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INTERVIEW: Holy Ghost

10 October 2013 | 1:16 pm | Tony Kingston

As Holy Ghost! set out on a massive world tour in support of the new album, we managed to steal a couple of minutes with the band's Alex Frankel.

HOLY GHOST! have made a habit over the years of making great dance tracks that are beyond passing trends. They get to the very heart of why we love music and touch our most simple, direct, inborn reactions to sound. It seems this habit didn't stop with the release of  their sophomore LP, Dynamics earlier this year.

Once again the NYC based duo, Alex Frankel and Nick Millhiser, have expanded their soundscape on Dynamics and created another disco album filled with plenty of pop sensibility and groove laden beats.

As the duo set out on a massive world tour in support of the new album, we managed to steal a couple of minutes with Frankel, to talk about the highlights of their career so far, the greater DFA Records family and the album of course.

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What were some of the highlights from your recent tour with New Order?

Going on tour with a band you have always admired can be daunting. You think: what if they turn out to be bad people? As it turned out, New Order were not only a great band but amazing people to be around and learn from. Hanging out backstage with them and talking to them about their careers and their history as a band was pretty cool.

The video clip for your single ‘Dumb Disco Ideas’ has a brilliant aesthetic, can you talk us through how it came about?

We always work with the same director, Ben Fries. He’s an old childhood friend of ours. The initial idea was just to have a performance video without a performance. We liked that idea, just to let these light boxes be the performers. Then Ben had the idea to do a time lapse and slow the song down by so many degrees that when we sped up the footage it would sync. The math was insane. None of us are math geniuses, so I’m pretty proud that worked out.

Do either of you have a favourite track off Dynamics?

For me it's 'It Must Be The Weather', but I'm proud of the entire album.

In the '12 Years of DFA: Too Old To Be New, Too New To Be Classic’ mini documentary, you both mentioned that if the label didn’t exist your involvement in music wouldn’t have happened. If this was the case, what would you be doing instead?

Honestly, I'm not sure. DFA really encouraged us along the way. I mean, I would always have a piano and make music no matter what, but probably not professionally without their guidance. So I don’t know, I’m happy that I get to do this.

Your relationships with LCD Soundsystem and James Murphy himself are obviously very tight, can you describe your emotions after you saw the ‘Shut Up And Play The Hits’ film?

I was really proud of them and still am. I was at the MSG concert and that was really emotional. Looking up at the jumbo-tron and seeing our friends up there, I got teary eyed. Watching the concert film a year later reminded me of that night, so I got teary eyed again.

How has your live show changed since we saw you perform at Future Music Festival in 2012?

Well, we’ve learned a bunch of the new songs from Dynamics and that’s really fun, to insert new music into the set. We also have got tighter, I think. The more shows you play, the tighter you get and we’ve certainly played a lot of shows since then.

Who are some of your favourite disco producers / artists in Australia?

The Cut Copy boys are very close friends and we have toured together. We’re big fans of them and the stuff they put out on their label.

Apart from doing your Dynamics world tour, what does the next year hold for Holy Ghost?

Aside from shows with the band which I’m really looking forward to, I assume we’ll get the itch to go back to the studio soon. Nick and I have a hard time sitting still.

Questions by Tony Kingston

Words by Tom Hutchins

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