THE GHOULSTARS — horror-punk from Kuopio, Finland.
Scorpio: You formed in 2021, and usually a band tries to put music out as soon as it forms — a single, a quick EP or album. For you it took about five years to get to the debut, and a while before any songs appeared at all. What was behind that decision?
Markus: I'm used to that usual concept myself — put out an album, then do shows. But this time I wanted to go way back in time, so to speak: play shows before releasing any material, just to build some live momentum and try the songs out live before recording them. It was a good learning process for me, doing it this way instead of the regular way I'm used to. We played a bunch of shows here in Finland, and the writing process for the album was actually quite fast — but at least we knew what we were doing when we recorded the songs, because we'd played them live many times. It took its time, but I think it was healthy to grow this way. And for me personally this is my eighth full-length album, so I wanted to try something different.
You got coverage even before any music was out — from CNN, Metal Hammer, pretty big media. What were they reacting to? The live shows? YouTube clips of them?
The big ones wrote about us or put us on TV after the second single. But there was press coverage of our shows even before that, even from abroad — one outlet flew in from Wales to see us in our hometown of Kuopio and wrote a gig review. People came from all over Finland before we had a single song out. I think it's because there are four guys in the band, and every one of us has played in bands that released albums, so we sort of already had a fan base as individuals. When we grouped up and started playing shows, it gained recognition from the fans of our previous bands and from the press. That's a good position to be in — when you start a new band it's not always like that, so we were very lucky.
So even before any music, people were coming from all over Finland. Were the fans following your personal social media and shout-outs, or were newer fans discovering online videos of the shows too?
I think it's both. We managed to open for some rather well-known bands, and people were reacting to our personal social media posts, because the band itself didn't have much of a following before the album. A lot of people probably just wanted to see what THE GHOULSTARS is. It was very interesting for us to see the crowd's reaction based purely on the live show, because we hadn't released anything. And one of the major differences from our previous bands: all of us have played gloomy, doomy, angry music in the past, and we're used to seeing people stand in the crowd with a grumpy face. But at these shows people are actually smiling. The music is uplifting, and if you're familiar with where the songs come from — B-cinema, B-horror, sci-fi, lots of nods to the '80s and old-school stuff — you get it. The people who've gotten what we're going for have been blown away; some people don't get it at all. It's almost divided — either you love it or you hate it, nothing in between. And I think that's a good thing. In any art, you want people to have feelings about it, not to be indifferent and just walk past.
THE GHOULSTARS is a whole world — not just the music, but the aesthetic, the ghoul names, the corpse paint. Where did all of that come from?
The band actually started as a kind of therapy project. I just wanted to write some short, catchy songs, but one thing led to another and suddenly I had an album's worth of material that was too good to leave on my computer. Since the songs were so influenced by B-horror and sci-fi, it was clear from the start we weren't going to stand on stage in jeans and band T-shirts — we needed a visual image that complements the music, and music that complements how we look. That brings us to the name, THE GHOULSTARS, which pretty much sums up what the band is about. The front cover is a nod to the '80s — actually the late '70s — because it's a tribute to Destroyer by KISS, one of my favorite album covers of all time. I've got a Paul Stanley guitar right there. KISS was the first band I fell head over heels for, when I was about five. So the concept combines things that are really important to me and to the other guys, and it's fun, because there's so much you can grab from the stuff we all love and turn into our own mishmash.
KISS — Destroyer (1976), the cover Markus paid tribute to on the debut.
Obviously some people might see it as one of those gimmick bands that just try to look like something and won't even bother to listen to the album. But I think the music works spectacularly well on its own — we wouldn't need a concept like this to make a good album; the visuals are just a good bonus on top. I see it as one artistic entity: you can't throw away a part of it or the puzzle isn't complete, even though every part works well by itself. That's something I pay a lot of attention to — details, and the wholeness of the concept.
You wrote the music yourself at first. How did you find the musicians — recruiting for skills, for people you already know, or for like-minded people who buy into the whole ghoul universe? I know you have your bandmate from KUOLEMANLAAKSO, plus guests like Mathias, who we recently had on our channel as part of ...AND OCEANS and who's also in FINNTROLL.
From the start it was obvious the first guy I'd phone was the drummer from KUOLEMANLAAKSO, Toni — he's my number one go-to guy for all my projects. He's incredibly talented and so laid back; I've had zero problems with him ever, and we've played together since around 2010, so 16 years. I wanted great musicians, but more importantly like-minded, mellow guys I get along with. Then I called the bass player, Markus Makkonen, whom I've known a really long time — we'd talked about doing something together. At first I thought it would be a trio with Markus singing; he used to play in HOODED MENACE, SADISTIK FOREST, NERVE SAW. I love the NERVE SAW album, so I figured he'd do the vocals — the growling, screaming stuff. We even played a show as a trio before we recruited a singer.
Ghoulio — drums.
But then we realized the songs were too good to limit to one style of aggressive shouting; we needed something more like Rob Zombie's half-clean, harsh vocals. Arthur, our singer, is the only guy I didn't know before he joined. I asked around and a bunch of people, including the drummer, said, "I know this guy Arthur, he's awesome, he sings in a band called THERMATE." Our drummer worked at the same company as Arthur, so he said, "I'll meet him at a company meeting, we'll drink beer, and I'll ask him to join." [chuckles] That's how it happened. I invited him to this very room — my home studio — we listened to the demo, and he was like, "This is something I definitely want to do." One "meant to be" sign: one of our major influences is the MISFITS, and I love DANZIG — and when Arthur came over he had a big tattoo from the third SAMHAIN album, Glenn Danzig's band between the MISFITS and DANZIG. So I thought, "Yeah, this is meant to be."
For the debut, The Dark Overlords of the Universe, was testing songs live the main factor in picking them — what worked best on stage?
More or less. I actually wrote more songs than ended up on the album, but I decided some weren't as good and threw them away. As for the guests: Mathias from ...AND OCEANS and FINNTROLL recorded some vocals — we were at his studio in Seinäjoki doing shouts, screams and backing parts, and since we were there it was a no-brainer to ask him to join in. He's an old friend, so it was fun. The other guest is Tuple Salmela, who sings backups on the title track, which needed higher clean vocals on the chorus than Arthur could do. He's a friend who lives close by, so I called him, he said "just drive over and let's do them," and it really boosted the chorus.
After one listen, the catchy chorus is what stays with you immediately — and probably what people remember from a first live show too.
Yeah — and that's the crappiest song to play live as a guitarist. [chuckles] I don't like it at all, because I'm a rhythm guitar player and it's almost all leads, the whole song. I was like, "Oh, fuck, that's not fun." In my head, when I wrote it, the melody and chorus reminded me of IN FLAMES. It's always fun to hear what other people are reminded of — nobody's told me it sounds like IN FLAMES, but to me it did.
Daddy Ghoul — Markus Laakso, founder and guitarist.
Another one I like is "The Ballad of the Cursed Bandits" — maybe because I like western aesthetics and trains, and you put train sounds and galloping horses in it. How do you approach adding those movie-score sounds to your songs?
It's a very important element of this band. We're doing cinematic aesthetics all around, so it's almost necessary to have immersive details that bring out the cinematic quality even more — that's why we use samples from movies, though on that song they're from various other places. That song has a long story. We were actually going to do a '90s thing — like NIRVANA's Nevermind, where after the album stops there's ten minutes of silence and then the hidden bonus track "Endless, Nameless." Our drummer wanted to play a d-beat in one of the songs, so as we started recording guitars I had a friend over to check guitar sounds, and I told the others, "I'm going to drive him home, back in 20 minutes — you've got 20 minutes to come up with some drum beats and record them." When I came back they'd recorded a whole song's worth of drums. I grabbed my guitar and came up with the riffs on the spot — maybe 15 minutes. I did the lyrics and samples later.
It was clear from the start that this song kicks so much ass — one of our favorites — that we couldn't bury it as a hidden bonus; it had to stand on its own. I paid a lot of attention to the immersive details. It was funny when I first played it to my wife — she started laughing: "You can't put this stuff on an actual album, what are you doing?" And I said, "That's the point exactly." It has to have the element of surprise.
You're not just the main songwriter but kind of the movie director for THE GHOULSTARS. "Too Ghoul For School" came out earlier this year and opens the album. It looks like an American school, and you're riding a Cadillac — was it filmed in the US?
No, it was filmed in my hometown. I haven't directed all the videos — I directed "The Dark Overlords of the Universe" — but I'm always behind the scenes with ideas. "Too Ghoul For School" was shot at two schools; one was my former high school, and it was so cool to get back there after years of not even stepping inside. There's a line, "Hey, sit back in my Cadillac," so I thought, "Do I know anyone in my hometown with a Cadillac?" — they're very rare here. I know one guy, and that specific car used to belong to Alexi Laiho of CHILDREN OF BODOM. So there we were, driving around my hometown in Alexi Laiho's Cadillac on the way to my old high school — a quiet, nostalgic bit of time travel. I'm a huge fan of CHILDREN OF BODOM's early work; I think Hatebreeder is one of the best albums ever made, so it was pretty cool. That video was directed by Sam Jamsen, a good friend who actually used to live a few hundred meters that way. [laughs]
The Cadillac that once belonged to Alexi Laiho, in the "Too Ghoul For School" video.
When you were a kid, were you too ghoul for school — or a well-behaved kid with good marks?
Depends on the period. I was quite mellow, but in grades seven to nine, not so much. [chuckles] I actually went to school for two years in San Diego, California, and some of the lyrics are semi-based on my own experiences of American junior high. It was a fun song to write and a fun video to make — definitely a highlight at our shows. The chorus is so simple, just "Too ghoul, too ghoul for school," so everyone can sing along. The song is full of Easter eggs and references to movies and other artists — even the drum beat at the breakdown is a nod to Wayne's World. [laughs]
I'm in Santa Cruz, also on the California coast, and there's always rivalry between California cities over who's the real surfing capital. When you were in San Diego, did you get into surfing? And the water there is pretty cold — though maybe not for someone from Finland?
I used to bodyboard, which is kind of surfing for geeks [laughs] — entry-level surfing. But I swam a lot in the Pacific, and those were some of the best days of my life. It was cold [chuckles], but I was so young I didn't mind. Nowadays it'd take a gun to my head — "Now go in the ocean." Back then, no problem; I loved it. We were actually supposed to go back there with my family this summer, but given the state of world politics and warfare right now, we decided to go elsewhere and return to California later.
What was the biggest culture shock between school in Finland and in the US?
The first thing I remember was that everything is so big compared to Finland — even the shopping carts were twice the size, the cereal boxes, the fruit selection much wider. As for school, the grading was totally different. In Finland you take a couple of tests and your grade is basically their average. In the States we had assignments that gathered points, as important as the tests, and that kind of studying suited me much better than just trying to memorize everything. I actually would've made the honor roll — my GPA was 3.5 out of 4. So I was a nerd. [laughs]
Hellaghoul — bass.
You've said "The Dead in Purgatory" and "They Dance Upon Our Graves" have personal moments behind the lyrics. Can you elaborate?
Not too much [both laugh]. When I was writing these songs — a lot of them about monsters, vampires, zombies — I was dealing with some stuff that was weighing on me, and it manifested in the lyrics. I didn't plan to write exclusively about monsters or horror movies, and I had no rule against bringing in something personal. I think the album benefited from that personal touch, because now it's linked to that time period and to the people I was sort of writing about. Not every single line is a personal reference, but they fit the songs and I'm proud of them.
"The Dead in Purgatory" is one of my favorites — except the C part, which isn't as good as the rest [laughs]. But if I had to pick my personal favorite from the album, I'd probably pick "They Dance Upon Our Graves." It's basically a miniature of the whole album: a doomy start, a semi-western vibe in the verses, a super catchy chorus, a catchy C part with a "whoa" singalong, and even a death metal outro. The whole album squeezed into one song.
Do you have plans for a tour to support the album, and how big will it be?
We recently signed with an agency. Our first show is in October in our hometown — not public yet — then Helsinki, then a tour in December that isn't announced yet, supporting a band much bigger than us here in Finland. The agency has plans for next year, but I don't know exactly what'll happen. I'm really hoping we make it abroad, even to the States, though that's a long shot because of the logistics and cost. It would be great — on Spotify the States are number one for us by far, then Germany and Finland. So I hope we'll at least make Central Europe in the coming year or two. We've had a great response from the States, and I've been surprised how many interviews I've done over there. It's such a huge market that even if 1% of the people who like B-movie stuff mixed with music find us, that'd be great. The distances make touring hard — you fly, which is expensive, or you spend the whole time on stage or on the bus. But you never know; fingers crossed.
It's always impressive that bands in Finland can tour towns of 10,000 or 20,000 people and still fill a venue with metal fans. Finland's number one for bands per capita, right?
Metal bands specifically [chuckles]. It's a good country to be in a metal or punk band. It would be very hard if we were from, say, Portugal — they've got great bands too, but for metal shows this country is a good one.
You've also covered a lot of bands as a journalist and author — you wrote the authorized AMORPHIS biography and a book about Finland's "Big Five" folk metal bands. You were on my side of the table for a long time. How does that change the way you answer questions now?
Good question. When I do music journalism — which I still do occasionally — the most interesting thing is learning from people I look up to, or who've achieved something, or who are just interesting human beings. Because I hate going through the tape and transcribing afterwards, I try to keep my own answers interesting and not too long. Sometimes I manage it, sometimes not — but it's always in the back of my head when I answer questions in interviews.
LL Ghoul — vocals.
Do you have a plan for how the whole GHOULSTARS story is presented in media — print, video, online?
Basically, yes — I've done the "meat on the bones" versions of those. With all my previous bands I wrote the bio and all the press releases and handed them to the label, which pretty much sent them out unchanged. But at Season of Mist our main publicist is from the States and has done a terrific job promoting the band — I sent him my version of the bio and he rewrote it, and he always sends me everything to check that it's correct. That's something new to me: someone else actually doing the work [chuckles]. I do most of the band work anyway, but it's good to have a promo person who knows what they're doing.
As the mastermind behind the music, visuals and everything, do you feel any anxiety about giving up part of it to someone else?
I don't, because I've been lucky enough to handpick people. For the album cover I told the artist, Niko Anttila, exactly what I had in mind, and his first draft was even better than I imagined. Same with the videos. And Adrien, who did the graphic design and a couple of our shirts, is an in-house guy at Season of Mist whose work I've admired for years — he did the last three ...AND OCEANS covers, plus ROTTING CHRIST, ABBATH and records like that. When the label asked if I had someone in mind, I said, "Yeah, I want Adrien." He did a brilliant job — the back cover is so cool, he absolutely nailed it. It's always great when you can pick people you know will do a good job and who enjoy what they do.
As a closing question — what did you do the night the album dropped, May 15th?
I don't even remember [both chuckle]. I think we had a rehearsal with the guys — except the bass player, who lives an hour's drive away. We played the whole set plus some covers, because the album is only 34 minutes long, so we need more. We've been playing "Sign of the Wolf" by PENTAGRAM — I love that song, and they're a completely underrated band — various MISFITS songs, and "Summertime Suicide" by MURDER DOLLS. Then yeah, I went to a bar with our singer [chuckles] and we had a good time. Not the next morning — but the night was great.
Sounds like a great celebration. So everybody, check out the GHOULSTARS album — out now on all platforms, vinyl, CD, whatever you like. Thank you for your time today, Markus.
Thank you very much for having me. It was a pleasure.
THE GHOULSTARS — The Dark Overlords of the Universe (Season of Mist, 2026).
THE GHOULSTARS on the web: Bandcamp · Instagram · Facebook · Website
THE GHOULSTARS on Season of Mist.
The Dark Overlords of the Universe is out now on Season of Mist.
Thanks to Will Yarbrough at Season of Mist for arranging this interview.
Video version: