Paul Hey buddy, how are things in The Ghost of a Thousand camp right now?
Jag Very good man, just got back from a week long tour of Spain and Portugal. We had a lot of fun and sun!
Paul You’ve been relatively quiet by the band’s standards so far this year with only a few short tours to show for it. What have you been up to? Are you working on new material?
Jag We’re writing away for record number 3 which should hopefully be ready for early next year, it’s taken up a lot of our time. We’ve actually been doing a lot of shows but as they’ve been dotted about it’s given the illusion of laziness ha ha. And a lot of them have been in Europe too.
Paul Can we expect any new releases this year? Do you have any confirmed album/EP/song titles?
Jag We’re putting out a 7” for fun which’ll be our one and only cover we’ll probably ever do, As for new song titles we’ve got ‘ Wrong Side of the tracks’, ‘All mod cons’, ‘ last ditch pitch’ ‘ come home in a box if you’re coming home at all’. no album title yet.
Paul What kind of direction is it taking? Which bands/records are influencing you, both individually and collectively?
Jag It’s got a cool dark vibe to some of it, I think it’s been good for us to take a break from listening to hardcore as we’ve been burned out a bit on it, so a lot of the new stuff has a sleazy, heavy feel to it. Lyrically it’s probably the most political record we’ve made, and there’s a under current of being totally in love with Science and reason.
Paul Just rewinding slightly, you signed to Undergroove in 2007/8 and things seemed to take off pretty quickly. Was it always part of the plan to make the jump from playing toilet venues to the likes of Reading in such a short space of time?
Jag Well we still play toilet venues and I’m sure we always will,ultimately whilst we had a little bit of hype the reality is that we’ve gradually picked up fans rather than jumped into the big time, I still think we’re a small band and do things like a small band, just us in a van still, which suits us just fine. Reading was amazing, very special and totally unexpected. You can’t plan getting big I think, not doing the kind of music we make, we’ve learned that and I think it makes life more fun if you don’t worry about shit like that so much.
Paul How did the deal with Epitaph come about? Were there any other labels interested in you at the time? What made you choose Epitaph?
Jag Epitaph came about with Peter from Burning heart approaching us, as he was working as A&R at the time for them, and we liked the way he spoke about bands and the music he’d worked with over the years. I think it just felt right, we all listened to so many Epitaph bands when we were growing up and you know, Converge, Every Time I Die and Bad Religion as label mates is something I can get on board with. They’ve never told us to write music in anyway I guess is the bottom line, they just let us get on with things.
Paul How was working with Pelle in Stockholm? What did you learn from the experience that you’ve taken on board since then?
Jag He’s a funny guy, I guess he imparted a lot of wisdom but subliminally, he didn’t say anything for the first week almost, just set stuff up and moved mics about. Maybe to not be frightened of being noisy, you know if something sounds evil don’t hide that, bring it out more, let something be what it is…. Does that make any sense at all? He knows what he’s doing but likes you to think he’s winging it just to fuck with you!
Paul You played at SXSW earlier this year – how was that?
Jag Good and bad, great shows and great fun being in Texas, bad as Mem couldn’t make it out due to some visa issues so 2 days before we had to recruit a friend of a friend to learn the set and drive from LA, meet us and then an hour later play the set unrehearsed. Pretty much the most stressful moment of my life thus far, but he pulled it off, playing in the garden of a pizza cafe made my year, so much fun and the Texas people know how to cook, so bonus there.
Paul How did the vinyl release of ‘This Is Where The Fight Begins’ on Holy Roar come about?
Jag I bullied Al from Hr into doing it under pain of death! Actually he TM’d Rolo Tomassi when we toured with them and got on really well, he shares the same stupid sense of misplaced cynicism that I have, so it’s was a no brainer. We’d never had a vinyl release for fight so I needed it to happen, just to give the old girl a proper send off.
Paul How do you prefer people listen to your music – CD, MP3 or vinyl? On a similar note, is packaging important to you? As a band do you take extra care in presentation or do you think the music should do the talking?
Jag Mp3’s strip the soul out of music, but I’m a massive vinyl lover. We really put an effort in with our artwork, I do all of it anyway so it’s super personal, and if you buy the vinyl not only does it sound the best but it looks the best, so for me vinyl wins. Cds seem to have come worthless, you can get them free on magazine and people throw them away after they’ve burned stuff to their ipods, so the combination of buying a 12” or 7” with a download code seems like the ideal choice.
Paul A lot of music venues have closed down in Brighton, the band’s home town, recently. Do you feel this will have a knock on effect in terms of the local talent coming through? After all, there have been a lot of exciting new bands come out of the city in the last few years…
Jag It’s heartbreaking there’s no where to play apart from practice spaces. Of course it will have an a negative effect on the local scene and will hinder the progress of new music. For example, The Freebutt is an institution and a great place to start when you’re a young band. It really annoys me that Brighton council aren’t helping the situation even though Brighton promotes itself as a vibrant musical city. I mean what’s point of hosting the great escape every year when there’s hardly any venues to play?
Paul What’s next for The Ghost of a Thousand?
Jag Finish writing album 3, festival season til the end of sept, tour in october and november record in december, album out in march!