Interview with Alex Frankel of Holy Ghost!
Published On March 28, 2011 | Concerts, Interviews
Holy Ghost!
After successful tours with the likes of LCD Soundsystem and Chromeo last year, Alex Frankel and Nick Millhiser, the New York future-pop duo known as “Holy Ghost!” are set to release their debut self-titled album on April 12th. As if that wasn’t enough, they are again hitting the road for a big time concert tour with “Cut Copy“. We have no doubt that this tour is going to be crazy! Clearly we aren’t the only ones who feel that way because their show at the Trocadero in Philadelphia this Thursday night is completely sold out! Don’t fret, if you didn’t get a ticket, Independent Philly will be there to cover the show from start to finish. Before playing a series of five shows in five nights starting tomorrow evening in DC, Alex Frankel paused to answer some questions for us.
Independent Philly: Who were your early musical inspirations?
Alex Frankel: Elvis and Michael Jackson. That’s ages 3-6. MJ outlasted Elvis as an influence.
IP: What are you most looking forward to about performing in Philadelphia?
AF: You guys have good food and our friend Dave P lives there and will make sure we do something stupid.
IP: How have you grown musically in the past year?
AF: We’ve regressed mostly. Which i think is a good thing. “Musical development” usually leads to free jazz.
Holy Ghost!
IP: You two have known each other since grade school. What’s one of your fondest memories of each other from childhood?
AF: I liked Nick when he had braces more. I got more girls.
IP: When did you know that the two of you were going to start making music together?
AF: When I played Nick a sweet blues solo in second grade music class he was like, “we should collaborate.” I was like, “yeah, for sure, call my mom, she handles all that.”
Holy Ghost!
IP: Who would win in an arm wrestling contest?
AF: We’re all winners (me).
IP: Where has been your favorite place to perform thus far?
AF: Philly, of course ( pandering).
IP: What ultimately made you decide to change gears from producing hip-hop music as Automato to more of a electro-pop sound with Holy Ghost! ?
AF: We got into old disco records and italo records. There used to be a lot of great cheap record stores in NYC and we just started really getting into that stuff, in no small part becaus James and Tim from DFA we’re leading us in that direction. Plus neither of us rap. Kind of just happened.
IP: What has been your favorite moment touring together?
AF: Actually, my favorite moment is not fit for print, but it involves a woman sketching Nick’s face in Istanbul.
IP: What can fans expect from your self titled album due out next month? Any big collaborations on it?
AF: Bunch of tunes. Michael McDonald’s on it, as well as good buddies Luke Jenner from The Rapture and Chris Glover form Penguin Prison.
IP: Who are you still dying to collaborate with?
AF: Stevie Nicks
IP: Jets or Giants? Yankees or Mets?
AF: Knicks.
IP: Tell us something that would surprise or even shock our readers…
AF: Sometimes we don’t shower for days!
Cut Copy
We can’t wait to see what Alex, Nick, and the guys from Cut Copy have in store for Philadelphia on Thursday night. We know this much, you need to be there!
[Jacob Miller & Bridgette Bonner contributed to this interview]
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