The room was basically a glorified VFW, or a Knights of Columbus hall in Bayonne, New Jersey, and I’d never seen The Midnight Ghost Train before. The trio, then from Buffalo, now hailing from Kansas, had a thickened, rootsy blues take on stoner heaviness, and though the layout of the place was awkward and the stage absurdly high, guitarist/vocalist Steve Moss, then-bassist Odie Lallo (since replaced by Will Shumate) and drummer Brandon Burghart owned the room with the presence and sound of a veteran road act. Turns out that’s not just coincidence.

In fact, if Moss has his way, they’d never come off tour. It’s an attitude more reminiscent of the DIY hardcore punk of the early ’80s than the usual stoner rock real-life commitments that keep so many bands from wider-ranging gigs — jobs, families, etc. Moss, who logged over 1,000 miles just in the move from Buffalo to Topeka, has an unwavering passion for The Midnight Ghost Train. This has led to some shifts in lineup, but more importantly, to the band’s recently-reviewed self-titled debut full-length. The album, self-released and distributed for free in both physical and digital form via their MySpace, harnesses the power of their live show while simultaneously panning it out and expanding in ways that space in Bayonne simply wouldn’t be able to handle.

I didn’t have the record that night to compare it to (though that is when I picked up their preceding release, The Johnny Boy EP), but looking back on that show now, it’s clear their set was only just a sample of the band’s potency and vibrant, organic approach. Moss recently took some time out to field an email interview about The Midnight Ghost Train, band and album, and the changes they’ve brought about in his life.

Interview is after the jump. Please enjoy.

Compare the experience of recording parts yourself that live you might have another musician play with them playing it on stage. Do you feel the album accurately conveys the live feel of The Midnight Ghost Train? Did you want it to?

Well the only other instrument I play on the record is bass. Which we always try to have a bass player to cover that live. Although many times we have had to play as a two piece. And just like we have songs we do live that we won’t record (such as “John the Revelator”), there are two tracks on the record we don’t do live. They were written only for the purpose of listening to, in the experience of the album. Those tracks are “They’re Burying Me Alive” and “Desert Red.” Both of those tracks have other musicians on them anyways. “Mustache” we always do live but since Jake who sings it on the record was asked to leave I take over the vocals for that song live. And I think it sounds great either way. It’s just a lot more heavy and gruff when I sing it. In the end the songs on our record that we do live are exactly like our live show. We only ever did one take, one guitar, one bass, one everything we never overlapped anything. Everything was done 100 percent the way they are played live, except I took over the bass on the record, due to not having anyone willing to do it. But even still I think it’s impossible to capture what we do live on a recording. Because in the end a recording is just a recording. Our live show is definitely where we shine, and where you will see exactly who we are.

Walk me through the lineup changes the band has undergone. Who are you playing with now and how stable would you say the lineup is at this point?

Oh man there has been a few lineup changes. Jake and me are the two original members. During that time the bass players we had were, Brandon (who is now our drummer), Toby Cole, Keith (who recorded on The Johnny Boy EP), Joseph Hester from a great band called Spacefaze, and Odie Lallo, are the main ones. Now for drummers, Jake left the band before our first tour, so we went through probably about 15 different drummers in the month before our tour. But I’m very picky. Then Jake came back one day before the tour, and stayed with us until the end of our second tour. After I asked him to leave I called up Brandon and told him he had to learn how to play drums. Nor knowing how to play at all he said yes and got to work. Four months later we went on tour. Six months later he recorded drums for us. He is as close to me as a brother so he won’t ever leave the band. This band has turned into his life just as much as it is mine. We also now have a new bass player for our new tour named Will Shumate. He is a great guy, we will see how he works out on tour and where it will go from here with him. In the end no matter what me and Brandon will always be together in this band.

How involved do other members get in the writing process? Is it a matter of you bringing the songs in and everyone working on them, or are they jammed out and built gradually that way?

Brandon helped me write “Desert Red” and “The Swell.” Other than that I wrote all the songs. But like anything when you bring something to a group of people they tend to add there flavor to it. For our next record though, Brandon and I are going to do all the writing together.

You’ve spent a considerable amount of time on the road, which for a lot of DIY underground/unsigned bands is virtually impossible. What’s allowed you to do so much touring? Are you independently wealthy or just careful about packing enough sandwiches beforehand?

Fortunately our tour almost paid for itself last time. If we didn’t go to the west coast, we would have actually made money on our last tour. But for the times that we don’t make money we steal a lot of money and stuff from Walmart. We have a very complex system in which we are able to receive a lot of money from Walmart. It works out very well. Odie always used to say how Walmart funds our tour.

Why the move from Buffalo to Kansas? Was there something in particular about the Midwest that attracted you, was it a question of work, or some other factor? How do you think the shift in locale has changed or will change the band?

Well, a while back I lived in Kansas for about six years. That’s where Brandon was born, and where he has always lived. Even through all our touring. I decided to move back to Kansas in order to record this record with Brandon. I moved out there got a house way, way, way out in the middle of nowhere, and we built our little studio in the basement. I wanted to do this record with Brandon which meant us living together. And I love living out in the country. Kansas is so much better than Buffalo. Aside from the fact that we know have to drive 45 min to get new strings or drum sticks, I don’t think the move will affect the band at all. We’ve never been a local band even when we lived in Buffalo. We only played local shows before we toured. So since we tour so much it doesn’t really matter where we live. The last thing we ever want to be is known as a local band. No offense to any local bands, it’s just not for us. We are working to get out there as much as possible. And will be touring nonstop forever.

The album has a bluesy, old-soul feeling to it that comes through in both the riffs and your singing. How much do you draw on the blues for inspiration and who are some artists who have particularly stood out to you over the years?

Well you hit the nail on the head for me. The blues and soul is what I mainly listen to and is my biggest influence. Not only for song structure but also for feel. I take a lot of influence from old preachers as well. The way they commanded the audience, and the way they would get in their audiences head has always locked on to me and my stage presence. Artists that have stood out to me are definitely Skip James, Kyuss, Robert Johnson, Son House, Black Sabbath, Nick Cave, Elvis, The Beatles, Clutch, Glen Schwartz, Tom Waits, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, and Blind Willie Johnson who we pay homage to on the record with the lyric “Dark was the night cold was the ground,” in our song “The Swell.”

How did your guitar tone develop? What equipment did you use to get that massive riff sound on the album, and are there any adjustments you’ve made or are planning to make going forward?

A lot of people have been commenting on the guitar tone on the record, which means a lot to me cause I worked very hard to get a specific tone. You won’t believe what I used for the record though. I used a little Fender Deville combo amp. Which is what I use live. And on the record we didn’t even use the mixer for the guitar. I dialed in my settings that I use live, put a mic in front of the amp and recorded it straight up. So the tone you hear on the record is the exact same tone I use live. Nothing done to it in the mixer or the mix. That tone is as real as it gets. The secret to my tone is in my settings and EQ I use on the amp and on my overdive pedal. The overdrive pedal I use, is a Fulltone Mosfet Fulldrive 2. I love my tone and love the fact I got it without spending over $800 on an amp.

You’ve got the run of dates scheduled from mid-January to February, but what’s on for the rest of this year? How much will you be touring throughout 2010?

Well, let’s put it this way: right when we get back from this winter tour, I’m going to start booking our next tour. When we get back from that one ill start booking the one after that. We are also going to be going to Europe soon. We love playing live, and we will tour nonstop. We are never ever going to stop. A guy told me on our last tour, “Burn all your bridges so you can never retreat.” That’s how we live our music. We have nothing else in life we care about so why not put everything we have into our music? I just hope someday we can get a booking agent because booking all these tours is so much damn work for me. All we want is a little label to help us promote our music, and a booking agent. We will do everything else. With all the hard work we put into this band I think we deserve that.

Any other plans or closing words you want to mention?

Contact me for a copy of our new record on either www.myspace.com/themidnightghosttrain or email us at themidnightghosttrain@yahoo.com and come see us live, if you want to know what we are really all about.

The Midnight Ghost Train on MySpace

Tags: Kansas, The Midnight Ghost Train, Unsigned bands

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 9:41 am and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.