Four Questions with Brad Armstrong of 13ghosts

Four Questions with Brad Armstrong of 13ghosts, a band from Birmingham, Alabama who will be appearing at Secret Stages. They are scheduled to appear Saturday night, May 14th at 9:00 PM at the Rogue Tavern.

• Lame question, but I have to ask: How do you describe your music?  13ghosts started off as an attempt to make high art concept albums that were written around a single idea, and we tried to experiment with any sound we could come up with and paint a huge, messy, diverse landscape with our music. But, that kind of thing is no fun to play live and no fun to listen to unless you have a good supply of morphine and a bottle of whiskey. So now we make rock and roll records and play them on stage.

• How have you been dealing with the “digital revolution” and its effect on music and art? Has it helped or hurt you?  13ghosts started off as an attempt to make high art concept albums that were written around a single idea, and we tried to experiment with any sound we could come up with and paint a huge, messy, diverse landscape with our music. But, that kind of thing is no fun to play live and no fun to listen to unless you have a good supply of morphine and a bottle of whiskey. So now we make rock and roll records and play them on stage.

• What are your plans for this year?  We've got an album coming out with Skybucket that was recorded a couple years ago. We just recorded something else, something fast and live and loose, and a new startup called This Is American Music is going to put that out on vinyl, also this year. Which is great, because we haven't put anything out since 2008. Jason was touring with the Dead String Brothers for a year or so, and I did a year or so touring with the Dexateens. It was a long break, but I think it was great for us. It made us much better players than we were before. We're bringing a whole new aesthetic to 13ghosts now.

• What do you hope to accomplish by performing at Secret Stages? Per this last question, my main goal at any show is to play rock and roll and commune with the audience. All the rest of it, the networking, the hobnobbing, the deal-making and trash-talking, is just smoke and mirrors and confuses the issue. Why am I there? Because I like to play music. Why are you there? Because you like to listen to music. I say let that be enough reason to do it.