GOST
Perturbator too polished for you? carpenter Brut just that little bit too commercial? Gost is on a mission to make synthwave extreme. and it ain’t gonna be pretty
With his horror movie influences and skull mask, he’s the most metal synthwave artist yet.
Inside manchester’s rebellion club, a lone figure reclines on a settee, clad all in black. to say he is relaxed would be misleading; his manner is more akin to reserved contentment, like a cat that will sprint from the room at the first sudden movement. and yet, his faint grin belies a sense of humour which becomes steadily more apparent as we chat about everything from country music to which movies have the greatest soundtracks.
this is Gost (pronounced ‘Ghost’), the latest pioneer of synthwave – 80s-influenced electronic music that has steadily mutated from the neon lights of the French electronica scene (Daft Punk, Justice) into something much darker. While secretive Frenchman carpenter Brut is leading the way as synthwave’s most popular artist, with his danceable hooks and impressive light show (as seen at last month’s Metal Hammer Golden Gods, see p.48), Gost leans more heavily on apocalyptic blastbeats, satanic imagery and wailing sirens to take the title as synthwave’s most kvlt artist. like carpenter, Gost has also shielded himself with a degree of anonymity, covering his face with a skull mask live. But as his similarly satanic and dance-friendly Swedish namesake will attest, anonymity is hard to come by in 2018.
“With the internet being as it is, it’s not like it’s a total mystery who I am, or even how old I am,” he admits. “So, you can feel free to use my name if you want. But…” he pauses,
“it’d be cooler if you didn’t.” he grins like the cheshire cat.
Born and raised in texas in the heart of Bible Belt country, Gost found himself a misfit from an early age, rejecting the prevalent ideology of his surroundings and upbringing. he questioned everything, from the religion his parents ardently
followed to the near-ubiquitous country ’n’ western soundtrack beloved by the Deep South.
“Growing up in texas fucking sucked,” he says. “I was always a little strange and people were very conservative, very abusive and very fucking vindictive. the first thing I got into to be a weirdo was skateboarding… my parents thought I was in a gang! But it made me more determined.”
as with many a teen before him, Gost’s salvation came when he discovered alternative music, an older brother providing a soundtrack that covered everything from the Smiths to Suicidal tendencies. his enthusiasm came to a head with the discovery of Nirvana – with it, the sense that anybody could be a pop sensation – and the heavier end of the spectrum in cannibal corpse and New orleans sludge (“the darker and heavier, the better!” he admits). over the next 20 years, he would experiment with a range of styles, playing in everything from emo to shoegaze bands – even getting caught up in the nu metal boom at the turn of the millennium (“embarrassingly, I was actually in a nu metal band called Web with my current tour manager,” he laughs).
living his own lifetime movie as he strove towards a life doing what he loved, a major turning point came when he parted ways with the doom metal act Vaste Burai at the turn of the decade. “there was just so much fucking drama,” he says. “that’d be the most interesting part of the movie – not the Gost part!”
Burned out and looking to start afresh, his mind began to drift to the possibility of making music on his own, pursuing a passion that had bubbled away ever since his youth. “I grew up in the 80s, when electronica was really first becoming a thing,” he explains. “So when I started playing in bands, I was always at odds as to whether I should play metal or electronica – especially because where I’m from, nobody owns a fucking synthesiser. there are no electronic shows – it’s all rock and metal.”
Influenced by everything from mainstream electronic acts like Daft Punk and Justice, to horror directors John carpenter and lucio Fulci, the seeds of creativity began to sprout. his voice buzzes with excitement as he discusses the beginning of his journey into synthwave. “Back in 2005 and 2006, I heard [dance/electronica] stuff like the outrunners and college, and really liked it because it reminded me of being young,” he says. “a few years later, I saw that movie, Drive, with the college song [A Real Hero], and it was like, ‘oh yeah! I’ll make music that sounds like this…’ then I started making something that sounds nothing like it! ha ha ha!”
“this record is a ‘fuck
you’ to everybody” GOST’S NEW ALBUM GOES DARKER AND HEAVIER THAN
ANYTHING HE’S DONE BEFORE
t he rumbling low-end of acts like carpenter Brut, Perturbator and Gost places them close to the industrial noise of Nine Inch Nails, ministry or revolting cocks. add in the unsettling territories of 80s horror
soundtracks, and it’s far from anything you’d hear in a dance club on a Saturday night. little wonder that the metal community has quickly embraced it.
“Part of that love definitely comes from its associations with horror movies and darker themes,” Gost admits. “But it’s also down to the fact that it’s an outcast thing. It’s not accepted majorly and can stand on its own without radio play or culture exposure. as for carpenter Brut and Perturbator, we’re all metalheads, too – so I think it’s something we were all thinking at the same time. Now people are like, ‘hey, we can dance at the metal shows.’ I get messages from people after we play festivals and it’s like, ‘thank you: we got to party!’”
With latest record Possessor, Gost pushes even further into metal. Drawing on influences from Norwegian black metal, classic doom bands like candlemass, and turn-of-themillennium grindcore acts like Bodies In the Gears of the apparatus, Possessor appropriates shrieking vocals, thunderous blastbeats and satanic iconography to openly display the shared DNa between the genres. It rewards intrepid listeners with something every bit as transgressive as a chelsea Wolfe or Deafheaven record.
“the label totally freaked out when they heard the record,” he laughs. “But this is the record I wanted to write, and it feels more honest than anything I have done before.
“people use religion as an excuse to be shitty”
HE MIGHT HAVE GROWN UP IN THE BIBLE BELT, BUT GOST ISN’T A BELIEVER
all the metal I have listened to over the years has become part of the melting pot in this record. It’s not totally electronic, it’s not totally metal – it’s a ‘fuck you’ to everybody! ha ha ha!”
But perhaps the biggest ‘fuck you’ of all is how Gost draws inspiration from the original rebel, Satan, as he rails against his ultrareligious upbringing. From his reinterpretation of John milton’s Paradise Lost on 2016 album Non Paradisi, to the use of an Old Testament passage as part of his artist’s blurb on Facebook (‘And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and went a whoring after Baalim, and made Baalberith their god’), it’s clear he isn’t doing any soul-searching about which side of the pearly fence he sits on.
“I’m not religious at all – I don’t believe in any of that shit,” he says, resolutely. “But as a character, Gost does – he is Baalberith.
I chose Baalberith because he can’t lie, which is weird for a demon. he tries to corrupt humans, but he can only do that without lying, so he has to go about in a way which is almost honest. I really enjoy making people think about the bullshit they believe in, and whether they can question it easily. anything that resonates from a religious standpoint – I mean, a lot of the Satanic Bible is just as dumb as the regular, but I like how they toyed with the spirituality of Satan as inspiration, rather than an entity. one of the main things that sucks about religion is that they use it as an excuse to be shitty, with the idea they can seek forgiveness.
Without that, you just have to be a good person, or you suck.”
Gost has evolved more across three albums and four ePs than some bands do in their entire careers. his ambitious plans for the future include releasing a double album to explore the extreme aspects of his sound (“one a goth-pop record, the other extreme metal!” he enthuses), and adding another musician to the live show.
In the United States, Gost is still something of a cult property, his shows pulling anything from five to 500 each night. In europe, he attracts a more consistently sizable and enthusiastic following. tonight in manchester, Day-Glo ravers mix with denim-clad thrashers, the lines between genres erased. Some headbang, some dance, everybody loses their minds. and, as a hooded figure in a featureless mask seamlessly shifts between intense howls, stylish dance moves and moody post-punk prowling, we can’t help but feel there’s somebody behind the scenes having a dry chuckle at the idea of a consummate outcast finding a home on a stage in a club called rebellion. maybe there is somebody down there after all…