Ghost cite ABBA as main influence

One of Ghost's Nameless Ghouls says ABBA and The Beatles are the band's biggest influences.

Ghost last year released the If You Have Ghost EP featuring cover versions of tracks by ABBA, Army Of Lovers, Depeche Mode and Roky Erickson.

They have also previously recorded a cover of The Beatles’ Here Comes The Sun.

And the Ghoul says the band are unlikely to ever cover a heavy metal track because it would be too obvious.

The Ghoul tells Alternative Nation: “Covering an artist that sounds similar to your own band doesn’t make any sense. That’s already out there, so why not take another song and paint it with your own colours?

“We listen to all kinds of music. I don’t think we will ever do a heavy metal cover. We love those songs and some of the bands as well. ABBA and The Beatles are probably our biggest influences.”

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl guests on If You Have Ghost and the Ghoul confirms the Nirvana icon deserves his tag of ‘the nicest man in rock.’

He says: “We knew that he was a fan of the band and then we met him at a festival in Europe. We talked to him about doing something together and a couple of months later we found ourselves in LA. He played guitar on some songs. The nicest man in rock they call him. I haven’t met them all but he’s certainly very nice. He’s a very caring person.”

Ghost keep their identities secret, although the true identity of frontman Papa Emeritus II was apparently revealed in July.

On keeping the secret, the Ghoul says: “We try to keep it cool as much as we can otherwise we’ll blow it. It’s kind of easy because we have masks. We sometimes get recognised in the street but that’s the exception rather than the rule.”

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.