There is no doubt that we here at RS love us some Holy Ghost! Rarely will you see a Businessman set that doesn’t feature a HG remix or original track. Last week folks here in Austin got to see them in action as a live band opening for LCD Soundsystem and everyone I talked to was pretty impressed. We got the opportunity to hang with the guys after the show and Nick was nice enough to answer a few of our questions.
RS: So you guys have known each other for a pretty long time now right? Can you give our readers a little history on your musical background together?
HG: Yeah, Alex and I have known each other since we were 7 or so and started playing music together shortly thereafter. Our first “serious” band together was the group that eventually became Automato which we formed with 4 other friends around age 16 and that lasted until we were all about 22. We basically started working on what became Holy Ghost! right after that.
RS: How exactly did you get involved with James and DFA?
HG: James and Tim produced the Automato LP. When that band fell apart shortly after we released said LP we had formed a strong friendship bonded together by buffalo wings and xBox and remained friends. When we made “Hold On” James, Tim and Jon said “we’re going to put this out” and we said, “okay.” That was basically our signing meeting.
RS: What has been your favorite/least favorite part of making the transition into a live band?
HG: The best part has just been playing again. Alex and I both grew up playing in bands but hadn’t really played it one of our own for a long time so it’s something we had missed/had been looking forward to doing for a long time.
For me, personally, and being perhaps embarrassingly honest, the worst part has been the nerves. I hadn’t played drums in a really long time prior to starting to rehearse for this tour and I was really never supposed to be the drummer for this band. I love playing drums and I’ve played drums since I was 7 years old, but our friend Jerry was always supposed to be the drummer for Holy Ghost! Putting the band together has been a daunting undertaking in a bunch of ways, but that’s been the biggest thing for me and I’m still not where I want to be which sucks and as a result I’ve been getting nervous before shows which doesn’t help my playing at all. I’ve been playing in bands since I was prepubescent and I’ve never ever been the nervous type so being nervous a new experience for me. It actually took me a few shows to even recognize what I was feeling because it was so foreign to me. I’d be thinking, “am I getting sick? I don’t feel so good.” It sucks. I hate it.
RS: For all the gear heads, whats your go to mic and synth when recording and on stage?
HG: In the studio I would say the synth that gets used most is our modular. It’s been used heavily on everything we’ve done since I started putting it together. It’s just capable of doing such an amazing variety of stuff and it’s a really enjoyable instrument to play. In addition, Gavin Russom of solo and LCD fame built me a module for it that – if I may be so bold as to say we have anything resembling “signature sound” – is responsible for our “signature sound” (which is really HIS signature sound). Without getting too nerdy, it basically allows you to modulate anything – a filter, an amplifier, whatever – from any audio signal. So, I can, for example, program a weird kick drum pattern and have that modulate a filter in tempo to the track. I can tell that readers are falling asleep by now, but the synth lead and bassline on “Hold On,” the climbing synth line on the Friendly Fires cover, all the synths on the Monarchy remix, the LCD remix, etc., were all made with that module. Gavin calls it “The Sound Strobe.” And it rules. And he rules.
Our go to studio mic would be a Neumann TLM193 which we use for tons of stuff – all of Alex’s vocals, kick, snare, guitar, percussion, whatever. It’s great. It’s James’ go to mic too and he probably has, like, 10 of them. It’s one of hundreds of techniques we’ve stolen from him.
Live, for synths Dave Smith Instruments really saved the day for us. We had been trying a bunch of different stuff for bass and our main synth rig and nothing was sounding great and at the last minute they hooked us up with a bunch of Tetras and their new Mopho keyboards and I can’t say enough about how great they are. They sound awesome, have memory, are relatively inexpensive and weigh nothing. We’re still trying to figure out the ideal mics for live, but I want Alex to try a Sennheiser 421 for his vocals on the next run.
RS: Who all is joining you in the band and what are their roles exactly?
HG: To start it’s our buddies Chris and Erik. Chris plays guitar, sings backup vocals and mans the bass synth, while Erik has the unfortunate task of handling 90% of all the synth stuff. They’re both awesome dudes and great players. We will definitely be adding additional players as soon as we can afford to do so.
RS: The EP has been playing non-stop here at the RS headquarters. When can we expect the full length to be out?
HG: January?
RS: You guys have Michael MacDonald on a track correct? How did you pull that one?
HG: A friend of ours’ father was his bass player. We had her ask him for us and, much to our surprise, he said yes and recorded his parts at his studio in a couple of hours. He sounds amazing.
RS: Will you be slowing down on the remixes now that you’re touring and working on your own tracks? Also can we expect more remixes of your material by other artists?
HG: We probably should slow down as we haven’t had a day off in months (and, as it stands, won’t have one until september) but we took a long break from remixes in order to focus on rehearsing for the LCD/live tour and we both kind of missed doing them so we’ve started back up again. Hence the LCD, Monarchy and upcoming Mark Ronson mixes. We might do one for our friends Midnight Magic if we can find the time.
RS: You guys have been to Austin multiple times now, what is your opinion on the scene here and the city as a whole?
HG: We love Austin, in large part because we’ve made some wonderful friends there. Le and Thomas Popov, Ian Orth… Austin is probably my second favorite city in the US.
RS: Last but not least, who is the better dancer between the two of you?
HG: Nancy.
? It’s really strange that they released this single, And then simultaneously broke up. In a way, its so magical. Listen to the words. 
nada whole lot right now, but we are working on it hard for you
