Ghast Interview!

1.Greetings to the RAW WAR crypt! 
And congrats to the (out right now!) album release! 

- Kz: Thanks Jan! 
Myrggh - Thanks for your interest!

 2.How would you describe the road from the last release "Club Bearer" in 2011 up until now? 
Has this new record "Dread Doom Ruin" been under constant gnawing and carving or has it been other stuff taking up your awaken time? 

Myrggh - Ha! 'Gnawing' - yes the songs have certainly gnawed at us. It's as if they gradually poison you until you can get them out in some sort of definitive way. But other than that we've all been busy with various things. As you get older, your life gets fuller.

Arr - DDR was recorded in August 2012 and nothing new has been written since. Between Club Bearer and the album was a fairly daunting time. We had an album to put together and wanted it to be worthy of the the first. Back in 2008, the songs for MTCB had written for a long time and we didn't really anticipate doing an album, but when the offer came it was pretty much already there. DDR was much different; we were aware of having to live up to the idea of something and at times it wasn't easy. 
Next came the trials of preparing it for release. 
It's been a long road...but hearing and seeing it properly for the first time yesterday makes it worthwhile.

3.From Souldust till Ghast seems logical somehow, from dust to a slightly more manifested form like a Ghast. But do you consider Souldust to be a separate band or the same? 

Kz - There's a handful of tracks that we played under both names, Wasted Scapes, Give Your Wrists.. However the Ghast stuff was immediately crueler.

Myrggh - I consider Ghast the same band, but a step up. Maybe a slight re-focusing. Bleaker.  

Arr- It was the early stages of Ghast. We changed the name a while after the sound of MTCB began to take shape. 

4.Only one split (in 2007 with Helvete(Singapore) ), maybe splits is nothing that is always easy to do regarding finding a suitable band to share it with...or is there some in the plans? 

 
Kz- As a listener and music fan I enjoy splits. We have no plans to do another split, I wouldn't rule it out but I can't imagine it happening again.

Arr- There were other splits in the pipeline, but we are incredibly unproductive. It's possible that the Club Bearer stuff was supposed to be for a split, but my memory fails me. 

Myrggh - Only bands with loads of material tend to release splits. As ever with Ghast there are no plans, but you never know. No master plan - only whatever we must do at the time. 

5.Please tell something about the musical transformations you gone through. As to the problems (& rewards) in composing "long" songs, as i understand your longest track is "Terrible Cemetery " on the Ep "Terrible Cemetery " that tics in on twenty minutes and twenty seven seconds.Does alcohol help or other "stuff"? hehe 

Arr: It's natural for Ghast. Personally, sitting there playing about on a guitar, it only seems normal to explore the variations that come from a simple riff. Stick 'em together and there will become apparent a feeling for when it should end. Terrible Cemetery was unusual for us in that it was built over a long time. 
I may be wrong, but I believe Myrggh, half-joking, came out with the intro riff when we were standing there, uninspired and that we played it whenever we had nothing to work on. It was our fallback piece of music and gradually took up more of our time as we came to enjoy it, adding and progressing parts until it consumed us and became what it is. 
We were playing it for many months; we were sick of it and recording it so we never had to play it again was bliss! It's not usually like that at all.

Kz- We said "never again" after Terrible Cemetery. It took up such a large space in our rehearsal time that it added up to yet another delay in getting Dread Doom Ruin together. 

Myrggh - I don't know what possessed us to write Terrible Cemetery. It was torturous to play and until the day we recorded it, I was disgusted at myself for coming up with that harrowing ponderous bass line that set us up for twenty-odd minutes of abject gloom. As far as playing it goes, nothing helps, and we have always refused requests to play it live. I do enjoy listening to it though.   

6.Todestrieb Records seems to be a good place to stay! 
Have you been in past involved with other labels that... fuck things up? 

Myrggh - Todestrieb has been loyal beyond our expectations and has been really helpful in finally getting this album off the ground. They also have the best logo I have ever seen for a record label. I can't say I've ever had reason to complain about any record label.

Kz- Todestrieb have stuck by us since 2007, no matter how awkward we might have been.  

7.I must say that your "single" -Club Bearer- is probably the longest single in history hehe! (33:03 min) That damn Ghast weilding the club is creepy! Simple but evil! hehe Did you release it yourselves? On cd only?

Kz-Yes, Club Bearer was a self-release. Limited to 100 copies.

Arr: Our shortest song is on that one! I was stumped with a cover idea for that and so took it literally. In danger of being a mascot, that thing, so I made sure the new one had no ghosts. 

 8.Have played live this year or was the last time at the Festival of Serpents? 
How did that go by the way? 

Myrggh - The last live appearance was at Live Evil. We enjoyed it and it seemed to be appreciated.

Arr: The last one was LiveEvil. I couldn't hear what was happening and all was confusion, but It was good! Quite a few decent bands played on that day and 'twas a fucken great opportunity for us.
 
 9.So now after the fresh record birth is there a full schedule for the rest on this doomed year? 

Myrggh - Now that the album is out, we have all returned to our respective caves and will only stir again when we see fit. 

10.Thanks for your time for this!

 Kz: Beers!