A very interesting band called Lusitanian Ghosts released their 3rd long player in September, I heard it and wanted to learn more about the band so we got in contact with Neil Leyton from the band to discuss mono & stereo offerings, recording studios, ‘come dine with me’ menus, dream festival lineups and so much more, read on to see how we got on….

You released your third studio album ‘Lusitanian Ghosts III’ on 15th September, how did you celebrate this HUGE milestone in your career?

Well, three records in six years means an average of putting out an album every two years… we celebrated with a special concert Oct. 14th at Teatro Taborda in Lisbon, a really beautiful venue. We also indulged in releasing this new album in mono and stereo…

Which segues nicely into my next questions…. You decided to offer a MONO and a STEREO version of the album, I would like to know why you chose to do this? Can you tell what the split is (Mono vs Stereo) for orders so far?

… yes indeed, we recorded on analogue 2” tape, 24-track, and mixed down to analogue 1/4” tape and in the process of doing so decided to mix every song twice - first in mono and then in stereo - as we wanted to hear for ourselves what difference each approach brings to the songs. So we did it! Simply because we could, working at an amazing studio like Clouds Hill on analogue, it made sense to use. Ultimately we did it because we were curious, we wanted to hear it both ways. I can tell you Stereo is outselling Mono about 9 to 1 :)

Being the third album, would you say that the process of recording has changed much since your debut release?

Yes and no - we always wanted to record on analogue, live off the floor, in a good studio, however our first record had to be done on digital at a great studio in Portugal, Canoa Studios - we had no analogue facilities for the first record. Also, because we were very much still experimenting with the chordophones, a lot of the chordophones on the first record are overdubs, not played live off the floor with the drums and bass. That we started doing on the second album, when we gave up guitars entirely and used only the violas. So the second album, Exotic Quixotic, was also tracked on analogue with digital overdubs at Clouds Hill. Only for the third album did we go fully analogue, which was absolutely amazing. I hadn’t recorded like that on 2” 24-track since 2003, with the Neil Leyton album “From the Brighter Side of Her Midnight Sun”.

Would you say that you get involved when in the studio or do you prefer to sit back and let the producer and engineer earn their money?

Both - we are 100% involved in all the studio decisions, but ultimately I rely on the engineer’s opinion on technical aspects of records. But Micke Lundin and I produced the record, from a creative or artistic standpoint if you will. Even with mixing, Muxi did the work but we were there every step of the way.

The album was recorded and mixed at Clouds Hill Studios in Hamburg by Sebastian Muxfeldt who has worked with Elbow, Peter Doherty & Teenage Fanclub in the past, how did you come to work with Sebastian in the first place?

Sebastian “Muxi” Muxfeldt had already worked with us when we recorded our 2nd album, ‘Exotic Quixotic’, at Clouds Hill and that was a great experience - so we wanted to do Lusitanian Ghosts III with him again at Clouds Hill. When I originally booked Clouds Hill for the second album he was one of the engineers available there, and that’s how we met - just by booking the studio.

I would like to ask you to breakdown one of the album tracks for me so our readers can learn a little more about it and lead them to listen to the entire album, I’ll leave you to decide which one!

Oh wow… that’s a hard choice to make! I guess I will go with ‘Pure Evil’… which I sing from a very personal point of view about what it was like growing up in Portugal in the 70’s, living through the revolution of ’74 that kicked out the fascist regime, and then all the political debate that ensued. The thing is, no matter whether you heard left-wing or right-wing politicians speak, you could rely on hearing their truth or their true perspective on things… and I guess the song is about how that gradually changed over the years and now we have a new era of post-truth, where politicians blatantly lie and manipulate voters just for power’s sake… so you can no longer rely on hearing the truth from any of the populists or extremists. Just pure evil, manipulating double speak and of course, war - I never thought we would see a war in Europe in the 21st century. The Ukrainian invasion is pure evil by Putin. Even many Russians - those not entirely manipulated or brainwashed - recognise the evil that is being inflicted upon Ukraine. So that’s that song in a nutshell…

Please tell me what your Saturday night and Sunday morning records are….

That’s the title of a great Viletones live album, “Saturday Night Sunday Morning”! But on Saturday night I would probably play something by The Makers, let’s say “Rock Star God” and Sunday mornings some 1970’s Elvis Presley - “That’s the way it is”.

You are described as a Portuguese-Canadian-Swedish chordophone collective founded by Neil Leyton and Micke Ghost (a.k.a. Mikael Lundin), who revive lost instruments and presents ancient sounds in the 21st Century. This sounds fascinating, please tell me how the idea came about?

It was quite organic. I am Portuguese Canadian, born in central Lisbon in the neighbourhood of Mouraria, and I grew up in Canada where I first played bass in Passion d’Flower and then went on to sing and play guitar in The Conscience Pilate. I first went to Sweden to tour in 2004 or 2005, and recorded an album there in 2006 called “The Betrayal of the Self”. My Swedish guitarist was Micke the Ghost, aka Micke Lundin. After much touring I was burned out from living in London so I went back to Portugal in 2008 to rest, live by the sea and plan my next move… fast forward 10 years of almost no songwriting and no playing - working as an entrepreneur in the Portuguese music industry - and Micke came to Portugal for a gig as a duo, playing some of my old songs. Then I bought a Viola Amarantina and took it to Stockholm, gave it to him as a gift, and the next thing you know he puts a video on YouTube playing the Stones’ “You Can’t Always get what you want” on the Amarantina… so we decided to make a rock n roll record with some of my old songs plus a couple of new ones, but with the chordophones being the main instruments if you will… and the rest is history - six years of new songs and three albums… it’s been an amazing time! The rest of the chordophone players are all Portuguese, Micke and Janne (the bassist and viola Beirão player) are Swedish. Although Abel Beja, ex-Primitive Reason, is a US citizen as well so I guess technically we are a Portugal-Canada-Swedish-USA collective, haha.

You have invited us round to your place for dinner, what will you be cooking/preparing for us (starter, main course and dessert please)

Starter: burrata with olive oil and piri-piri; main dish: Tonno à la Leyton (that’s a tuna pasta with whatever is in the fridge, peppers, capers, olives, chillies, with thin Spaghettini cooked al dente topped with olive oil and coriander); I don’t do dessert but Micke would probably go for a Pastel De Nata :)

On October 14, you presented the new album live at Lisbon at Teatro Taborda. PLEASE tell me that you are planning some UK live shows in the future?

We would love to play the UK of course - I haven’t played there since my Neil Leyton shows around 2004-2007, and also playing guitar for Tyla from the Dogs d’Amour… that was an experience. We will have to see when we can make it over, also I hear that post-Brexit it might be more complicated? But of course we would love to come play the UK. Make some noise, spread the word, and we will try and get over there!

You are a European collective, where would you say you are most active on the live scene?

We’ve played Portugal and Sweden of course, but also over in Finland and Germany too - we played the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg back in 2019 to try and get a booking agent to book us a German tour for 2020; then the pandemic hit and the rest is history…

Did you play many festivals in 2023? Are you planning on playing some in 2024? Can you share any with us yet or are they still unconfirmed?

We have a couple 2024 festivals scheduled for May, hoping they will be confirmed soon. In 2023 we started the year recording and then played the album release show. The last festivals we played were back in 2022, Future Echoes in Sweden and the Repasseado Festival in Lisbon.

If you could curate your own SUPER-FESTIVAL, which 3 headline acts would you have (you can choose bands or artists that are dead or alive).

Wow, ok - dead artists: Elvis Presley, David Bowie, Marc Bolan (T.Rex). How “headline” must they be? For the live ones I’d probably go with lesser known names: Xixa from Tucson, Ana Lua Caiano from Lisbon, Moto Boy from Sweden. But if I had to go with headliners I’d say Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (ONLY if Mick Harvey was back in the Bad Seeds!), The Waterboys, and The Rolling Stones.

Where is the best place to keep up to date with your musical movements on the social media?

Facebook and Instagram. We also have our own website, Lusitanianghosts.net (see full list of socials at the end of the interview)

I did search for you on TikTok but I can’t locate you, is this a platform you are looking to get started on? (it scares me, I don’t understand what it’s about!?)

Not sure, we haven’t really contemplated it at all… I guess we’re too old. But then again, I love dancing. We might.

There are MILLIONS of bands and acts in the world, please share the names of 3 that you love and tell us why WE should check them out….

Haaaa ok, so…..

XIXA - Rock n Roll crossed with Cumbia, with two amazing singers, a clear inspiration for the Ghosts when I saw them at SXSW in 2016 or 2017 and was blown away. I then got them to come and play Westway LAB in Portugal.

Ana Lua Caiano - A force of nature from Portugal, a one-woman band looping traditional sounds from Portugal delivered with the urgent speed of a hurricane. Must see - played at BIME last week in Bilbao and blew me away, playing Eurosonic in January, just nominated for the Music Music Europe awards - go and vote for her HERE

Moto Boy - A singer-songwriter from Sweden, a good friend of Micke Ghost’s with an amazing voice, like a Swedish Jeff Buckley, last time I saw him live was at Popkomm in Berlin. Great songs, great voice.

Lastly, would you rather live with a singing dog or a gorilla that can do sign language?

Definitely a gorilla that can sign language. Remember The Mighty Boosh?

We’d like to thank Neil for chatting to us and we wish him and the band every success in the future and for the recent release of their 3rd long player ‘Lusitanian Ghosts III’ - Available NOW.

Keep up to date with the day to day movements of Lusitanian Ghosts at the many social links below.

Website

Bandcamp

Facebook

Twitter 

Instagram

YouTube

Spotify

Apple Music 

Booking contact

Press contact