Ghost’s Papa V Perpetua Reveals All To Rolling Stone

Newly anointed frontman of Swedish band Ghost, Papa V Perpetua — aka Tobias Forge — chats about stepping out of character, the death of Ghost and how pop music shaped new album Skeletá

Papa V Perpetua, the newly revealed frontman of the band Ghost is a devilish maestro decked out in macabre face paint — an enigmatic showman assembling an eccentric rock opera with his legion of incognito backing musicians known as the Nameless Ghouls. Ghost revel in grandeur: big theatrics and sprawling songs dealing with the occult, demons and devastation. Running a carousel of dark characters, Ghost anonymously delivered spectacular pyro-clad performances until 2017, when they unravelled the mastermind behind the band as Tobias Forge. Tobias continues to reinvent with every lore-laden album cycle, the music of Ghost combines “old new wave with adult-orientated rock and occultism and a little bit of West End,” Forge tells Rolling Stone UK. The results speak for themselves: a Grammy in 2015 for Best Metal Performance; four Top 10 albums (Prequelle, Impera, Phantomime and Rite Here Rite Now) in the UK; and achieving the highest grossing hard-rock cinema event in North American history with the documentary film Rite Here Rite Now.

Tobias Forge on pop influencing his new music:
“When you make rock records, everything is about how heavy the guitars are and how big the drums sound. In the pop world, it’s different because there are no hard rules. The ensemble in pop doesn’t have to be drums, bass and two guitars. Most of my collaborators work professionally within the pop world. There’s this great marriage that we have where I get to curate a lot of the rock aspects of the music because it’s sort of technically my thing, whereas they are my sparring partners when it comes to the entertainment. Enthuse me! Make my mind [get] blown away.”

Tobias Forge on new album Skeletá:
“I wanted [Skeletá] to become more of an introspective, healing record, a new record that shone a light on the innards of my mind. I’ve mostly described the record as one about being human. Life isn’t always great. There’s a non-deliberate, self-inflicted sense of unhappiness that we have subjected ourselves to because we have somehow got the idea that life is supposed to be 100 per cent positive. Life is, unfortunately, a balancing act where good and bad is a pendulum going back and forth, and that’s something I’m guilty of not intuitively feeling all the time. That is a very natural part of the struggles of being alive, and it’s perfectly fine.”

Tobias Forge on (incorrectly) being tagged a ‘devil worshipper’:
“I’ve learned through practice to [deal with it]. Throughout my Ghost career, there have been annoying misunderstandings and misconceptions about the whole concept of the band, but that plays into the whole concept of what I’m writing about — the clash between realities. If a song is called ‘Satanized’, it’s not about being possessed. ‘Satanized’ is a song about being in love, and how it feels being possessed by a demon, if you’re religious. It’s about being overtaken by this force that makes you unable to control yourself as if there’s some other creature inside of you that’s dictating your body and mind. It is very much like a demonic possession. I’m not talking about Ghost fans, but if people think it’s about actual possession, it’s not a problem unless they get violent. I’m writing songs to entertain you, and if you feel like that song is about something else, that’s cool.”

Self-labelled domesticated family man Tobias Forge on how his everyday life is far removed from the souped-up shows he throws under the guise of his fiendish cosplay counterpart:
“My trick is not to think about it too much because if I do, it feels a little bit daunting at times. The character is fuelled on a quite large degree of spontaneity. If I start thinking too much about who is who, it becomes a little bit of a mindfuck. I choose not to think about it too much so that he will only appear when it’s time to go.”

Tobias Forge on the collective behind Ghost, but his role as key curator:
“If you want to be super pragmatic, I’m technically a solo artist. I don’t have to think in terms of a group, but everybody needs to understand that my job is a group effort. We’re a group working together, but practically, if the label is asking Ghost to make a record, they don’t call a group of people — they will call me because it’s my responsibility. So, as a creator and a writer, I don’t think that there is such a thing as an end until the actual end.”