Progressive metalcore quartet Ghost Iris are gearing up to tour the UK and Europe throughout March and April in support of their third full-length album Apple Of Discord. We caught up with the band ahead of the dates to hear their top tips and stories from the road.
Favourite thing about touring:
Getting to visit new places and meeting new people. We’re always humbled when people talk to us about the importance of our music in their lives. We’ve seen lots of places that we’d never have seen if it wasn’t for the band.
Least favourite thing about touring:
Lack of sleep and sloppy food. You get used to though.
Five essentials for the road:
Phone, deodorant, football, carrots, hummus.
Your favourite way to pass the time:
We play lots of ball to pass time at venues. Love it when fans come by and join in.
“The Most”
Memorable moment:
We played a sold out show in a 250 capacity venue in Guangzhou (China) and people were all over us after that show. We felt like Metallica. People were almost fighting about who would get to take the next picture with us, and fighting over who would get to buy us drinks.
Hilarious moment:
Too many to list one, honestly. We laugh out loud on the daily on the road. We don’t take ourselves too seriously.
Embarrassing moment:
When you start touring and you play those inevitable “play to no one”-shows. They are embarrassing.
Outrageous moment:
Our van once broke down on the highway in the UK driving maybe 130 km/h. Suddenly all of the electronics in the car just went out, the accelerator didn’t work, brakes didn’t work, lights went out and the power steering didn’t work either! We manage to get the car into the hard shoulder and just had to wait until it stopped. We were then pulled to truck stop nearby were the Mercedes 24 hour service kept telling us that help was on the way. Help never showed up though. So we kept calling the Mercedes service line until they told us to stop calling because they were closed – that’s when we realised that the Mercedes 24 hour service isn’t open 24 hours a day. We had to sleep in the freezing cold van that night, and then randomly out of nowhere the next morning this guy just shows up and fixes the van and tells us “yeah it works now, see ya”.
Drunken moment:
None of us really get drunk. We have a couple of beers after a show. But honestly, we don’t get “wasted” at all.
Rewarding moment:
When we come back to a city again to play and you can clearly see that more and more people are showing up. That is pretty rewarding.
Ghost Iris release their new album Apple Of Discord on 22nd February via Long Branch Records.
See the band live at one of the following dates:
March
Tue 12th – OSLO, NO – John Dee
Thu 14th – HAMBURG, DE – Logo
Fri 15th – BERLIN, DE – Roadrunner
Sat 16th – ASCHAFFENBURG, DE – Colos Saal
Sun 17th – STUTTGART, DE – ClubCANN
Mon 18th – MUNICH, DE – Backstage Werk
Wed 20th – HAGEN, DE – Kultopia
Thu 21st – COLOGNE, DE – Helios
Mon 25th – LONDON, UK – O2 Islington Academy
Thu 28th – BARCELONA, ES – Salamandra
Fri 29th – MADRID, ES – Caracol
Sat 30th – PORTO, PT – Hard Club
Sun 31st – LISBON, PT – RCA
April
Tue 2nd – PARIS, FR – Backstage
Wed 3rd – PRATTELN, CH – Z7
Thu 4th – MILANO, IT – Legend Club
Fri 5th – ROME, IT – Orion Ciampino
Sat 6th – FABRICIA, IT – Sonic Room
