London band Ghouls have been making a name for themselves as of late having announced a European Tour last month that starts on 20th July in Belgium. They also recently played a small ‘unofficial’ set at 2000 Trees. Despite their set wasn’t official on the line up, it pulled together plenty of fans to enjoy a beer and listen to some really refreshing music. The lads released their EP Great Expectations Pt.2 a year ago yesterday actually which is songs added to the EP that was released in October. You can listen to Ghouls
I caught up with Ghouls after going to 2000 Trees and the guys talked about the festival, European Tour, fans and much more!
So you guys recently played 2000 Trees, how did you find it?
Well we weren’t part of the official line up this year but we were asked by the guys who run Camp Reuben if we could play an acoustic set on the Saturday morning, and seeing as we were all going anyway, it made sense to do it. It was really cool, a lot more people showed up than we thought would. It was definitely a good way to start the day and (sort of) kick off our summer.
Are you looking forward to the European Tour with Summers of Eat Defeat?
Very much so. It’s been a while since we did a proper tour where we actually go away for more than a few days and mainland Europe seems to always end up with unexpected adventures as well as great shows. We’re headed to a few new places this time so it should be cool to see how those shows go.
What’s it like being part of an up and coming band like yourselves?
Doing this is what we thrive off in life and its what we want to spend our time doing so naturally we wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. It obviously comes with its cons but the pros always outweigh them. Things definitely feel very exciting at the moment, we have spent a lot of time working on new music which is coming very soon and its going to be amazing to start the cycle of releasing it and see where it takes us.
What would you say to your fans that go to gigs and listen your music?
Thank you for everything so far. At 2000 trees this weekend I looked about the tent and noticed a lot of people were watching us and asked if they’d showed up because they knew about us or if they were just seeing what all the noise was about – I was answered by somebody heckling “of course we know who you are”. It’s crazy to me that people show up, listen to our music and sing words to our songs, so yeah – “thank you, and please keep coming to shows and supporting our band, it means everything to us”.
What music inspires you guys?
Musically we are inspired by all types of music from all over the spectrum. As a band we’ve never tied ourselves to a genre or confined our music to a certain sound and its great because we can throw a lot of influences into our music. At the moment I’ve been really inspired by whats going on in hip-hop, artists like Chance The Rapper, Kendrick Lamar etc just changing the game. I think anybody who is making music that is new and doesn’t conform to the “commercial norm” is the most inspirational and definitely something we aim to do with our music.
Where would you like to see yourselves in 5 years time?
The beauty of our band, and of us as people, is we’ve never let anything get in the way of things we want to do. When we set out to do things as a band, we just find the ways and means of making them work and then go and do them. We’ve always been very DIY in what we do and I think thats the best way of getting to do the things you want. So I guess, in 5 years time I hope we’re still doing what we’re doing and making those things happen. Whether its at the level we’re at now or with even more people taking an interest in what we do, either way: travelling, touring, making music and just having a great time whilst doing it.
Have you got any plans for new music this year?
Yes…