Here is interview with THE GHOST I’VE BECOME (Lauri Moilanen – Guitars; Jomi Kyllönen – Vocals) about first full-length album. Welcome!
“Asylum” takes the listener on a journey into the depths of a cracked and broken mind, where a storm of emotions and chaos reigns. This theatrical, powerful and endlessly dynamic album challenges the listener in many ways that are untraditional in the context of metal music, but also offers the familiar and reliable music known from the band’s previous releases.
How did the band form? For people listening to the band for the very first time, what can listeners expect?
The band was founded in 2016 in Oulu, Finland by Lauri Moilanen and Joonas Kanniainen. The goal was to make interesting music that combines the melodies of Finnish heavy music with the compositional elements of Swedish heavy music. This is what you can expect from “Asylum”; Lauri has long been inspired by bands like SWALLOW THE SUN, AMORPHIS, KATATONIA, OPETH, DARK TRANQUILLITY, DRACONIAN…
What was the first impulse to found the band? And why the “melancholy form of metal music?”
The band was born purely out of a desire to make music, it had and has never had a greater ambition. The melancholic way of composing seemed appropriate; perhaps it reflects something of the character of the people who have been involved in this project over the years. From the beginning, our music has been made to reflect a wide range of emotions – although not so much joy and happiness.
What does THE GHOST I’VE BECOME mean? What is the idea behind the band?
I think the name reflects how some people go through difficult periods in their lives when everything seems grey and hopeless. “The Ghost I’ve Become” is one of those little moments where you feel anger, sadness, bitterness, but also some pride in who you are and who you have been. Once I was something, now I’m just a ghost. That’s not true, of course – even the person in the deepest throes of grief is not a ghost. It’s just a feeling.
You have recently released your album “Asylum”. What is the feedback from your audience as well as from the press?
We haven’t received much feedback because we haven’t sent the album out for reviews (there’s no money for that) or to the public. That’s the way this business works nowadays, unfortunately. However, we have been surprised by the number of listeners. Jomi and I did not expect our album to reach thousands of listeners, because we did not invest in marketing it at all. The only thing that mattered to us was that we could get this album, which had been lying unfinished for a long time, released.
The new album seems to me melancholy and scary. Atmosphere of songs is disturbing and frosty. How did the album originate? Where do you get inspiration for themes?
Lauri wrote the songs for “Asylum” between 2018 and 2021, most of them were already finished before 2021.Unfortunately, the Covid-pandemic that started at that time ruined the band‘s cooperation and Joonas, Jaakko and Tommi preferred to focus on their work and family life and other projects. Lauri also started to perform more with his band Leskentuska. So the album sat in a desk drawer for years, until finally, in 2024, Lauri and Jomi decided to make the album together or never make it. So Lauri recorded all the instruments and mixed the album, and it was mastered by Mikko Myllykangas of the band ANTIPOPE (who, by the way, recently released a brilliant new album).
Originally, the spirit of “Asylum” came from Joonas, who wanted Lauri to make music that somehow reflected mental illness. It suited Lauri well, as he works on the history of mental illness and homicide, so he has always drawn a lot of inspiration from that. Music is a key way for him to release the anxiety he feels at work. Over time, “Asylum” also grew into Lauri‘s personal description of what it’s like to live with a tendency towards bipolarity.
So you could say that “Asylum” sounds so icy, scary, melancholic, furious and theatrical because that’s what mental health problems are.
”Asylum”… What is the meaning behind the title?
The name “Asylum” actually has two meanings. In the historical sense, it means a mental health institution. A mental hospital. Although in the 1700s and 1800s, when “asylums” became more common, they could not be referred to as hospitals. Rather, they were detention centres or prisons. Horrible places. On the other hand, “Asylum” refers to a place of refuge in modern language. This is also an interesting idea, because in some ways the only refuge for people with mental problems is usually inside their own heads, when everything else seems threatening and oppressive. This is ironic, because often one’s own head is the worst enemy of the mentally disturbed.
If you were to articulate the philosophy or overarching message behind THE GHOST I’VE BECOME art, what would it be?
Everything is theatre. Man is a social creature whose every interaction is based on how things appear on the surface. Beneath the surface there is turmoil. Beneath the surface there is melancholy, anger, sadness, anxiety, fear, but also beauty and sensitivity. All this confusion of emotions that lies beneath all human interaction sometimes causes terrible things to happen in people’s lives. THE GHOST I’VE BECOME illustrates such themes.
Death metal elements seem to play an important part in your music too.
The elements of death metal and black metal in our music reflect the darkness, evil and the beast in man. That’s why they play such an important role in “Asylum”; those things surround madness.
Finland has given the world many great doom (death) metal bands. What are the relationships between the Finnish bands? But would you say that the Finnish metal scene is over-saturated with bands and that’s why it seems to cling to certain big icons, while completely bands ignoring others?
THE GHOST I’VE BECOME has (so far) never toured, so there are practically no relationships. The Finnish metal scene is fading, and no new big bands have emerged in recent years. It’s partly because making music is so absurd these days (costs are horrendous and many venues closed down during the Covid pandemic), and partly because the Finnish scene has waned.
What do you think of today’s underground metal scene in your country? Any bands catching your attention right now?
Lauri: To be honest, I don’t listen to much metal music anymore. I do listen to the new releases from the big bands like OPETH and SÓLSTAFIR etc, but that’s about it. I tour actively with my other band LESKENTUSKA (black metal, black’n’roll), so that’s where I get to see the metal scene. Unfortunately, it’s in a weak state in Finland – there’s not much youth around, and it’s the youth that should be the driving force behind the subculture.
Please, can you tell me about Finnish metal editors and press? Are there this people strict on new bands? (revies, shows etc.)…
Finnish metal magazines like Kaaoszine, Imperiumi and Inferno are mainly doing business, trying to make money by doing reviews. You have to pay them or you have to know people personally to get things reviewed for them. So, more generally, it illustrates why the Finnish scene is in decline and falling. It’s business, and business has no soul.
Which things, do you think, a band should sacrifice in order to succeed? Have a any plan? Which, do you think, is the ideal way for a band to promote its work?
A band, probably regardless of genre but especially in the metal genre, has to invest a huge amount of time and money, indefinitely, in order to “succeed” today. And even then, “success” means a huge expenditure of money and time. Instead, success for us means that we get to put out music that sounds like us and some people find it and listen to it and get something out of it.
THE GHOST I’VE BECOME has no plan for the future. Lauri may or may not write more music. Personally, he hopes that one day the band could perform live, but that would require enthusiastic people around them – at the moment the project is just Lauri and Jomi.
The ideal way is to put a hell of a lot of money into advertising and pay some marketing companies and then play gigs (although even those don’t really deliver unless you get to play on the bigger stages, which usually require money to get in). Unfortunately, in today’s economic climate, that’s usually pure madness.
Any plans for live shows in Europe with the new material?
There are no plans, as the band currently only has two members.
Thank you very much for your time and interview!
Thank you to yourself and to your readers – we appreciate you immensely!
ALL