Meet GHXST

Brooklyn is rife with electronic music at the moment. Anyone who has stumbled into a Bushwick/Williamsburg hole in the wall some Saturday night is well acquainted with that glitchy and dreamy sound. They’re also well acquainted with the smell of cheap beer and sweat. We salute you, our fellow comrades. 

So how do these bands do it? Who knows. What I DO know is that Brooklyn’s GHXST is doing a helluva job. They even omitted the letter “O” in their name so as not be confused with that Patrick Swayze film. No clay pots were made in the making of their album. 

Anyway, meet GHXST. They’re an industrial post-punk psych-rock electronic goth duo that trades in doom and gloom. Was that enough genres for you? Below, we pick their brains for your enjoyment. Enjoy. 

Would you rather…

be able to jump a hundred feet in the air, or make things move with your mind? What would you do? 

Move things with your mind. Always wanted to perform magic tricks growing up. Or I would pull stray cats out of traffic.

Some Questions with GHXST

What was the last thing you bought that you regret?

Coffee in a single use cup.

If you had to be on one reality TV show which one would it be?

Probably in the background of a Triple D episode.

What was your most memorable performance, and why?

A secret houseparty at our friends’ diy warehouse space called Moon II.  Later we shot our ‘Dead Town’ video there.

How do you translate songs with more electronic instruments to a live performance?

Most of our electronic parts are run through Ableton live and we perform guitars, vox, and sometimes drums over them.

How did you both meet?

We played in a college band in California

If you could go to a bowling alley with any three people, dead or alive, who would they be?

We’re not big bowlers but would shoot pool with Johnny Cash, Virginia Woolf, and Keanu Reeves

Where do you begin when starting to create a new song?

Chris usually starts with a beat and gtrs, and Shelley fills in with melodies and lyrics. Sometimes we jam in the studio and track a bunch of material that we go back to later.

What would you define your sound as?

Dreamy, doom blues

Having several releases since the year 2015 do you notice a change or in how you approach making music?

We actually started GHXST back in 2010 -- we were playing in a goth/noise band before and wanted to try something heavier.  But our sound changes with every record -- we’re both cardinal signs, so we get bored easily.

Do you have a piece of musical gear that you have been really into lately?

A Gretsch parlour acoustic to track ideas when we aren’t in the studio.

Which is better Play-Doh or Silly Puddy? Why?

Silly Puddy has a better texture and you can copy ink with it.

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)

Eat more plant based foods!