A Conversation with Liam White AKA GhostNoises

Ethereal sounds from @Ghost_Noises x Happy Axe in The Club✨✨✨ #YAH16 pic.twitter.com/FO38rq49iq

— YOU ARE HERE (@YouAreHere_Fest) April 13, 2016

Despite only beginning to collaborate at the beginning of this year, Liam White (GhostNoises) and Emma Kelly (Happy Axe) have recently wrapped up their third show in a week at Canberra’s You Are Here arts festival. While both artists utilise looping in their live performances, their music could not be further apart with Liam creating hip-hop influenced indie pop while Emma uses her classical background to craft violin infused ambient soundscapes. While Emma was unable to join us for the interview, NowUC talked with multi-instrumentalist GhostNoises about his history, the evolution of his live performances and how it has melded with Happy Axe.

 Q: Let’s start at the beginning, how long have you been playing music?

A: I’ve been making music for a lot longer than I’ve been playing as GhostNoises, since I was about eight or so. I started under that name in about 2013 but only started playing live in the past couple of years.

Q: What made you stick with the moniker of GhostNoises?

A: I still doubt it, I really do. It started because I was making songs about ghosts, sort of as a throwback to a band I was in when I was really young. It was the peak of my creative career so I thought I should stick with that. It sort of fit my sound and personality so I’ve stuck with it.

Q: How have you found the growing pains and general evolution of your live set over the past couple of years?

A: I’ve been able to move more away from covers which has been nice, I fell back on them out of necessity because I was playing such long sets but now I’ve worked out how to convert my music to a live setting and it’s been going well. It relies a lot on looping, like it does for Emma [Happy Axe], but I really enjoy it and it’s helped me see my music in a completely different light.

When I started though, I realised I pretty much needed to learn to play music again. I had never really played guitar for any longer than five minutes at a time so there were a lot of callouses involved. The whole live experience was a lot more taxing on the body than I expected but I’ve mostly gotten used to it now.

Q: After seeing you play live a few times, one of the things that’s really stuck with me is how much of a kick the audience get out of your looping. Have there been any issues with that specific part of your live act?

A: I struggled early on with trying to get the loops to sound more organic and having them come together to create something natural as opposed to throwing a bunch together just to replicate the recorded stuff. Seeing videos of Owen Pallett playing live also helped. He creates some really intricate stuff with his loops but he also struggles with the process sometimes. As a big fan of his music, it put a few things in perspective and also helped me appreciate him a lot more.

Q: How did the collaboration with Happy Axe come about and how do you think it went?

A: Given that we didn’t even know each other until earlier this year, I was really happy. There was a bit of indecisiveness at first, no one wanted to tread on the other’s ideas and not a whole happened in the first few rehearsals. The whole process also helped me consciously move away from what I felt comfortable doing, which I sometimes have a habit of falling back on. I can have a lot of unfocused energy and creativity and Emma helped a lot with structuring the rehearsals and helping me focus.

Q: So do you think there’ll be any more collaborations in the future?

A: I’m really keen to do some more work together, I really enjoy Emma’s style and would love to do some more stuff. I think we’d focus more on recording than live performances, I find composing comes much more natural for me. Performing is not my motivation. Making a collection of songs is one thing but making an album is much greater for me.