It seems black is the new... black.

James Broadhurst caught up with The Black Ghosts’ Simon Lord about his latest musical project, what it is like working with a former hip-hop DJ and life after Simian ahead of his Australian tour as part of the Future Music Festival.

The Black Ghosts is made up of former Simian member, Simon Lord, and a former member of The Wiseguys, Theo Keating, and together they make for very entertaining and accessible music that spans across a multitude of styles and boundaries.

Simon Lord and Theo Keating have built their reputations as parts of Simian and The Wiseguys respectively and after about two years together as The Black Ghosts, Australia is about to taste of The Black Ghosts’ distinctively different blend of pop and electro for the first time.

Lord was the front man for Simian before they went mobile with their disco and was part of the massive ‘We Are Your Friends,’ collaboration with Justics, which has since been burnt into any music lovers collective consciousness.

While Lord was fronting up Simian, Keating, aka DJ Touche, was making his presence felt as one half of a British hip-hop and big beat duo in The Wiseguys.

The Wiseguys released two albums and made some very recognisable tunes including the addictive ‘Ooh La La’ and oh-so-catchy ‘Start The Commotion,’ both taken from the duo’s second album.
 
After both experiencing success most of their peers envied in their respective projects the time seemed right to follow a new direction, a new calling and The Black Ghosts was the answer.

So why did a British DJ decide to pair up with someone who has been in bands for a majority of his musical career? The answer to this is simple, because it works.

Lord says the relationship between himself and Keating works because they come from such different backgrounds offering different and helpful alternatives.

“I’ve mainly been in bands and I think that is one reason why the relationship and making music together has really worked. Because we come from different themes, but complement each other quite well in that he thinks about stuff I don’t and vice versa.”

The music these two are creating might not appeal to everyone from a clubbing background and Lord hopes his lyrical content adds a little more than just a backing vocal for the tracks made by The Black Ghosts.

“We have made music that has a foot in both camps. People who are into songs can listen too it and, at the same time, people who into more of the club stuff can listen to it. That’s always a really tricky balance to get right. Electronic music that works in a dance arena and has a decent enough song attached to it to give it a bit of longevity.”

With two people from such different backgrounds and upbringings, with Lord’s father creating synthesisers enabling plants to talk and Keating watching old school horror flicks, you can expect a myriad of tastes and musical styles to emerge from the depths of these two alternatively creative people.

Their musical diversity has enabled Lord and Keating to interpret a lot of different styles and sounds in The Black Ghosts’ previous releases, with every thing from new age electro through to dub step being stripped to pieces and reconstructed how they see fit.

Lord says The Black Ghosts’ music is a representation of what you would expect to hear in a lot of different clubs and pubs around the world, but there is still something binding it all together that gives their material a popular twist.

“There are a lot of different styles and genres, but what really makes it stick together is the song writing and atmosphere of it all. It is all the things you can hear in clubs, all sorts of clubs. So there is electro stuff, some more disco, some more down beat and some more hip hop speeds. There is this whole breadth of electronic music, but then it has all the same sort of songs as well. We didn’t want to write a sort of instrumental thing, but we really wanted to absolutely have a strong song behind it with a pop sensibility.”

There is no doubt music with a strong song behind it has a better chance of making it and breaking it in the realm of popular music, but Lord says people’s ideas and attitudes towards pop music are a little misguided and hopes the direction The Black Ghosts are taking will offer something a little different.

“It was a decision we made when we came up with the name the Black Ghosts because everything did seem to have this dark sort of twist to it. We wanted to write stuff that could work as a pop song, but we didn’t want it to be sugar, bubblegum and all that stuff. I love pop music, but everyone seems to love it in one dimension. It is quite superficial on the surface, especially the lyrics, and I don’t see why you can’t write a pop song that has a dark twist to it so people can like it on a few different levels.”

Their music isn’t the only aspect of their performance that will appeal to audiences from different stables and Lord says the Black Ghosts will be doing their best to deliver their finest material with a few unexpected surprises while down under.

“We’re going to be doing a live show that’s half a DJ and half a live show. So we mix up our own tunes with new edits and remixes we’ve done with other new tunes that we are into. I’ll be doing live vocals and live edits, so we’re going to be playing some new tunes, that are going to be on the album that you won’t have heard, as well as some remixes. We really try to make it like a party, like a really good DJ set, but with our own tunes mixed in.”

With their album due to be released sometime this Winter, The Black Ghosts’ appearance at The Future Music festival signals the beginning of months of hectic touring to celebrate their forthcoming album and share their blend of pop and electro treats with the masses.

“We’re going to get our album out in early summer here in the UK and hopefully it will come out for the rest of the world shortly after and we’re going to be doing a lot of live shows around then. With big festivals and local gigs we’ll be really busy. I’ve heard really good things about the audiences in Australia so I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes. We have both been presently surprised by what we have been able to make and do, so we’re looking forward to seeing what is going to happen this year.”

The Black Ghosts will be playing at Future Music Festival 08 in Perth on Sunday, March 2 at Wellington Square.