.

 

– How was the songwriting for this record? Is the composition process a team-work? And, is it something spontaneous or do you approach the songwriting in a certian direction?

Wille most of the times makes the riffs and basic rough demos of the songs. He sends the demos to us, we take them to our rehearsalplace and start arranging them together there.

We try diffrent things and everybody brings their tricks and treats to the table. I also do demos of drum arrangements, so it’s both, spontaneous and conscious, from start till end.

 

 

– You have shoot a video for «Clawmaster»; could you please shed some light on this?

Yeah, we got to know this very talented French guy called Fursy Teyssier. He is also known from bands like Les Discrets, Amesoeurs and Alcest.

Anyway, the guy liked our stuff and he wanted to do a video for us and we we’re like, awesome, let’s do it.

There was already discussion to make video after Isolation Songs came out, but it didn’t happen, because we simply didn’t have any budjet to make it.

Making videos ain’t cheap. But this time, we could make it happen, and it’ so cool that Fursy is making it. I’ve seen couple of clips from it, and it

looks very cool. So we’re happy.

 

– All your albums have came out in a 2 years period; will this be your usual basis? As I guess the creative flux in the band may be great.

Yes, they have come out in 2 years cycles. It’s very suitable tempo for us to make record, not too much pushing. We have enough time to make tours,

and anything we want to do besides band. But yeah, for us it takes 2 years to make 10 killer songs 🙂

 

– As I said before, we can find details from many different music genres in your sound; how important is for you keeping your mind open and creating a balance between different dynamics?

It’s very important to keep your mind and your ears open. I don’t think we could do very interesting heavy music, by only listening heavy music.

You can find very cool things/feelings from softer music too. It’s just how you use it.

I think many heavy/metal bands would sound more interesting, if they’d do little study in dynamics.

 

– In fact, these dynamics are something that make your sound quite interesting. Coudl you say is this a challenge for your or your listeners? Or, if not, something you are aiming for?

We always try to find new angles on making songs, so it can be sometimes challenge for us. But for listener, I don’t know,

I mean, our songs isn’t that complex or proggy, they are pretty straightforward. But we focus lot’s of in feeling and dynamics,

and that’s one of the reasons that makes it interesting for us to play and hopefully for listeners to listen.

 

– In a couple of months you will start a headlining European tour; will more dates be announced?

That’s right, it’s our first headlining tour and we’re pretty excited about it. It’s gonna be 15 shows and

after that we have 1 show in December at ‘Madrid is the dark’ -festival. Those are shows announced so far.

I’m sure, we try to do more touring next year, but we just have to wait and see, how things go.

 

– And finally, what are your future plans? How’s does futures look for GHOST BRIGADE?

At the moment it looks good. Maybe we do couple of tours around this record, and after that start working on new one.

Just taking it day by day. We just have to see where this band is going to take us, but I have a good feeling that we are on

enjoyable ride, and we all love every bit of it.

 

– That’s all, thanks again. Now feel free to add some final words.

Okay, thanks for the questions Tania. It’s first time for us to play in Spain, so we are really looking forward to it.

Especially because it’s in December and in Finland it’s so cold 🙂 So hopefully we see you at ‘Madrid is the dark’.

Salud!

 

Tania Giménez

tania@queensofsteel.com

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