The Ghost Inside

It's been almost one year since The Ghost Inside released third studio album 'Get What You Give', their debut on Epitaph Records. In the country soon to headline the upcoming Destroy Music national tour, Killyourstereo.com chats to frontman Jonathan Vigil to discuss Australia, life on the road and why the band are now associated with the LA Kings.

Last time we spoke to you, you guys had just put out your third album, 'Get What You Give', what's been the experience like since you put out that album? It was your debut on Epitaph and obviously you've been doing a lot of hard touring for the album, what's been the general vibe been like?

Yeah, it's been a bit of fresh air for our band. I don't want to say it's been a “new start”, but it's definitely been a turning point. With putting the album out on Epitaph and touring for it, I think it's the strongest our band's ever been. We're all very proud of the album and excited, we all love playing the new songs. Couldn't be happier.

The Ghost Inside will be touring Australia this month and next month headlining the Destroy Music tour, you were last here in September touring with The Amity Affliction and Architects. You guys have become fairly frequent visitors here, does it feel that way?

Oh, definitely. Ever since the first time we came to Australia it's felt like a second home to us so we always make a point to come back whenever we can. We've been on a lot of really cool support tours and those shows are always insane. It's definitely time for us to come back and headline and play the songs that fans want to hear that we can 't play on support slots.

This is your first time headlining here?

Well, more or less. We did a really small headline tour our first time over, I wouldn't really call it a real “headlining tour” though, I don't think we even played everywhere. We're definitely excited to make our first “proper” headline Australian tour with this tour.

Right on. You're touring with Emmure from the US, as well as Antagonist AD from New Zealand and Hand of Mercy from here so there's that slight international spin. Do you guys know any of the bands, are you friends with any?

Yeah, we're actually friends with all those bands. We toured with Parkway Drive and Antagonist were on the tour in New Zealand and they were awesome dudes, and we've played with Hand of Mercy in Australia, just club shows. They're awesome dudes too, and we're excited to tour with them for sure. We've done a few tours in the States with Emmure and, yeah, it's gonna be a good tour. It's a good lineup, and I think it's enough different genres to make the tour appealing to a lot of kids without making it weird.

Sure, it's definitely a bit of a mixed bag. So, you're a bit of a hockey fan, a bit of an LA Kings fantatic, so much so that the Kings actually used one of the band's new songs, “White Light” from the new album as their warm-up song for Round 1 Game 1 the other night.

[Laughs] Yeah! That was pretty insane. When I first found out I was kind of blown away that it was really happening, that it might have been a joke, someone had photoshopped a tweet or something, you know? But yeah, it's obviously no secret that I'm a huge LA Kings fan, I go to games all the time when I'm home. It's really cool to know that our band was played at the Staples centre where they play and the fact that they cared enough to make a point that it was our band was really cool and I don't think I'm ever going to forget it. Definitely one of the coolest thing that's ever happened to me.

You guys seem to follow a pretty relentless touring schedule. Next year will be your tenth year as a band – do you get tired of having to keep up such a rigorous schedule and spending the amount of time you do on the road?

It has its ups and downs, definitely. There's times when you're sick of it and just want to go home and just have a normal life, and then there's times when you're on top of the world and just don't want to do anything other than play shows. I think you need to be on tour to appreciate home, and you need to be home to appreciate being on tour. We try and find the right balance, to push ourselves to be on the road as much as we can but not get burnt out where we're sick of each other and sick of playing shows. You've definitely got to have that balance. You can't dediate your life to something then get burnt out on it because you're just going to give up and quit.

Sure. So apart from this upcoming tour, what's the rest of 2013 hold for The Ghost Inside?

Nothing is really set in stone yet but I think we're just going to try and write some new songs. Hopefully before the year is done we'll have locked in some studio time and recorded a new album, but nothing's really for sure just yet.

Well we're all looking forward to catching you guys on this tour. Have a good one.

Thanks. Take care.

The Ghost Inside will play a run of headline shows in Australia this May/June as part of the Destroy Music tour alongside Emmure, Antagonist AD and Hand of Mercy. Check here for full dates and details. 'Get What You Give' is available now via Epitaph.