We are sitting comfortably at a corner table in the lobby of Seattle’s renowned Edgewater Hotel. The low winter sun drops over Puget Sound as Alexi Murdoch’s ethereal hit, All My Days, wafts softly from the PA. With a high, vaulted wood ceiling, two roaring stone fireplaces and dim lighting emanating from an elk horn chandelier, it feels more like a Canadian hunting lodge than a cosy urban hotel. And save for the two of us, the lobby is empty. The tranquillity is off the goddamned charts.
We’re in the company of Tobias Forge, founder, frontman and all-around visionary of Ghost, and he is well pleased with all this serenity. “I’m a misanthrope,” he laughs. “I like people that I like and I hate others! Ha ha ha! I was like that even before [the pandemic]. If I go to a bar, I want it to be like this, where you can sit and talk.”
Wearing an Iron Maiden raglan baseball shirt and simple black trousers, and with his short, spiky hair, he’s all but anonymous, and certainly aeons away from any of his colourful onstage alter egos. In view of the surging pandemic, when his manager introduced us a few moments ago, we forwent handshakes and instead awkwardly waved to each other from two feet apart. It was the perfect ice-breaker, as neither of us could avoid laughing at the absurdity of the moment. Tobias is exceedingly friendly, he listens intently, and he is at all times highly courteous. This will be his only in-person interview of this tour, and so he’s graciously allotted a generous amount of time for us. Which is ace, because we’ve got a hell of a lot to cover.
Last night, Ghost kicked off their first tour in more than two years in Reno, Nevada – a 26-date co-headlining run with Volbeat, supported by
