(PR) The new album from Simian's Simon Lord and The Wiseguys' Theo Keating, recording together as The Black Ghosts (out July 8th), is an eerily melodramatic affair but some undeniably ominous credentials back up The Black Ghosts' tales of modern gothic romance.Theo's godfather directed Hammer House of Horror movies, which exposed him to their supernatural charms from a very early age. Simon, too, experienced a disquieting form of bohemia during his easily-influenced years. His grandmother, Madeleine Dring, was a music hall satirist and was considered a psychic.
Aside from youthful contact with the occult both Theo & Simon's childhoods were steeped in music. Theo was a vinyl junky for as long as he could remember, by the age of 12 he had immersed himself in the world of Hip-Hop and by 16 he was an accomplished DJ. Meanwhile, Simon's grandfather was part of the London Symphony Orchestra's woodwind section.
"He played the oboe on the Star Wars theme" says Simon, "which meant absolutely nothing at the time, and on various Beatles tracks, including A Day in the Life, which he also just wrote off as 'some rock thing'. Simon's father, however, had a more progressive attitude to sound, building synthesizers that translated plants' electrical fields into sound and creating a white noise dream machine for his children.
Current activity has seen Theo & Simon taking their mercurial two-man decks, FX and vocal set-up on the road to a rapturous reception during both their Australian tour and SXSW shows. Their recent 'Mixtape' compilation, which offered an early glimpse into their collective psyche, established their ghetto-gothic aesthetic, simultaneously setting dance-floors and minds alight, whilst future single 'Repetition', featuring a very mysterious and exciting guest vocalist is lined up to soundtrack the summer.
Tour Dates:
7/19 - Brooklyn, NY @ Studio B
7/22 - Toronto, ON @ Wrong Bar
7/24 - Chicago, IL @ Smart Bar
7/25 - San Francisco, CA @ Mighty
7/26 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
7/27 – Los Angeles, CA @ Turntable Lab (Album Release Party) * Black Ghosts Will Not Be Playing *