I Am Ghost . Interview with Steven Juliano and Ronnie Ficarro

interviewer: Laura Schriever . 11/03/2008 . Bremen . Germany . Schlachthof . label: Epitaph.com . url: www.Iamghost.com

I Am Ghost - Pretty People Never Lie

Punk76: May you please introduce yourself shortly for our readers?
Steven: This is Steven Juliano and I sing in I Am Ghost [Gallery: view pics]
Ronnie: I'm Ronnie Ficarro and I play bass in I am Ghost

Punk76: Is this your first time being in europe? How do you like it so far?
Steven: Yeah it's our first time being anywhere near Germany actually.
Ronnie: It's awesome.
Steven: I didn't see lots of Germany until now, the guys were walking around but I've been mostly at the venue setting up stuff so hopefully tonight after the show we're gonna walk around. We have like 7 or 8 German Tour dates so we're going to see a lot more of it.

Punk76: On the Internet I read that you consider your music as „Epicore“. What do you mean by that?
Steven: Well, back in the days we didn't had a Genre that claimed for ourselves, because it seemed like every band was calling themselves „“Emo“ or „Rock“ or „Gothic“ or „Core“. We're not like that, we didn't know what to call ourselves. So we made up a new genre: Epicore. Epic with Core at the end. It makes no real sense but we just called it like that for now.

Punk76: The band got formed in 2004. In 2005 you already had a record deal with Epitaph. How did you made that? Other bands are trying to get signed for years.
Steven: A lot of luck (smils). We worked really hard. We promoted our band very hard, we burned a lot of CD's about 4000 and went out to every punk show and handed them out for free. So, lot of kids started to hear about us because of the local buzz around that area.
Ronnie: Countless hours on the internet. A lot of Myspacing.

Punk76: Are you satisfied with your record label or is there another one which you would like to get signed on?
Steven: Hell, no! We love Epitaph! It is best label in the world!

Punk76: (smiling) You gotta say that, right?
Steven: No, it's true! I was listening to all kinds of Epitaph bands and it was like for sure an influence and this is what I want to do with my life. It's an honour.
Ronnie:Some bands do talk crap about their label but honestly we have no reasons. Epitaph is a label that I've been listening to since the „Punk-O-Rama“ sampler-series came out, which got me into Punkmusic and they're really supportive of their bands and they know we're not like the biggest band right now we're still pretty new and we're trying to get our name out like everybody else and they are trying to watch you grow.. you know, they don't want the quick success but they want to see you grow, rise and blow up and when you're huge, that's cool but they understand that we haven't been a band that long and we just have to take our time and tour.

Punk76: Let's talk about your recent record: „Those we leave behind“. Who had the idea for that title and why did you chose this one?
Steven: We had a few titles. This was the one that I think everyone agreed on. „Those we leave behind“ is about everybody in the band's past with comes with friends, family it could either be that they passed away or you just don't see them anymore. Those we leave behind is kind of like growing up and moving on.. I just said that in another interview, the older you get the more people you loose, which is sad but it's true and that's the main part.

Punk76: Did your outward appearance change through the years? You have a pretty „dark“ image. Did you had that from the beginning on?
Steven: Yeah. I think we've been a little darker at the beginning. We actually wore a little more make up and we've been a little more gothic. Nowadays it's like we still care about our image, we want to look good for the crowd but we're not trying as hard as we need to cause we know the music counts more than the outward appearance.

Punk76: What are in your opinion the differences between your first (Lover's Requiem)and 2nd Album?
Steven: Ronnie, you should answer this
Ronnie: The first record is a great record but I wasn't really a part of it at that point. So the second record to me was amazing. Definetly awesome to get in the studio and just get everything out. The songs were pretty much written before we went in there and we had the awesome idea of like how we wanted things to sound so we just went there and did the best we could.

Punk76: How long have you been in the studio for this record?
Ronnie: We've been in the studio for 47 days.

Punk76: I am amazed, that you know how many days you spend in the studio
Steven: (to Ronnie) You know the exact date? Really?
Ronnie: Yeah, 47 days.

The Silence [Steven Juliano's old band]

Punk76: If you could choose one band to do a worldtour with, which band would you choose and why?
Steven: That's hard...
Ronnie: The Beatles?
Steven: Yeah, I think a good world tour for our genre of music would be with a band like AFI or My Chemical Romance or Avenged Sevenfold. Obviously you want to play with bands where the kids respect you as much as the headliners. We've been on a lot of tours where we didn't really fit in 'cause the headliner is completely different than us.. so they are fun tours, they are amazing experiences and we love the bands but it was really hard for us we almost had to prove us and play harder and faster than we normally could just to prove that we're punkrock or prove that we're hardcore. And now I don't care to prove myself to anybody. I just want to play my music and I just realized in the past I wanted everyone to like us.. I wanted the hardcore kids to like us and the punk kids to like us and now I don't care. I honestly don't give a crap if the crowd hates us as long as there are 5 kids that dig us.. that's all that we could really do. There's no way in hell we're gonna be able to change people's minds about our style. Just play your music and do what you do.

Punk76: Did you ever thought about recording an acoustic song for an album?
Steven: Oh yeah!
Ronnie: We just did our first acoustic performance ever for Buzznet.

Punk76: How was it? I can not really imagine it.
Ronnie: Oh, it was cool! Yeah, we took the songs and changed them a little for the acoustic session. It really shows the song, it's pretty cool.
Steven: We learned from past bands that if you can actually play your songs acoustic and it sounds good, that's a good song. And you're right, first I was like „how are we going to do this?“ we have breakdowns, screamings and so on.. but once, we've torn apart this hardness of the songs we realized these are actually really good songs, like the chorus is catchy and we were a little scared at first 'cause it really shows your vocals, you're not hiding behind anything. Hiding behind the bass and drumsit's just me and the band.

Punk76: But it was a good experience?
Ronnie: Yeaaah! I would want to do it again!
Steven: Yes! I would love to do an acoustic album.. maybe our next one.

Punk76: What do you expect for the show tonight?
Ronnie: To have some fun and to Rock out!
Steven: We've never been here before. It could be really packed, it could be nobody. We've had amazing shows on this tour like Tilburg [Netherlands] and Amsterdam were completely packed and then shows like last night it wasn't packed but we just gotta do that. There are shows that are amazing and and there's dates that suck but the bands just have to get over it. Screw that, fuck it tomorrow's another day. Just keep doing it. I used to get upset like „man, there's noone here“ but now I kinda kick myself and think we've never been here we're across the country right now and if 40 kids show up tonight, that's better than I can ask for.

Punk76: Alright, thanks a lot for the interview!
After doing an interview, I always ask the bands if I'm allowed to take a picture with them. Steven's reaction to my question was: Yeah, of course! You're so polite over here. So cute. So than, we stood up, and asked Tyler (from Blessed By A Broken Heart) to take the picture. Tyler being funny as he is, did only a picture of my body parts between the head and the belly. So after he showed to picture to us and I was like „come on..“ he took a good one. I thanked all of them again and said goodbye. The guys were very charming and polite, Steven is a person you could talk to for hours because he looks you in the face when he's talking to you but he doesn't stare. Ronnie seems a bit more shy but is a very nice person, too.

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