Well,Friends Of Aristocracy!
Line Up:
Lionel Beyet On Bass
Yves Vranckx On Bass
Vincent Desantos On Drums
We speak again of our newsroom, where in a little while, we will have,in all its emotions, the interview 133 of the Aristocracy.This time, we talked to a band that is different from the usual. Mainly, the fact that it doesn't have a guitarist.In addition, they practice an industrial, instrumental sound in which they completely marry a noise work with Sludge and Stoner in high voltage, intensity. Allied to that, a super hypnotic sound.We're talking about the amazing Belgian band Ghost:Whale. They present to us their debut album entitled Echo:One. Bassist Lionel Beyet answered our questions, which you start following now. First, we have to thank the band for having us wanted. Yes, it was the band that came to us first and not the other way around. Now, yes, let's go to the interview with this curious Belgian band.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk4402PsPf8
A1:Talking about the composition work in Echo:One?
Ghost:Whale:When the band first came together in early October 2022, we started playing long jams. After the first rehearsal we had about 3 hours of music full of different ideas. At least 2 or 3 of the songs of Echo:One were made from this first jam, assembling ideas together, adding parts here and there. The other songs came from later jams. We always compose together in the rehearsal room, we record everything and when we feel there’s something interesting in a recording, we keep the parts, assemble them, structure them and make a song out of them. The feeling is very important. We never know where we are going with a song until it’s done.
A2:How did the idea of an industrial band come about?
Ghost:Whale:The original idea was to make band that you cannot put in one category or in one genre. We wanted to leave every option open and mix all of our influences in one band at various levels, industrial, doom, stoner, sludge, psychedelic, space, punk, dub, ect. The industrial side came from the extensive use of effects and samples but it’s only one aspect of the band. The only thing that was clear is that it would be an instrumental band.
A3:Is Fungushima a word game based on the Fukushima disaster?
Ghost:Whale:The name Fungushima is a mix of Fungus and Fukushima.The reference to radioactivity and by extension to nuclear accidents came from the intro we made for the song. Initially the intro was just a loop made with a delay pedal that sounded like a geiger counter to detect radioactivity. The sound of the pedal was later included in a longer intro mixing a lot of different sounds to create a kind of cinematographic atmosphere.
A4:What´s the idea behind artwork´s album?
Ghost:Whale:We wanted a cover that was fairly simple but still quite visual.The skull on the cover is that of a whale in reference to the legend behind the band's name.The lines and texts on the left side of the cover represent the hierarchical structure of the song of a humpback whale. On the CD, the lines start on the back of the cover and end on the front of it. The drawings and the design of the cover were made by Lionel.
A5:Nothing against that, but why are there no guitarists in the band?
Ghost:Whale:Guitarists. What is it? Lionel and Yves bands respectively Missiles Of October and Frau Blücher and the drünken horses shared the same guitarist,yes we know what a guitarist is,the same rehearsal room and played a lot of concerts together. The idea was not new to play together but it took time to eventually decide to make a band based on basses as main instruments accompanied only by a drummer. We did not want to make just another band with the configuration every band has .So not only didn’t, we want a guitarist but not a singer either. That configuration leaves more space to let the sounds of the basses express themselves and create different kinds of atmospheres. And this is further reinforced by the fact that Lionel and Yves do not play bass in the same way at all. The overall sound is more massive, more pachydermic than with a guitar in front.
A6:How did your interest in ghosts and whales come about?
Ghost:Whale:In fact, we don’t have any interest in ghosts and whales. We have been searching for a band name for weeks, each of us making proposals but nothing seemed to fit. We wanted a name that tells something not just letters and words put together. Lionel came with the Idea of Ghost Whale which is taken from the Japanese mythology. It is supposedly a large ghostly skeleton whale and is said to be accompanied by strange birds and fish. What better name for a band that wants to make loud music?
A7:This album is conceptual?
Ghost:Whale:Not at all. It is a collection of songs not related to each other that do not tell any story in particular.
A8:Did it happen naturally or did you guys agree to make a song of almost 30 minutes?
Ghost:Whale:Ghost Whale, the 30 minutes song of the album, is a jam and every time we play it in concert or rehearsal it’s played as a jam. The structure of the song is not set in stone, there are several parts that will or will not be played as some point of the song but it’s a question of feeling and of the time we get to play it. When we recorded the album we did it the same way. In fact we recorded a jam and we were the first to be surprised when the sound engineer told us we played for more than 30 minutes. It never happened before. Usually it did not exceed 15 minutes and after several listenings to the recording it was impossible to cut any parts except two minutes in the end.So we decided to leave the recording as is on the album.
A9:Why did this band start secretly?
Ghost:Whale:We didn’t want any pressure, we wanted to take our time in setting up the concept of the band without any external interferences. We didn’t want anyone to listen to our songs until the day the album was written and recorded. But everything went so fast that we didn’t have to take our time. Less than four months after our first rehearsal we were proposed with a residency in our favourite concert place in Brussels, Magasin4, to record an album and play an end-of-residency showcase in front of a limited audience,we were still in covid capacity limitations.Noone knew what to expect and that was exhilarating.
A10:How does the band make a hypnotic sound?
Ghost:Whale:Hypnotic is the adjective most often used when people describe our music after a concert. The hypnotic sound is made by the use of effects and the repetition. We let the atmosphere set in and when we have captured the audience's attention, we keep it going over and over again until we feel it's time to move on. The repetition of the rhythmic parts is counterbalanced by the noise bass sounds and the samples that complete the atmosphere and make the imagination travel. Fasten your seatbelts and prepare for take-off.
A11:I thought the initiative was great, but why was a saxophonist called by the band?
Ghost Whale:Another idea that came out when we decided to create the band was to have a guest musician on one song for every album we’d record. The choice of the instrument and then of the musician would be based on the song, its atmosphere, our feeling and the space left for something else. The choice of the saxophone was quite obvious on the song “Ghost Whale” in order add an even more psychedelic atmosphere and different tones and musical phrases. Bruno who recorded the saxophone is the sax player in Frau Blücher and the drünken horses. We didn’t give him any directions, he listened to the song for the first time only minutes before recording his parts. It was done by feeling and we were impressed by what he brought to the song.
A12:How band arrive to Forbidden Place Records?
Ghost:Whale:Missiles Of October, Lionel’s band, released their albums and EP through Forbidden Place Records since 2012. In addition, Lionel runs a label called P.O.G.O. Records and releases recordings from several bands in coproduction with Forbidden Place Records. Even before the first sound of Ghost:Whale was recorded, Lionel told Forbidden Place Records about our new project and they were enthusiastic.
A13:Does the last song have any reference to binary code?
Ghost:Whale:The last song « OneZeroOne » has nothing to do with binary code. It’s the phone number used in Belgium to call the police (101). The name came from the sample used in the song. The sample is in French and comes from the waiting message you hear when you call the police and all the lines are busy. It says: “You called the police, don’t hang up”.
A14:What is The Other Side?
Ghost:Whale:We don’t know either what the Other Side is. Once again, the title of the song comes from the sample that begins in English this time with “On this side”. We called the song « The Other Side ». It’s never easy to give an instrumental song a title. It can come from anything, the intro like “Fungushima”, a sample like “The Other Side” or “OneZeroOne”, the general atmosphere of the song like “Elephant Walk” or “Ghost Whale”.
A15:Frau Blücher and the drünken horses, [P.U.T] and Missiles of October helped the band in what way?
Ghost:Whale:These bands helped Ghost:Whale in many ways. The first way is that they brought the musicians to know each other, to play together in their respective bands and to appreciate each other as person and as musician. The second way is that it made us decide that we didn’t want to play in a new band with a standard configuration, we wanted something different. Otherwise, why should we play in several bands. And the third way is that they bring their influences in the new band we created. Maybe it’s not obvious but the influence is there, the experience too. The most important thing is to always enjoy playing in the different projects.
A16:Punk and Sludge inspire this project in what way?
Ghost:Whale:As far as punk is concerned, its influence lies in keeping things simple, creating riffs with few notes and structures that are not too complex. For sludge, it's the slow, heavy, muddy side, the atmospheres and the massive contribution of fuzz and noise. We naturally mix these two influences in addition to all those that we bring in addition and that come from the different musical styles that we listen to every day, from the oldest to the most recent.