New Brighton based band Tribe Of Ghosts managed to secure a decent slot on the New Blood Stage at this year’s Bloodstock Festival.
They won Metal To The Masses and have released 2 singles so far, ‘REIGN’ and ‘COLD’
I managed to have a chat with them to get the lowdown on what they are about and what is coming.
Tammy – I am here on behalf of Metal Planet Music and I have the lovely Tribe Of Ghosts with me. How are you guys doing ?
TOG – Yeah we are doing great!
Tammy – How are you finding the festival ?
TOG – Sweaty, it is sweaty! Trying to find some shade and some breeze as much as possible.
Tammy – When did you get here ?
TOG – We got here yesterday, we turned up about 4pm. We are enjoying the day and have watched a few bands.
Tammy – So you guys are new and based in Brighton. You’ve released 2 singles and are already playing Bloodstock, how have you guys managed to do this ?
Beccy – A lot of hard work. I think a lot of it is preparation behind the scene, before launching everything. Myself and Danny joined the band, in theory at the end of 2020. We took our time, obviously there were lots of delays with the lockdown and we gathered ourselves as four piece at the end of 2021. We were rearranging our music and decided to launch ourselves when we felt ready. Just taking our time and easing our way into it, until we felt confident and comfortable so we had the best advantage possible to get to here.
Tammy – That’s amazing, because you’ve only released 2 singles, how are you going to do your set tomorrow?
Adam – It’s going to be fun. All the songs we are going to play are going to be on our upcoming album which we will be recording in October. Very very excited about that. The songs we have got are all from there and we are genuinely very excited.
Beccy – We are playing out our 2 singles, amongst the other tracks we have in store. We’ve been warming up through a few shows, a couple in Brighton and one we did last week in Leicester with Tumanduumband and Sulvain. It went really well and was really well received. We are excited to launch it onto Bloodstock and see what the folks over here think.
Tammy – I’ll definitely be there tomorrow, 100 percent. Are you going to know what to expect?
Adam – It’s going to be fun. It sounds really stereotypical and cheesy but I don’t think Bloodstock is ready for the nonsense that we do. I say nonsense but with every bit, every song we have done it’s full of heart, soul and meaning. Everything that we write about, we think about it and plan it meticulously. We think about it carefully to make the exact sound that we want to portray and that sound is mental.
Beccy – It’s pure creativity, there’s no like, ooo does this sound a bit too thrash or a bit too pop.
Danny – If it sounds good we put it into a song, regardless of what it is.
Tammy – The process of writing your material, how long did it take to write the album ?
Danny – Ask him
Adam – So I am the main songwriter, well I’m the song writer. Beccy and I do the merging together and then they boys put in their parts as well. All of the stuff that gets written is me in my little production space and just losing my mind a little bit for a few good days I’ll come back to the guys explaining I have got a song! We’ve got one song in the set that was requested by Beccy. There was a wonderful little voice note.
Beccy – So I was washing one up one night and (even though I appreciate metal) I was listening to pop artist Rina Sawayama, I love her so much. I just went, I need a sexy song, I just need it. So I sent a voice note to the band chat, saying I want a sexy song, I want these kinds of references. Our songs are a lot about society, some are suffering in this but I wanted to write from the viewpoint about those who benefit from it. I wanted it to be demented and seductive, things like that. Sent it all through and it was like, Adam…cool, let’s go.
Danny – Three days later.
Adam – Three days later it was just a horrifying instrumental.
Beccy – I think it took a couple of go’s at working out what sound we wanted from it, and then that was it.
Adam – I’ve done it guys, it is brilliant
Beccy – I went away and wrote the lyrics, this is what I want, you sing here and I’ll sing there
Tammy – So you guys have a good working balance? Like ideas are understood, listened to and implemented ?
TOB – Yes absolutely
Tammy – I feel it’s the basis of any band to be successful, is to have this.
Beccy – I think we just respect everyone’s opinion so much, we all value Adam as the music director but then he completely understands and respects our opinion on things that we do like and don’t like. We are so open and critical in a positive way, I may be like, oh I don’t like that
Danny – There’s no ego, you got to leave your ego at the door and write.
Adam – It’s purley fine if I have sent something through and the guys are like, yeah we really like that, it’s really good. If I am my own head and like nah there is more I can do to this. I will then send a message saying, guys I need to take this a bit further, I need to keep going with this, it is not quite ready yet. The guys will say, if this needs to go further, absolutely do it.
Not dictate but help guide and hear where my brain is going and they will be like, that is really wicked, try this, that may be fun and that fills the next section and builds to the absolute insanity.
Tammy – Amazing, guys any ideas or hints about getting signed to a label at all?
Adam – Not yet at the moment, we want everything together. We talk about our goals and what we want to do and I think in this instance, our dream is to have a show that is a full on pop show. Absolutely bonkers pop show for us that is not like the pinnacle of success but we want to really give people an incredible experience.
That is what we want with our music, if the music is incredible for us and we love it, then if someone enjoys it, that is beautiful. We want to keep that enjoyment going and really push that. Whatever happens, we just want to have some fun.
Beccy – It is not about titles or statistics, it’s about the experience of being in a band and making music that we want to make and being creative.
Tammy – No political nonsense ?
TOB – No, not at all.
Adam – It is fun to play music as darkly themed as what we play and whilst playing it live, we are just smiling our butts off and it is so much fun.
Tammy – Any gigs coming up?
Adam – We have one tomorrow, it is this little festival called Bloodstock. I think you may know about it.
Tammy – Your slot is actually really high up too.
Adam – Yes we are clashing with Ingested and Dimmu which is like woooahhh
Danny – Thing is, anyone that is into the super heavy stuff will go see them, we are not about being super heavy, there a lot more to it.
Beccy – There is like a lot of light to the songs in general and people that are just looking for something that is a bit different.
Danny – I would have been worried if we were clashing with Jinjer but luckily we are no, so 🙂
Adam – So we are booking some shows up at the moment, so we should have some to be announced soon, which will be very very fun. We are booking up shows for next year too but at the moment, our main goal is getting the album out there.
Tammy – Time scale on that roughly ?
Beccy – We are hoping to be in the mixing and mastering mode towards the end of January 2023 and then we are going into the industry mode, see what interests we get.
Tammy – Will you be getting some videos out there too ?
TOB – Absolutely!
Beccy – The beginning of next year is looking into shooting, to give it the best launch possible.
Tammy – Be more expressive, more passionate?
Adam – Oh absolutely, we want to be the heaviest pop band out there, like colossally heavy.
Tammy – Oh guys thank you so much, is there anything you want to mention before we wrap this up?
Adam – Check us out on our social pages, Tribe Of Ghosts UK., come hang out and have a fun time.
Tammy – Thank you!
