TOBIAS FORGE Is Looking Forward To Expanding GHOST's Live Show: 'I Know That We Can Do So Much Better'

GHOST leader Tobias Forge has told Worcester Magazine in a new interview that he feels that the band's best album has yet to be recorded. He is also looking forward to expanding GHOST's live show beyond what the band was able to present on this year's "Ultimate Tour Named Death".

"I think what we're delivering this fall is really good, but I know that we can do so much better," he said. "Not because of our will, but because of the opportunities, and while I hate to say it, the economy. If we take it a few steps further, I know that in 2021 and 2022, there will be a lot of things that people haven't seen that I've had in mind for years that I hopefully get to accomplish at that point. But I really hope that at the end of that tour in 2023, I hope I have the same feeling of wanting to become better, because if you don't constantly want to get better, then what the [expletive] is the point?"

Earlier in the year, Forge told Revolver that GHOST's latest album, "Prequelle", was "a little ballad heavy" and its follow-up will lean more in the direction of 2015's "Meliora" without repeating the same ideas.

Back in February, Forge told Billboard that he had already been working on music and lyrics for GHOST's next album for "months." But he recently revealed that he has only demoed one track in full so far. He told the "Talking Metal" podcast: "That song was based out of three ideas that I had. That's usually what it takes for me to go into a studio and start hammering it out. I have maybe 50 to 60 ideas lying around, which means, that if I just invest two or three days on piling together three ideas a time. It's almost mathematical."

Forge said that he plans on entering the studio in his hometown of Stockholm in January and spending five months fine-tuning the material before beginning the recording process in June. "It's actually back to quite normal working hours, Monday through Friday, 9 o'clock to 5 o'clock," he said. He explained that he will use a studio close to home, because he wants to spend time with his wife and two kids.

As for the musicians that will be featured on the new GHOST disc, Forge said that none of the members of his live band will make an appearance.

"If I'm not going to ask everyone to do their part, then what's the point?" he said. "I don't want to segregate people. I don't want to favor people. If I'm not asking everyone, then I don't want to ask anyone."

He explained that basically the band members have their own solo careers and are doing other things and he "wants to give them time away from GHOST." He also said that he has musicians he wants to record with, including a favorite drummer that's never toured with the band.

Forge founded GHOST more than a decade ago and has written almost all of the group's music, while also performing for years in costume as first Papa Emeritus and now Cardinal Copia. His real name was a mystery for much of that time and still does not appear on GHOST LPs.

"Prequelle" debuted in June 2018 at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart.

GHOST's current North American tour will wrap up on October 26 in Glens Falls, New York.