During a recent interview with Full Metal Jackie, Ghost leader Tobias Forge talked about his long-term future plans regarding the band, as well as his general creative approach. You can check out the conversation below (transcribed by UG).

[metalwani_content_ad]

What’s been the biggest benefit to not having any musical constraints?

“As a songwriter, I am very happy that I feel quite liberated in terms of not having to stick with a certain style – I see that as a great luxury.

“On the other hand, it also makes things harder. It’s like if you’re a comedian, you have to come up with new jokes all the time. When I wrote [Ghost’s 2010 debut] ‘Opus Eponymous,’ there was this big question in the underground circus.

“Like, ‘Was that a fad? Was it a ‘one time only’? Can you deliver records like ‘Opus’?’ And I said immediately, ‘I’m not gonna write ‘Opus’ again.’ I want to write something else.

“Because I knew that the biggest sellout move anyways would be if I tried to replicate what worked and then would stagnate. And ever since [second Ghost album, 2013’s] ‘Infestissumam’ and going onwards, I’ve always tried to write the record that we don’t have. I always want to write the songs that we don’t have.

“But as I now feel that I’ve done that the fourth time, it definitely raises the bar going into the fifth record. Because you don’t really know exactly what made it. And as you not only grow older, but you get wiser and you have more things on stake because of it, there’s always a risk that you start overcomplicating things in your head. And I’m really trying not to do that.

“Going and writing [latest Ghost album, 2018’s] ‘Prequelle’ was definitely one of those where I had to try not to think about what’s at stake with this record.

[metalwani_content_ad]

“‘Try not to think about that. Try just to think about what makes you happy. Try just to think about the music that you like. Try not to think about all the people that are waiting just to go out on tour, whose lifelihood are depending on this.’ You can’t start thinking about those things. But it’s hard not to.

“The further out you swim, sooner or later you will start thinking about how deep it is. But you can still swim. It doesnt matter, you can swim in 1-meter [3.28 ft] depth and you can swim in 2000-meter [6560 ft] depth. It doesn’t matter. But don’t think about it too much. Just keep on swimming.”