WHISPERS IN THE SHADOW Whispers In The Shadow has made another excellent album with ‘Ghosts’, one full of tormented guitars, dark synths and distinctively harder than usual. A ‘combination of psychedlic post-rock with gothic bombast’, colleague Kurt called it in his review. We thought the CD was so intriguing that we went to frontman Ashley Dayour with a number of questions. Hi Ashley. Congratulations on your new album ‘Ghosts’. I think it is an outstanding work, maybe even your best work to date. You have announced it as the heaviest sounding Whisper In The Shadow album ever, but I beg to disagree. I think it is more psychedelic than ever, reminding me of the ‘goth floyd’ moniker you earned in the past. What are your thoughts on that? Thanks a lot for the kind words. It seems we hit a nail with this album. People really seem to appreciate what we created. I’m not sure if it is our best. After 11 albums, it’s impossible to say which one is the best, at least for me.They differ a lot and are hard to compare anyway. But it might be among the better albums indeed, yes. Certainly, the most interesting in terms of sound and atmosphere. That fills me with a certain satisfaction especially this late in our career.People calling the latest album the best is not something you hear very often, when a band is around for 27 years. But I have to disagree with your main point. ‘Ghosts’ certainly is our heaviest album to date because which one of the other albums is heavier than it? About the psychedelic atmosphere, you are not wrong. Almost all the music I ever created has a certain psychedelic undertone. Sometimes more sometimes less. But I try to explore different kinds of psychedelics. That ‘goth floyd’ tag came around the time of our fourth Album ‘Permanent Illusion’, and it was very fitting at the time but I don’t hear a lot of Floyd in Ghosts to be honest. But it’s fine, there are worse things in life than being called the Pink Floyd of gothic rock. I can certainly live with that. Guitars have always been prominent in your work. But here, the guitars sound deeper and more tormented, a bit grungier, than in the past. The keyboards by your co-producer Martin ‘Acid’Gutmann add a sinister touch. Was there a conscious decision to focus on this sound for the album? www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be - 12 - Yes, it was a conscious decision pretty much from the start. The guitars are down tuned to drop C to make it sound deeper and heavier and we used some pretty rough sounding distortion pedals which were the key to these kind of guitar tones. Combined with this ‘dark wave’ meets ‘hauntology’ synth sounds it creates the sound design of the new album. It took some time and experimentation until we found the right balance though. But I think it works pretty well. ‘Ghosts’ is the first new album after the ‘Gilding The Lily’ compilation that provided us with an overview of your entire career, lasting for over 25 years. How do you start composing again after such a milestone? Simple, I sit down and start to write until I have ideas that sound and feel good enough to develop them further. The hardest part is always to have an overall idea where to go and to find out what sounds, effects etc. are needed to get there. The actual writing is not the hardest part because once the gates are open and the vision is set, the ideas usually come floating in. To open these gates is sometimes hard, especially after all this time. But again, in the end I just have to sit down and write until it works. It is as simple as that. I know there are writers who need to be in a certain mood or even need to have the right environment. Fortunately, I don’t need all that to be creative. It makes it all easier.The only thing I need is a vision and a plan of how to fulfill it. Should we talk about the lyrics? They seem to be particularly deep, even by your standards. I noticed many references to ghosts, which makes me think that it is about several types of illusions that people use to be able to live, or illusions that they struggle with. Is there an overarching theme again, as on many of your earlier records? Thanks again. The album is not a concept album as such. There is no story but of course there are main themes. Thematically, ‘Ghosts’ is a journey into the Abyss, a trip through human and inhuman abysses. A communion with shadows and spirits. Both social and personal. Demons such as addiction (‘A Haunting’), paranoia (‘Ghost Loop Remedy’), self-righteous ignorance (‘Totems Of Decline’) and chauvinism (‘Harpies’) are summoned. At the end there is the journey into and through the Abyss (‘Majesty&Torment’), the confrontation with fear
13 Publizr Home