Tobias Forge has shared that implementing a ban on phones at recent Ghost shows has been “life-changing”.
The comments come as the Swedish metal band brought their largest ever ‘Skeletour’ concert to the UK this spring, and announced shortly beforehand that they were going to implement the “phone-free” rule to encourage fans to be more interactive with the performances.
There were mixed responses, with some claiming that it makes the performances feel “even more special”, while others criticised it as leading to extensive queues in Birmingham.
Now, though, as the band prepare to kick off the US leg of the tour, the frontman and founder, Tobias Forge, has said that the decision was a success from his point of view, and made a “life-changing” difference towards his mindset towards touring.
“[It’s been a] fucking life-changer. Life-changer for the existence of the band, absolutely,” he said while at a Q&A event at HMV in Manchester (via Blabbermouth). “Just walking off stage [on the] first night was just, like, ‘This has completely changed the entire outlook of how this feels’.
“I think that there are a lot of bands that are looking at this and just, like, ‘OK, so how do we do that too?’”
He also explained that the decision came as he started to notice crowds were getting less involved in the live show as they were too distracted filming it – sharing that it would often feel like there were “18,000 people there and 10,000 phones”.
“They’re not even bouncing anymore. And you’re just like, ‘What is this? What has happened?’” he added. “All of a sudden, the crowd that you’ve seen for 13 years has just got less and less and less engaged in exchange for these phones. What’s that about? What the fuck?
“I came to a point where I was like, ‘I don’t think I wanna do this. If this is how it’s gonna be, I’d rather not do it’… That’s how worthless it became because of the phones. Especially a show like ours.”
Ghost are not the first to opt for a phone-free policy at gigs – last year, Bob Dylan announced a very similar scheme for his UK tour, while Jack White did the same for a run of shows in 2018, and Placebo declared their 2022 gigs to be a “phone-free experience”.
The comments from Forge also come after he told NME about another potential change that could be on the way for Ghost. Speaking as part of an In Conversation interview this spring, the musician explained that there could be an end to the band’s lore on the horizon.
“I think that there might be an end to the storytelling because it’s not productive to have this endless soap opera. If fans need the lore in order to like the band, then that element will probably be over quite soon,” he revealed.
“If there is a way where the music can be enough and remains enjoyable, though, I am just as needy as any other artist in the sense of milestones that I want to achieve. There are still places that I want to play and still things I want to do that will be another feather in my hat. I am very lucky that I’ve been able to achieve many of those things, but there are still levels of success that I want.”
Elsewhere in the same interview, Forge said Ghost are “living proof” that the concept that “rock is dead” is not true, shared the impact that Black Sabbath had on him, and hinted that he may be thinking about a career in film. Check out the interview in full above, or read it here.
The band’s latest album, ‘Skeletá’ arrived in April and was given a four-star from NME – which described it as seeing the band “broaden their musical scope and explore a tapestry of human emotion”.
“While it may not boast the same instant hooks of some earlier albums, the latest offering does instead offer something more substantial,” it read. “Through a rich exploration of genres and a new level of emotional depth, it becomes clear that ‘Skeletá’ was made with a new vision in mind, and comes as the promising start of a new Ghost chapter.”
Since then, Forge has joined Opeth to perform Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ for Swedish royalty, launched a Mother’s Day-inspired dildo (which quickly sold out), and appeared at Black Sabbath’s final live show.
