Ghost’s Tobias Forge talked to Rock Talk with Mitch Lafon discussing the importance of the band’s image to their revenues. Read some excerts of the interview:
“I think that the image was tremendously important for the band. However, I think that we never would’ve gotten anywhere if we didn’t have the songs. One thing I am very proud of with regards to the image is that consciously we presented the music first…”
“During my adolescence, and to this day, I loved bands that sounded a certain way, but also had a certain lack of ‘accessibility.’ Bands like Profanatica, bands like Necrowar, bands like that, where you hardly knew what they look like because they’re so clandestine.”
“Back in the pre-internet days, when I got so deeply in love with black and death metal, there was hardly anything to see, you didn’t know what they look like.”
“It’s just black-and-white picture, you’d seen five picture of them, tops. One being on the back of [Mayhem’s 1987 EP] ‘Deathcrush’ – you don’t see him, and it’s like those aesthetics have still a strong impact on me. And that’s something I wanted to do with Ghost.”
“All these hundreds of shows that we’ve made, not making any money whatsoever, the only thing that sustained this band, being able to pay everyone – it’s because of the t-shirts.”
“So, hadn’t it been for the logotype and the aesthetics, we wouldn’t have the brand to sell on t-shirts. We would have never been able to tour.”
