Part 1

Name: John Ghost
Members: Jo De Geest, Rob Banken, Wim Segers, Karel Ceulenaere, Lieven Van Pée, Elias Devoldere
Interviewee: Jo De Geest
Nationality: Belgian
Current release: John Ghost's Thin Air . Mirror Land is out October 6th 2023 via sdban.
Recommendations: Dune / The novel by Frank Herbert. I have not seen the movies yet, but I've read the book. It is fantastic! Science fiction, but with great insight into human behavior, the human mind, politics, and more. It's a very exciting book for me with a compelling story, and it is visually strong.
Everywhere at the End of Time by 'The Caretaker.' It's a musical piece with a duration of more than 6 hours that reflects the experience of someone suffering from dementia. It starts with ballroom music from around the 1930s, but it slowly devolves into noise with only a few hints of the music it began with. When you take the time to listen, you can relate very much to the process of losing your mind and thoughts literally. What once was degrades over time. It takes a pretty long time, so you aren't consciously aware of the changes most of the time. It's a very intense listening experience that can affect you deeply.
The films by Andrei Tarkovsky and Béla Tarr.

If you enjoyed this John Ghost interview and would like to stay up to date with the band and their music, visit their official website. They are also on Instagram, and Facebook.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

Eyes open or closed, it depends. No strict thought on that. But I mostly do listen with full attention. When it’s good, the music is difficult to ignore for me.

I tend to hear stories or make visual links. Music triggers fantasy and amplifies certain emotions. You resonate with them, or not (so much). When the connection with the musical piece works well, I can fantasize lively images most of the time. When the music works well, it engages a connection with your unconscious dreamlike mind. If I try to listen consciously, I tend to hear systems and compositional techniques, I guess.

When I create, I also need a bunch of visual ideas to make the music work well. There’s always a story hidden in the music. And the story is a different one for every listener.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience - can one train/learn being an artist?

I discovered guitar playing when I was eight and took lessons with my dad. But I was instantly drawn to making songs or sounds by myself. It was the act of creating things that I found most enjoyable. For me, it's a constant search that never ends.

The searching itself is interesting, and within it lies the value, for me. If something is finished, I am already searching for new things. It's through the searching that one gets better without necessarily knowing it. It's a slow process, so you have to be willing to do it constantly. That could be the most difficult part, I guess: if it feels like 'trying (to achieve something)' too much, a point is missed. Every day you can learn, and for me, it is in the 'doing' that holds the key to improving inside or gaining a greater vocabulary to work with.

If you speak the language well, better ideas will often come because you are more able to express them how you'd really like to. If you create, you're constantly trying to say something. If you search a lot, and you discover new things frequently, ideas will come to you more rapidly and more effortlessly. There's also a point in not caring too much about any language. But from my experience, this also works better if you can decisively ignore a language you're already proficient in.

I think everyone who creates has his/her own niche or method to make the art work. It becomes very personal and gets better if you do it enough. I think it is important to just play, like a child, with not too many goals. Just experiment, and things will come. The value is in the play, just for the sake of playing. That's how children learn a lot of things. An open mind in this process is key: nothing is wrong, everything could work out in a certain way. And if you stick with the problem long enough, the solutions will get more creative. (John Cleese)

Can everyone become an artist? You can learn to see and listen; what you do with it is personal. If you are willing to create, and you manage to keep this 'willingness' alive, you'll create things at a certain point, I guess.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

I was very excited to learn new music, and I was constantly searching for new things. It wasn't that easy to find music that wasn't played on the radio a lot, but along the way, I became more and more interested in post-rock, and I spent a lot of time in music stores, just listening and discovering new things. Even today, I still find myself drawn to the post-rock aesthetic, although it has become more nuanced. Later on, I discovered jazz and went on to study jazz music.

So today, I enjoy mixing those elements in the music of John Ghost. It has carved out its own niche, so I don't think too much about any specific genre. However, I appreciate the dreamy character, the cinematic feel, the interplay of loudness and quietness, the creation of soundscapes, and the combination of improvisation with composition. I also like working with layered melodic and rhythmic phrases. In the end, it's always the overall sound or the complete feeling that is important to me and the band.

Nowadays, my taste is very eclectic and less confined to a particular style. Every style of music can yield great things or work very well (or poorly). It's the way it is presented to the listener or the effective translation of good ideas that are important.

I tend to gravitate towards music with a strong sense of storytelling and styles that stimulate the visual imagination.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

I think the work of John Ghost is grounded in collage. The writing is always a very long process of refining ideas, lots of ideas. The compositions can be quite eclectic at first, but I'm constantly trying to find a story in them.

I believe the key ideas include: image-building, conceptual ideas, many overlapping layers, a cinematic feel, islands of compositional blocks in more improvisational parts, long-spanned pieces of music, thematic melodies that are sometimes approached differently, electronic elements, a mix of live music and production elements, and a focus on rhythmic patterns, among others.

I really enjoy the feeling when something is finished, and it works the way I intended it to. When you create, you're trying to communicate something to the world, and when it works well, it's a truly satisfying feeling. At first, there's always a blank page, nothing, and then suddenly, there's the realization that something you've made or discovered exists. It's the best feeling in the world! Especially when the band kicks in, and the music truly comes alive. Those are usually magical moments.

To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

I believe everything is already there, hanging in the atmosphere. You just have to see it, hear it, catch it, and color it in your own way.

It requires a certain awareness of the things around you. You can find inspiration in many things, including non-musical ones, I think. The next step is trying to define what you like about a specific idea because how you develop or expand upon it can significantly impact the final result. You need to find a way to make it your own.

And when you play in a band, each musician is making it their own. That's the magic of working with people and creating something new together.

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

I agree. The most important thing is the overall sound or feel. That's what resonates with most people. If there are lyrics, and the music doesn't complement those lyrics, usually the concept is weaker, I think. Also, you can play chord progressions or a melody in numerous ways. You can add endless different sounds to them. You can combine different instruments. You can distribute chords among different musicians, etc. The possibilities are endless.

So, in my opinion, it's the combination of all these elements that makes the whole thing strong. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That's what is most appealing in music, I think. There has to be something elusive in a great song. That's what I like.

Our personal sound is often described as cinematic, spacious, and slightly futuristic. There are elements of different music genres in our work. The music is instrumental, layered, and melody is important, as well as a rhythmic approach.