09.27.06
Interview with: GHOSTIGITAL
By Stacy Sardelli
Editor in Chief

Experimental / Hip Hop / Electronica

Ghostigital are: Einar Φrn (vocals, pocket trumpet, programming, producing) and Curver Thoroddsen (space echo, mixer, programming, producing). Their live group, The Ghostboys, did not join them for this tour.

Partial official description: "For those new to the sonic world of Ghostigital, you should know that there doesn't seem to be any floor plan to the music, even though there is architecture. It's best you just relax, release preconception, don't think or analyze too much. Here's an idea: let us do the analyzing so the thoughts don't get in the way of your listening experience. Know the music will come to you the way it wants to; you are not in control."

I stumbled upon Ghostigital on MySpace just this last April - I believe after seeing them listed as a friend on the Sigur Ros MySpace. I was an instant fan; was completely blown away by their music! Anyway, time flies and it had been awhile since I'd visited their website when I read a bulletin that they would be playing Milwaukee in just 2 days. I immediately emailed the fellas and asked if I could get on the press list.

I checked my email the day of the show. They said that I was on the list and to come when the doors open. I had little time to prepare. So, being the dork I am, I show up and who I think is Einar walks me back. I sit down and look at the other gentleman and say, "You must be Curver." He corrected me and said he was Einar. At that very moment, and I must have looked like the most extreme victim of shock, I realized that he was THE EINAR, you know, the one from the Sugarcubes! I don't get star-struck too often but seriously, the Sugarcubes made a huge impact on me and how I feel about music. An honor indeed. Also, the two of them couldn't have been kinder about my mix up. How I didn't know the connection before hand, who knows? That completely baffles me.

Interview

Babble & Beat – Is this the first time you've played in Milwaukee, WI?

Curver – This is the first time Ghostigital plays in Milwaukee. I don't know if Einar played here with the Sugarcubes.

Einar – I think I played here in Milwaukee. I think so.

Babble & Beat – You think so? How long ago?

Einar – How long ago? Ah... over 14 years ago.

Babble & Beat – Wow. Well, welcome back!

Please tell us about Projekt Patterson. You guys played live in a swimming pool on September 1st.

Curver – We took part in an art exhibition, called Projekt Patterson. We did a noise installation in one of the shower rooms. We also played a concert which was held in the old swimming pool hall of Keflavνk City. We wanted to somehow use the swimming pool environment in our set because usually Ghostigital sets are more or less kind of improvised-based. Of course, we have a certain structure about it but it's also free form. So, we rented a really expensive underwater mic, a waterproof mic, which Einar sang into. Really nice sounds came out of that.

Babble & Beat – Where did you get that idea? Is that a first, because I've never heard of anyone doing that before?

Curver – Probably the first underwater concert. Laughs. At least ours.

Einar – I've sang in a swimming pool before but you know, always with the microphone above water level. It's just like you know, we are asked to play in front of a swimming pool as an art project and so we make something special out of it.

It's important for us to be able to diversify ourselves. So, we just don't go from A to B. We go from A to B to C and get lost on the way. And then, you know, we go back to what we're good at doing.

Babble & Beat – And how about the audience? I bet you got a really great response to that. Must have been pretty interesting?

Einar – It was pretty interesting for them but I think it was more interesting for us because they didn't have too many people there. They forgot to promote it proper.

Curver – There was maybe 30 art people or something like that.

Babble & Beat – Oh my goodness!

Curver – Yeah. Laughs. It doesn't matter to us. We do our normal kind of concert gigs, like you see tonight, but we've also been taking part in more art or culture-based things. We did Reykjavik Culture Night, which is on the birthday of Reykjavik – it's always a huge art thing happening and we held a ten hour improvised concert at the Reykjavik Museum of Art. So, we played continuously for ten hours and got friends to come and improvise in our set and recorded it.

We also did a similar concert at the Winter Arts Festival. There we played for four hours in an observatory restaurant in Iceland. We put a lot of hidden mics around the place and used them in our soundscape. People are buying ice cream and stuff like that. We just like to expand a little bit on what we're doing.

We were also asked to some special set for a Polypoetry festival. Then we slowed down all of our songs, played them at half speed, and Einar did a different take on the lyrics. So, we just like to explore whatever we can with our stuff. And we are mostly happy when the process takes over and surprises us.

Babble & Beat – And how are American audiences responding to you so far? You were in Madison last night and Minneapolis the night before.

Einar – They're responding well. I think the response is good in our opinion. We do get people who come to us after the show and say they didn't know what hit them ...but they loved it. For us that's part of why we're coming over here. Part of why we got invited by Melvins to play with them. It was just to bring the sonic exploration, which we do and carry out. Melvins have got a good crowd and good people come to Melvins shows. We just treat people to some new stuff and it seems to go down well.

Babble & Beat – I like your 'Black Sand' video. It makes a pretty powerful statement about the state of Iceland's future. I was shocked to learn the facts featured in it. How much good do you think it's doing, as far as awareness goes?

Curver – For us it was really important to take part in the protest and contribute something. A lot of people in Iceland are trying to take part as well.

Babble & Beat – So, it's not part of a documentary?

Curver – No, it's just our contribution to call attention to the matter...

Einar – ...Put forward our opinion. We did play a concert on January 7th this year, which was a big major...

Curver – ...Protest rally...

Einar – ...Or concert to celebrate nature and try to awaken how this dam got built in the first place. How it was, in my opinion, bulldozed through Parliament. Even though they say it was agreed by Parliament, I think it was bulldozed through Parliament.

Today we are seeing documents that say that the earth underneath the dam has still got cracks in it and is still warm and has erupted in modern times. So, when the water fills into the dam the earth might KOUGH! (breaking noise and hands gesture), just crack because off the cracks underneath. I went hiking out there and got really sad of the fact that we were destroying nature as beautiful as this. I became a nature head and told Curver that we had to do something...

Curver – ...Yeah, he called me right after he came into town after the hike and "we just have to do something for this, you have to believe me. You'll have to see this." From there we went on.

Einar – They're filling it starting tomorrow. It's one of the biggest mistakes ever made. And it's going to affect centuries to come, generations. Tomorrow is a sad day. We will see short-sighted politics come into action.

Babble & Beat – What's in the future for Ghostigital? Are you working on another album or doing any special projects?

Einar – Well, laughs, this is our special project at the moment. This project is devised so that we play these concerts, we drive ourselves between the concerts but we connect our computer to the car stereo. I'm driving and Curver's got the laptop open and we're working on new songs as we drive along.

Curver – It's really nice. We're trying to use the time between. We usually drive 4 hours a day or something like that. We don't really get a lot of free time in Iceland to be able to be in the studio for 4 or 5 hours a day. Einar might give an idea and I work on it and we just like bounce it back and forth. We pretty much know where we're going with the process. We don't really have to speak that much. We don't have to constantly conceptualize too much over every song. We just work and rework it over and over.

We actually work A LOT on our music. We call our process "the meatgrinder". We go over the material and chop it up and go over it and rearrange it, chop it up again... So, usually the outcome is quite far from where we originally started.

Juicy Tidbits Section

This is where we ask personal questions for the fans. Yeah, they're often stupid questions. We like reading the answers though!

Babble & Beat – Do you have any pets?

Curver – I don't have any pets.

Einar – No, I don't think it's right to keep pets.

Babble & Beat – Favorite rock T-shirt?

Einar – I had one, which was for "Club Fuck" (Los Angeles venue). So, it had "fuck" written on it with Lonsdale lettering. That was my favorite for years. I think I just threw it away recently, actually.

Curver – A rock t-shirt? Well, I used to have some when I was younger. I really liked a Wedding Present t-shirt and also a Loop one. The Loop t-shirt was pretty cool so I bought another one. So, at a time I had two. Laughs.

Babble & Beat – Surely not Chicago's old radio station "The Loop?"

Curver – No, it was a band called Loop. A really good English band lead by Robert Hampson. They were active around '90 and had a great influence on me. Now I'm wearing this Minus - Jesus Christ Bobby one. This is a record I produced. They laugh with me at the amusing name. It's my favorite t-shirt on this tour.

Einar – That's because I sang on that record.

Curver – Yeah. This record was a catalyst for Ghostigital. I was producing this record, 'Jesus Christ Bobby', for Minus a hard metal/noise/rock band. I got Einar to be a guest singer on one track. He hadn't sung for eight years then. From that session me and Einar wanted to start working together. So, in a way it is the start of the whole thing!

Babble & Beat – Well, thank you both for this opportunity. It was a real pleasure.

Einar & Curver – Thank you.

In Closing

Curver and Einar just couldn't have been any nicer - a real pleasure. They're amazing musicians who are fiercely creative and infuse their lyrics with a sense of humor and relatability.

Ghostigital's recent album 'In Cod We Trust' is pure frickin' genius. Want proof? Listen to their music clips via the MySpace link below! Also, be sure to check their tour schedule to see if they're coming to a town near you - we highly recommend seeing them live!

Links:
Official Ghostigital
Official MySpace - music clips!