GHOST's TOBIAS FORGE: 'I'm Really Working Hard For Us To Play Arenas Everywhere'

GHOST recently embarked on a fall North American tour, which will see the Swedish band headlining arenas for the first time in the U.S. and Canada on select dates. Asked in a new interview with the KLAQ radio station if the GHOST stage production will grow in size as the band works its way to larger venues, GHOST leader Tobias Forge said (hear audio below): "Oh, of course, they will grow bigger and bigger. And a lot of the things that we are doing, or not doing, is definitely dictated by monetary means — of course; absolutely. And that is also why I am constantly working towards coming to a point where we could basically guarantee any audience that we will put on the same show anywhere. Which is another way to say that I'm really working hard for us to play arenas everywhere. Because when you're an arena band, unless it's your last arena tour and you're just about to be demoted, usually a show like that will enable you to have a stage, it gives you the size, and it usually also provides some monetary means to give you the funds to do a lot more. And one thing that we cannot do in most of these theaters and that's why we're not doing it on a regular, every-night basis is pyro. Which is something that really annoys the shit out of me, because I really love doing pyro. It really works, it's really good for the vibe, and we can't do that in most theaters. So for us to have a pyro crew of two people with big boxes of bombs with us on tour, that would be a waste of money. But on the arena shows, we're flying them in. And I want people everywhere to feel that they're not getting shortchanged. But it's just the nature of the beast — you can't do it everywhere. But step by step, slowly, slowly, we are taking steps… And the theater shows now are really, really big — the production that we're bringing is really huge… That's the beauty of arenas — you have the space, and you can rig everything and you can blow stuff up; big concrete floor. It's usually not as charming as an old theater, but the show will be better."

Forge, who fronts GHOST as a character known as Cardinal Copia, was also asked if there is anything from the band's original presentation that he wouldn't want to lose as the group's concerts get bigger and bigger. "One thing that I'm looking forward to is having a pope back in the lead," he said. "Technically, we do have… Because Cardinal Copia is not the leader yet; he's working his way up. And I'm definitely also looking forward to him possibly becoming the real deal. I also miss the skull-painted pope figure… I'm okay with the Cardinal — I think he's cool — and I guess that's the idea when you have a protagonist villain; he's a lot of those things that you're not, and I regard him the same way — he is a lot of the things that I guess I wish I was… We differ quite a lot, him and I. But I'm definitely looking forward to, in the future, where he could also have his additional papal robes. And I think that, given the right production setting, there's definitely a lot of things that we can do that will be even more theatrical, more gags and more things changing. That's also the part that sometimes is a little bit hard working with a two-hour show — to try to get the stage to appear in different ways. So there's a lot of things like that that I'm looking forward to exploring in the future. You'll see."

GHOST's North American fall tour will wrap on December 15 in Brooklyn, New York.

The band's latest album, "Prequelle", debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and features the chart-topping rock single "Rats".