More than often, what you see, or what we've been able to recreate, has usually been a tampered-with version of what I have in my head, because the original idea has always been bigger. Every time I am in the mode of creating a show, there's always some level of gravity that comes in play, either of a monetary sort, or there's a space issue.
When you have a fruitful relationship with someone, and you've both chosen to work together, then it can spawn really good things.
I wasn't letting people in with the music writing process, and for a long time, I thought I was hard to work with.
It's always ideal if the production that you're taking out on tour is the one that you spent two weeks rehearsing with, and you just do the same show thirty nights in a row.
Artistically, or just performance-wise, I love playing arenas. I think that is my favorite form, because it's big enough to feel like a big, grand show.
I do believe in the idea of a historic person named Jesus that was a kind of chill dude who was just telling people to chill and be nice to each other. And he got penalized for that.
The belief in something bigger and supernatural is not the same thing as linear religion.
I was told before that one of the hardest jumps to do, painlessly, is the one from playing clubs into playing arenas. I am completely aware of that now.
I love playing arenas; it's the best thing.
From my point of view, a lot of the things that we've done over our entire career have always been a big failure because it was never the way that I planned it. But then there's always upsides with it that turn out to be better or greater than the original plan.
I am an old-school guitar player. I'm not an '80s-'90s sort of shredder who plays a million notes a minute. I am way more '60s-'70s kind of style, and I write very '60s-'70s.
You need to have spent your time from playing Top 40 pop rock in order to know how to play a song like 'Ritual,' a song like 'Absolution' or 'Idolatrine.' You need to know your classic drumming and your classic guitar.
I always hate starting tours, especially when it coincides with an album coming out.
If we see someone, an artist who just does magnificent art, and especially if they're already doing Ghost-related art, we just reach out and start collaborating. But when it comes to the record sleeves and the tour posters, I'm usually quite particular.
Since I remember still very clearly what it was like not being popular or in a successful band, I know that things go up and down, and you cannot expect this to be on the same trajectory forever. It won't be. Because even if you get to be the biggest band in the world, it's gonna change.
I am not a big artist myself. I am, I guess, a somewhat successful songwriter now, but I think that my value is Ghost and my writing via Ghost.
It would have been easy to try to make 'Opus Eponymous II' and just stick with a routine. But it just felt like, if this is going to go anywhere, we need to take big steps every time.
I don't want to do Ghost as a normal, unmasked band standing around in, like, denim jackets. That was never the plan, regardless of whether people knew who I was or what size shoe I wear.
My ability maps my own writing. I haven't spent a whole lot of time biting licks from the really quick masters. That's why I'm not very good at that sort of super-fast, shreddy sweeping. So I've never considered myself a traditionally good, fast-playing guitarist.
