Although some of us may recall a time when e-mail did not exist,
many 21st-century world citizens simply couldn’t get by without it.
And the forthcoming debut album by Former Ghosts probably couldn’t
have been made without e-mail.
The songs on Fleurs primarily were created by its three
members while they lived and worked in different cities. These
experimental electronic compositions were created by digital
collaboration, said singer, songwriter and synthesizer player Freddy
Ruppert.
Ruppert, formerly of the project This Song Is a Mess but So Am I,
fronts the trio. He has teamed up with Jamie Stewart (of Xiu Xiu), who
lives in Durham, N.C., and singer Nika Roza (of Zola Jesus), who’s
located in Madison, Wis.
“It’s been tough, because we all have conflicting schedules and
stuff,” Ruppert said during a phone interview from his home in Los
Angeles. “But we basically use the Internet to communicate and to write
songs together, sending sound files and e-mails back and forth. It’s
really made everything work out well.”
Fleurs is scheduled to be released Oct. 20, and Former Ghosts
are taking to the road to promote it. The second performance of their
first tour is Saturday, Oct. 3, at Solar Culture Gallery.
“With Nika, I’m just a really huge fan of her project Zola Jesus,”
Ruppert said. “And I had contacted her to sing one song on this record.
So when she sent the song back to me, I was blown away, and I just had
to ask her to be in the band.”
Ruppert’s known Stewart for several years, and This Song Is a Mess
but So Am I released a split 7-inch single with Xiu Xiu. This Song Is a
Mess also has toured with Xiu Xiu, he said.
“We played Tucson on that tour. I remember it was at Solar Culture.
… That’s a good place, too, but the biggest thing I remember about it
was the train going by outside, and sort of interrupting but sort of
punctuating the music. I definitely like playing that venue.”
After moving away from the noisy catharsis of This Song Is a Mess,
through which Ruppert vented the pain of his mother’s death from
cancer, he was thinking about a new project. Something in a synth-pop
vein appealed to his sensibilities, and he knew Stewart shared his
passion for music.
“We are both really into the early OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the
Dark) records and the first couple of New Order records. For me and
Jamie, OMD is probably the biggest influence, and especially their
records Architecture and Morality and Dazzle Ships are
big inspirations. Those two have always blown me away.”
The songs on Fleurs do not, however, sound much like OMD or
New Order. Vacillating between melody and dissonance, the tunes are
definitely contemporary—lulling and dark, both assaultive and
hypnotic, focusing on percussion and a hazy mood. Ruppert’s low vocals
slouch, rattle and crawl through the mix. It’s an unsettling aesthetic,
but lovely all the same.
“We definitely did not want to make it sound too much like a retro
synth-pop project. We wanted to keep it sounding like it comes from
today,” Ruppert said.
Some listeners, when they let their guard down, may end up thinking
of acts such as This Mortal Coil, Nurse With Wound or Current 93 when
they hear Fleurs.
“I love those bands! In fact, I just did an interview with an online
zine, and the interviewer asked me what my favorite sad record was, and
I said This Mortal Coil’s It’ll End in Tears. Jamie’s also a big
fan of those bands.”
Some of Ruppert’s songs are sad as well. He explores lyrical themes
such as heartbreak, death, love, need and desire. But there is also a
sense of hopefulness.
“It’s true to say a lot of Fleurs is personal and
autobiographical. As a whole, the songs come out of the fear of losing
love, and hope for how to make it last in spite of the pain and
heartache.
“At the time of writing those songs, the hopefulness came from the
fact that I was going through a very tumultuous period in a
relationship, so it had to have some hope for the future. They
are love songs, but not in the traditional sense that they are
happy and carefree-sounding. They are love songs in the fact that they
reflect the ups and downs of love, and the hope that it becomes
better.”
The current tour will feature Ruppert and Stewart, but
unfortunately, Roza will not be performing at most of the gigs. Roza is
in college, he explained. “She’s taking like 18 units or something
outrageous like that this semester, so she won’t be on this tour. But
she might take a break to play a few dates with us when we go through
the Midwest.”
A couple of the songs on which Roza sings lead will be left out of
the live sets, and Stewart will take on her parts on others in which
she sings backup vocals, Ruppert said.
While only Ruppert and Stewart will take the stage, don’t expect
much in the way of canned music. They like to keep it live and
immediate.
“There will be a drum machine, and we’ll also be playing beats on
our synthesizers. We will both be playing live synth stuff rather than
having things that are pre-recorded. Jamie also plays snare drums and a
little percussion. You know how technology is these days—we can
still make it sound pretty full in a live setting even with just a
couple of musicians.”
The trio is already making plans for a second album, Ruppert
added.
“Basically, I am at home recording demos all the time, so already, I
am starting to gather material. Right now, the three of us are trying
to work out a time when we can get together and work on songs and
record in the same room at the same time.”
This article appears in Oct 1-7, 2009.