Interview with Ivan Viznitzin from Ghoul c. 2009

Emerging band, Ghoul, are as refreshing to the Sydney scene as a glass of cloudy Lemonade and Tequila on a 'fuck me' hot day. Quoted by a friend recently as 'Jeff Buckley in the future' I personally get the impression of 16-Bit Eno's meeting The Smiths. From the EP, 'A Mouthfull of Gold', and the 3 times I've seen them live, I can tell you, the music is catchy and intelligent. Although Ghoul haven't formed their sound completely in stone, they are progressing in a promising way, un-commercialised, original and honest. I talked to singer, Ivan, about Ghoul and his own musical ideas.

So, Ivan, what do you love about music?

These questions are always the tough ones! If you'd have asked what music do you love, or what gear do you love using I could come up with an answer straight off... What do I love about music? I love it's simplicity and complexity. I love that music can remind me of people or places, I love it because it's essential to driving, to studying, to cooking... anything really. I love it because it's what excites me most and because it challenges me like nothing else.

What kind of music influences you?

Music or compositional techniques that are completely unknown, drumming is the best example... I have no sense of rhythm when it comes to playing the drums, that's why cutting and pasting them is so enjoyable and interesting, I wish I could play...

Lyrics can be poetic, understated and straight to the point, where do you derive your lyrical influences from?

I'm no poet, that's for sure. I love Morrissey and think he's the best, hands down, but my word play doesn't extend past simple alliteration or assonance. I'm not a fan of rhyme, I like repetition, because everything I write is so brief. I like honesty, clarity (but not too much) and I like lyrics that suit a voice. Best example is Jeff Buckley, 'lover love lover loverer vloevleorler come over blah blah,' just read some of his lyrics, they're cringe worthy, but out of his mouth they sound like perfect.
I guess recently, my favourite new lyricist is Matt Beringer from the national, his imagery is incredible, so... American, like Springsteen American. I think a good lyricist needs to be able to convey some part of the background and locale that they're from... or something, a feeling or a sense of being rooted somewhere, in a place or moment. Dave Longstreth is another favourite, that dirty projectors track 'off white flag' - which is basically about having a limp dick - has the best wordplay I've ever heard, 'it's been a while, since I've played the game,' the song is about baseball, but not really. then obscure imagery stuff? or rather more clever imagery? my disco, ohana, shellac, whatever.

But as for writing lyrics... I'm slow, and try avoiding songs about girls, there are only 2 on the album. I hope I cover my inadequacy by phrasing and pronouncing words so they can't be heard.

How do you feel about the way you see your music affecting people? And could you tell me how they have reacted so far to the live show and the E.P?

I don't think we can really tell... the live show is hard to gauge, people are mostly quiet, rarely talking while we play, this is real nice.. you know at first it made us uneasy but I think we've settled into it a bit. If you play sloppy everyone hears, but after a song is finished or we finish the set we get a few little claps... no one going spastic. It's probably that we're not playing music you just want to shout out too. What I really believe is that people are confused... a song might end where they don't expect it, or just end suddenly... I'm not sure. We have good nights and bad nights, like most bands but, the bad outnumbers the good. I'm not just talking playing in a sloppy way... there are times where we don't reward the audience with their patience, stuff like bad set-list choice and bad transitions... or not building on an idea. It's all a learning experience and we're getting better at it, the newer songs seem 

to do the trick... the live show is something that we're constantly working on.

As for the EP? again it's hard to tell. I know for certain that 1300 copies have reached people, over the internet and physically given out at shows. That's more than some established bands get for their debuts, at the time when it was being reviewed everything was fairly positive... apart from my crooning. But we can't sell out a venue and we don't get big supports. 
it's a big ? when it comes to reactions.

The drive to play music can be called obsessive in some, playful in others, where do you gain merit from the art? And how does the song writing process come about?

For me, personally, it's a constant drive to better myself at production. I love the studio, it's where I'm most comfortable. But for the band, song writing is a constant conversation between jamming and recording - just back and forth before we get it right. We wrote about 5 or 6 songs at the beginning of December/January, 3 of which are now on the album, others came from studio sessions or are loops from rehearsals... we're all over the shop.

The best way to think of us is as a sample band, we record audio, cut and paste it together and voila, a song. The whole process is very laboured and convoluted but at the same time so enjoyable, I think for the next album we will all go off and record our own stuff and piece it together later, rather than just jamming in rehearsals or the studio.

The stuff we're working on now is very democratic, more of a 'band' thing than the EP was.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Hopefully playing with the same bunch of people, and maybe some new people.... It would be nice to have a few good releases under our belts too! I guess the most important thing would be to still be passionate about making music and hopefully be better at it...

Favourite Sydney Album Right Now?

Favourite Sydney album right now is The Dead Sea's debut... great, great, great record. Totally under-appreciated band. Their live performance is incredible... one of the very few times I've been transported outside of a room by music. Amazing.

              
Download their first E.P. for free here - http://www.mediafire.com/download/yjnzym1yiyb/A+Mouthful+of+Gold.rar