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DOWNLOAD: Holy Ghost! - I Will Come Back + Interview

Posted 6/26/2009 9:26 AM by Samuel Duke

Tags: pop, disco

(Photo: Marc Pilaro)

It's been about a year and a half since DFA released the first Holy Ghost! 12", "Hold On," a record that essentially reached disco ubiquity in 2008. Since then, the guys have been busy playing other peoples' records around the world, completing remixes for bands like Phoenix, and working on their debut album, tentatively set for release in 2010. So as not to deprive us for too long of their work, they recently linked up with Green Label Sound to give away this new single, "I Will Come Back". We got HG!'s Nick Millhiser on the phone earlier this week to talk about the making records, playing live, and discovering disco through sampling. Read that conversation after the break.

Sounds like: Michael Jackson, The Juan MacLean, Jacques Renault

Holy Ghost! - I Will Come Back

Previously:

Holy Ghost! - Hold On

Holy Ghost! - Hold On (Instrumental)

Holy Ghost!'s RCRD LBL Page

Holy Ghost! At Green Label Sound

Q&A with Holy Ghost's Nick Millhiser:

How did you guys link up with Green Label Sound?
Well they actually approached us awhile ago, maybe a year ago, to do something, and we were really busy on remixes and slowly working on our own record, and it's just been really hard to take on writing some new songs to give them. Then they started talking with John at DFA about doing it about two months ago, and it just sort of happened at a time when we were finishing our next single. We already had a video, we had already commissioned the remixes, so it sort of seemed like the perfect time to do this sort of thing. I mean, it's definitely a big undertaking as a project, we just already had this thing in the works that fit. It all kind of worked out.

So the track was already planned as a DFA single?
Yea.

And that was going to precede the album that you guys are working on?
Yea.

How much of that is done?
I'd say 75%.

When is it going to be out?
Next year.

On DFA?
Yea.

Were you familiar with the other GLS releases?
A little bit. I became aware of it without really being aware of it. The Flosstradamus thing with Caroline from Chairlift–that poster was everywhere. But it didn't register as a Green Label Sound thing. We had played one of their parties at SXSW, and I was aware of that Matt & Kim release, but I never tied it to Green Label Sound. It wasn't until we started talking that they were like, 'Yea, we did this release and this release.' 'Oh, that was you guys.' So, no, I was aware of it, I knew that it existed, but I wasn't really aware of the releases they'd done specifically.

So, what is your studio setup like?
We use ProTools. But we really use the computer sparingly. We really just use it for recording and editing. Any effects or sounds–keyboards, etc.–is all outboard equipment.

Is the track written before you're in there?
We kind of write into the computer. It's pretty rare–or really never–that one of us 'wrote a song' on a piano. It's more like, "Okay, let's start a song." I'll play drums and then Alex will have...usually one of us has a very vague, simple idea, whether it's a vocal melody, or a synth melody, or a bass line, that's what really starts the song, and then it's just a process of building the track up and adding stuff and then tearing it back down.

I ask mainly because I really feel like your stuff, more so than some of the other DFA stuff, is a bit more song-oriented, not just as a track to play out.
Yea, I mean we definitely always kind of work within pop song structures. We start in this very loose way where we're always sort of approaching things as soon as we start. Like, "Oh this would be a nice part for a verse or this would be a nice part for a chorus." But definitely, the record–as opposed to our remixes, which I think could be closer to a more DFA structuring, sort of loose, meandering, 12" tracks– and "Hold On" and this single are more pop songs in structure. Whether or not they will actually be popular remains to be seen.

Was that classic eighties pop stuff music you grew up on? How did you guys get into that sort of stuff?
I mean definitely meeting James and Tim, Alex and I really got into disco records specifically. We played in a hip-hop band [Automato] and we got into disco records for samples. At the time, basically any record store that had a dollar bin in New York was just a collection of disco records. Disco obviously has lots of breaks that are ideal for sampling. So that's how we started buying disco records, and as you do when you are looking for samples, you actually buy records that you grow to like. But then, really, meeting James and Tim, they exposed us to a ton of dance music and a ton of music in general. And as far as a distinct sound, there's no specific gameplan. There's no goal of trying to sound "old" or "retro" for the sake of sounding "old" or "retro," I just think that the records we gravitate towards sonically are older records. Most of my favorite drum sounds are on records made twenty years ago. So those are the sounds we try and go for.

Is Alex singing on the whole record or are there any guests on the LP?
On "I Will Come Back" our friend Chris, who actually sang backup vocals on "Hold On," he's also done backup vocals on the record. Drop The Lime did backup vocals on a song. But Alex is mainly the only vocalist on the record. Any other vocalists are there for tone of texture.

Are you guys gonna play live when that comes out?
Yea, for sure. We're both dying to play live and come from a live background.

Have you ever done that?
As Holy Ghost?

Yea.
No, we've never done that.

Have you tried even in the studio?
We've done basic planning, and from that realized how much of an undertaking it would be. We both love DJ'ing, for sure, but it's a totally different thing. And as much as we love to play live, it's such a ludicrously expensive undertaking. Having played with The Juan Maclean and stuff, I know what it entails. So, it's just sort of when it makes financial sense to do it. We're not looking to get rich, but there's a specific group of people we want to play in the band and [we want] to pay them well. It's obviously a lot to ask of people to come out on tour as touring musicians and take three months, four months out of your life to play in a band that is effectively not yours. But yea, I think we're gonna start pre-production at the end of the summer. That's the tentative plan. Hopefully we'll start playing live in the fall or winter.

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