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Record Shopping with Ghostland Observatory :: This Laaaaaaa-aaaaand Is Coming Like A Ghostland

By Skye Mayring   Photography by Daniel Perlaky

03/18/08 :: URB web

URB’s phoner with Ghostland Observatory’s Thomas Turner, aka The Caped One. The call finds him in a record store, apparently in mid-purchase of an old Richie Hawtin CD…

URB: So you still buy CDs?
Thomas Turner: When you buy a single off iTunes, you’re giving the artist like pennies, ya know? I don’t hate on anyone who does their DJ sets with laptops. I prefer vinyl though.

It suits your style, which seems to be catching on. At your Dallas show, a group of uberfans sported ghost masks, right?
Yeah, they threw them up on stage at the end of the show. For our encore, I put one on.  It was hard to perform in it, but it was kind of creepy, too.

What’s the strangest thing someone has worn to your show?
People bring the Native American headdresses and dance around.  I’ve seen a few capes, actually.  

I gotta ask, what’s with the cape?
On stage, I‘m basically stuck stationary behind keyboards, drums, and a bunch of gear.  I said to my wife, “I don’t really want to keep up with the current trend in stage wardrobe. That’s not my style. Can you make me something that is totally different, that fits the thing that I do on stage?” A week later she surprised me with the cape. I’ve worn it ever since.

That same one?
Well, she made me one for this past year’s Austin City Limits.  She made me a cape with sequins all over it to complement the special lights we used for that show, but I chucked the cape into the crowd after our performance.  After we did that show, we had to rush across town to fill in for the White Stripes, who cancelled. On the way there, I saw that guy from the audience wearing the cape, surrounded by his friends who were high-fiving him.  He was all pumped up.

It’s all rather fitting since ACL has really put you guys on the map. How else has living in Austin influenced your sound?
You’re going to hear Texas rock and blues here whether you like it or not. When I moved here in 1997, I was throwing raves. It was all electronic music all the time.

What DJs were headlining your parties?
I brought some of the Chicago guys and Funky Tekno Tribe guys down, Dan, Donald Glaude, Graham, Terry Mullan, mostly American DJs, the ones you would see at all the parties back then.

Why did you stop promoting?
At that time, they had imposed the Crack House Ordinance thing.  It pretty much all came to a halt.  The scene was really thriving, thousands and thousands of people were going out twice a month. It went from that to nothing in a matter of weeks.

What do you think about Nu Rave?  
I hear it’s back. It’s kinda funny. 

Let’s touch on your new release for a sec. How does Robotique Majestique differ from your last two albums, delete.delete.i.eat.meat (2005) and Paparazzi Lightning (2006)?
Delete and Paparazzi were both very early on in our journey. Delete was our first experiment with the band and Paparazzi was our first experiment touring. We wanted Robotique to be more of a record from start to finish that has a vibe, everything blends together, has a certain feeling like a good record from the '70s would have. It takes you somewhere. We tried to make it sound like us, how we sound right now.

Have you done any remixes of your songs?
(chuckles) We don’t like to do remixes. We like to leave our songs as they were intended to be recorded, not do like 50 remixes of "Sad Sad City."

Now that you have an established record label, Trashy Moped Recordings, what kind of bands are you looking to sign?
Oooh. Anything that is interesting and strange. I love stuff that is different and edgy, but easy on the ears.

We love your laser show. How much did you spend on those bad boys?
It’s pretty expensive. The lasers that we use are brand new technology and the most powerful ones in the world. I can’t really disclose what we paid for the lasers.  Sometimes we spend more on the lasers than we pay ourselves.  That’s just ‘cause we want anyone who goes to our show, that pays however much money for a ticket, to be happy.  We want people to say “Wow, that doesn’t happen every weekend here in this town.”