Ghost’s Tobias Forge Plots Collaborative Project That Takes ‘Many Stars Aligning’
Collaborative projects are an enormous undertaking even in the digital age where file sharing eases the difficulty of getting guest musicians on an album. If there's one artist who understands time and effort, it's Ghost's Tobias Forge, who has been the band's visionary and chief writer. Even with all of the time Ghost occupies, he's revealed another project could potentially surface.
Speaking with 100.5 The KATT (audio below), Forge explained that he has things mapped out years in advance and even had the themes for the new album, Prequelle, developed three or four years ago. “And then I have another project at the end of that tunnel that might or might not materialize," he added. "It's a little bit of a side thing that takes a ton of collaboration and many stars aligning and that's been in the works for years. So we will see if that happens, but that is as far as I can see right now."
Earlier this year, Judas Priest's Rob Halford told the Phoenix New Times, "Nergal [from Behemoth] and I are possibly doing a collaboration. I was in the dressing room with Tobias from Ghost, and we talked about collaborative opportunities too. It’s fun for musicians to step into each other's world. It’s like different football teams — it’s the same game but a different play. I’m just very curious to see where my voice can fit in.”
"Rock music needs to step up. We need to have new, bigger bands. Bands need to step up and try to fill these spots," Forge told Full Metal Jackie when discussing the void left by late rock stars. "I definitely don't think that rock is dead in any way," he affirmed. "But I think that there has been a lack of new talent or new ambition. It’s hard to really put my finger on what has happened. But I think that rock, in general, has been extremely dominated by bands that are 30, 40-years-old, which there's nothing wrong with it, but now as they are disappearing, you can truly tell that there's a big gap between the big bands and the ones underneath and the one on the bottom."
Ghost's Fall North American tour will span from late October to mid-December as they continue to support their new album, Prequelle. The record debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and saw a massive spike in first week sales compared to 2015's Meliora, moving 66,000 units including streams.
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