Ghost

Ghost about the costumes, satanism and the international success.

They have loyal fans in Metallica and Dave Grohl.

Now Swedish Ghost continues its successful journey across the world - to the tune of melodic metal of occultism.

But the road there has been long..

- From when I was 19, it was almost ten years of wandering between unemployment insurance, unemployment and different bands, said the band leader.
It is the 58th edition of the Grammy Awards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Linköping born Ghost has just competed against world names like Slipknot and Lamb of God and received the prize for best metal song. They are in good company. Taylor Swift, Max Martin, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd and Skrillex are a few of the other winners at the prestigious gala.
A week later, the leader of Ghost is sitting in an empty dining room at Cirkus in Stockholm. In jeans, T-shirt and dark straggly hair, he is far from the masked rock star who a few days ago was on the Grammy Gala scene. His identity is secret and he goes under the title "Nameless Ghoul".

GHOST FACTS

* Formed in Linköping in 2008 and consists of frontman Papa Emeritus III and five nameless ghouls.
* Opened for the Foo Fighters at Ullevi summer 2015. The singer Dave Grohl has also produced EP "If You Have Ghost".
* Had to for copyright reasons rename the band Ghost B.C. in the United States, but now calls themselves Ghost again.

The metal group has a busy schedule and the interview time has been pushed back several times for the meticulous planning to hold. On the floor below the the noisy rehearsals for tonight's Grammis Gala (Swedish Grammys). There, Ghost will in a few hours receive the award for best hard rock/metal of the year. They do not know that yet. Instead, they have the Grammy in Los Angeles in recent memory.
- First and foremost, we didn't think we would win. The goal was really just to be nominated. Corey Taylor (lead singer of Slipknot) is indeed a very ... well, what's the word ... 'mediawhore' kind of person? He is very ambitious. When Slipknot were nominated, we thought it was over. When we won, we were actually quite frankly surprised and incredibly happy, says the Ghoul.
This price means a lot to Ghosts growing career, there is no doubt. Not least internationally.
- In the music world, few awards stand out as milestones to the extent that the Grammy does. Although it may not make everyone in the world go out and buy our album it opens so many doors that have not been open before. For me, being pretty career-driven, it looks the most like an incredible opportunity.
It's more than five years since Ghost began to make a name for themselves in the metal world. They were formed in Linköping in 2008 and consists of five "nameless ghouls" led by frontman and Pope Papa Emeritus III. All secret since its inception.

- For us it is important that we are masked. But already when we released the first album we knew it was going to be hard to keep our identities secret. Personally, I don't feel the least bit anonymous, at least not when we're on tour. There's always 50-100 people outside our tour bus after a gig. I go out and sign and talk. The only rule is that we do not take any pictures, says the Ghoul.

Even so, few people know what really lies behind the black capes, silver shiny masks and facial paintings. On online forums around the world many speculate who the Linköping born musicians could be.
- I don't think there's any kind of public knowledge of who we are. I don't believe that there is much of public interest. And that's great, that's the way it should be with the Ghost. It should be the actual presentation that is important, not who we are. I see it more as an arrangement in which I am a director and also happens to be an actor.

2010 saw the release of the Grammis-nominated debut album "Opus Eponymous" and three years later came the sequel "Infetissumam". Since then their careers has gone straight up. Ghost has been described as a hard rock Kent (Swedish band) and praised for the contrast between the satanic lyrics and melodic rock.
In "Year Zero" a male choir messes the names of various Biblical demons and on "Ritual", the band transform the Lord's prayer into a prayer to Satan. More often than not Ghosts lyrics is man's relation to faith, occultism and Satanism.

- The idea of ​​a higher being has caused quite a mess and continue to for humanity. Therefore, it is an interesting idea. It can bring a lot of good things but usually it's a bad thing. Above all, trying to influence others to believe, says the Ghoul.

The subjects have interested him since childhood.

- I have been interested in Satanism since I was 10-11 years, so for me it's very difficult to have a clear intellectual line in it. In the end, I became interested in it because I thought it was cool. Aesthetically, I think it's fantastic. An incrediblly fun and for me very homey world. As I say to our children: the devil is our friend. The monsters are our friends.
Despite the Childhood romanticism - today the image of Satanism and belief is more nuanced.

- I was much more confident then. As an adult, it is difficult to buy the idea that if we take a shovel and dig straight down you come across half a tick in a burning inferno. Although it's an incredibly amusing thought, he says.

- I know I don't have a fucking clue. It's the only thing I am absolutely sure of. I'm also aware that I'm a very imaginative person, I can't intellectually trust what I think. If I wanted to It's easy to believe in past lives and such as I of course can close my eyes and imagine how it was in the 1700s.

The nameless ghoul was born in Linköping in 1981. A short time later, his parents separated and he grew up with his mother and older brother. The music was always present in his childhood home. Both the mother and brother were interested.

- As long as I can remember, there has been rock music at home. My older brother was a teenager when I was little, it was the early 80's and almost all of the contemporary music at that time consisted of hard rock and punk. The radio was always on, he says.

The mother delivered a different spectra.

- She is born in the 40's so we got the whole 60's thing from her. We were not wealthy by any means but it was very culturally wealthy. A lot of film and escapism that you may struggle with today. Now that you have to be here and now and make decisions related to the real world.
In his teens he moved to Fittja south of Stockholm with his mother. He entered the aesthetic line at Botkyrka gymnasium. School time was messy and he ended up with bad grades.

- I graduated with 25 F's and 80 percent absence, and yet I had to go there every year. As soon as I graduated, it felt surreal, I didn't understand why I was there, he says.
The High School was closed down shortly afterwards.

- We were the last graduating class. The school was quite affected. During the school year, I think we had 60 arson. For a person already tired of school, it was not a wonderful environment to do anything other than to form bands and listen to metal.

After graduation waited nearly ten years of occasional odd jobs, unemployment, unemployment insurance and job search courses. Parallel to that the Ghost leader played music in several bands constellations. The hope that he would soon make a living at it lived on. It was not worth giving up.

- From when I was 19, I held on for at least seven to eight years with my bands. When I think back on it, it kind of funny, but I was so convinced that success would happen sometime. It was not that I couldn't get a job, it's just that I absolutely did not want one. As soon as I saw a chance to wuit, I did it, he says.
He has a theory about the possibility of government grants can be the key to the Swedish music miracle.

- I usually say that one of the greatest contributions to Swedish music exports is actually our welfare system. There are not many other countries you can do this in.
Today, unemployment benefit has been replaced with a juicy income, even if the Ghost leader points out that the band could hardly survive for years if they quit now. But they don't live in any extreme abundance.

- What the hell, I still live in a rented apartment in Linköping. But I do not begrudge myself things. I collect records, it's a rather expensive hobby. And it gets more expensive each time. But it is actually an investment.

Prior to last summer's third release "Meliora", Teddybears member Klas Åhlund was brought in as producer. Today Ghost one of the most important Swedish music exports. The primary market is in the USA. Where the Swedes got a huge boost when Metallica frontman James Hetfield and Foo Fighters singer Dave Grohl, both profiles they later worked with publicly endorsed the band.

- For our careers it has meant almost everything. It's clear that when Dave Grohl and James Hetfield go out publicly and endorse our band that's huge advertising. I don't even know if we'd be sitting here if it had not been for James, says the Ghoul.

There is something else that also played a role. Classic marketing and a desire to reach out for real. Ghost started on the indie label Rise Above Records, but soon it became clear that the band and the company did not agree on the marketing plan.

- I have no problem with indies, I'm a record collector and giant nerd. But I also know that you should have a record label who want their artists to succeed. When Ghost got big their almost sectarian collective way of thinking became clear. I don't condemn it, but it became clear how tremendously elitist their thoughts were, says the Ghoul.
When Rise Above Records stopped Ghost from playing at the rock festival Download in the UK on the grounds that it was a sellout enough was enough.

- I said that we have a problem. I don't care if we share the stage with nine other screamo bands because I think we can reach out to a lot of people. I think we can do more than just play for 1000 people once a year. I just had a feeling. I don't give a shit what you say. Thank you and goodbye.

Did you leave them at that point?

- It was definitely the beginning of a separation process. We realized that you don't want this, we do not want this. We thought we could manage to do this in a different way and they certainly would have benefited more from the money they would get. Just so you know, they've got a hell of a lot of money to drop us. If anyone ever think they are paupers, absolutely not. They earned a lot of money from us.

Ghosts anonymous member is convinced the band's willingness to work and interest in marketing has helped them.

- I am very, very business oriented. I actually got a compliment from an agent once who said that if it ever goes to hell, you could always come and try to work as an agent instead, he says, and continues:

- In the scene we came from, which was more underground, I think that there is a reluctance to do what is needed. You simply have a lot of prejudices about what bands you don't want to play with, what style you don't want to be associated with and what audience you don't want. There are so very many rules. The day we decided not to bother about that it worked better for us.

For success has required hard work.

- I think many people don't understand how much work you have to invest in a band and how monotonous it actually is. One must understand that it is not the same thing necessarily that you felt when you were little and played rock star. Everyone wants to be Iron Maiden, but they don't understand that it takes a thousand gigs to get it. They don't understand that you have to make sacrifices.
The Grammy gain in February led to a feeling Ghosts leader previously lacked during his years as a musician. A feeling of success so obvious that you could almost cut it with a knife.

- Being an artist hardly ever gives any immediate sense of success. It is, at best, creeping and often you realize just after it happened. Sometimes I envy the footballers who can make a goal. When someone gets the last and only goal in a World Cup final, it is so beautiful I could cry. Now that's not exactly how it happened, but it was certainly a feeling reminiscent of setting a goal of a district championship somewhere, he says.

But it is still only the beginning.

- Some friends and people you know asking questions in the belief that we are finished. How does it feel to have succeeded? I mean, not really the opposite, that we have not succeeded, but we are not finished yet. Furthermore, I am quite satisfied with the possibility this may not be the only thing I will do for the rest of my life.

Ghost on...
SUCCESS:

- I like to think that it stems from that what we do is pretty good. It is quite pure entertainment. I think we stand out quite a lot in the metal and rock world. There, the prevailing trends has been quite different in the past five years compared to what we do.

THE SECRET MEMBERS:

- We've had a rotation for very obvious reasons. None of us are very young, we are all around 30 plus. There are some that was not quite prepared for that it would be so much more than we thought.

RELATIONSHIP TO METALLICA:

- We are very good friends considering the geographics and how busy everyone is. Kirk and I are both interested in horror, James and I talk about children, and he gives career tips. But we see each other very rarely.