There are a total of 45 pins associated with the Asian continent of the Ghost Gig Globe. Now, aside from Japan (if we count Russia as part of the European continent), Ghost hasn’t toured Asia very well or often – yet. There are definitely some venues in Asia that belong on the bucket list, like Budokan in Tokyo. Still, Ghost have already held a ritual in Tokyo that was scheduled for the Japanese Download incarnation. I pinned on the festival’s mascot dog to reflect the band’s appearance there, plus a confetti cannon and, because Tokyo is always very colorful, fireworks.

Of Russian Rats…

Everything else pinned in Asia is a filler. Birch trees in Siberia, for example, or the palm trees on the Southeast Asian islands. Rats are everywhere, and the largest (actually my first attempt at a Prequelle monster for Africa) is in the east of the continent and has its paw on a red button. I didn’t foresee the current war situation on this planet, but it does feel a little strange not to think politically about it. At least, when the rat on the Ghost Gig Globe pushes the red button, it just starts singing… the song, of course. To be exact, it plays a 26-second snippet of Rats that was featured on the radio in March 2018, a week before the single’s release. I played that 26 seconds over and over for an entire week and was on the worst hype train of my life.

When in Siberia…

Ghost’s Cardinal Copia was touring with the coffins of his predecessors, which I wanted to tie down somehow. But all I could think of to do with the coffins was to deposit them in Siberia. When I was in the area, I learned from a tour guide that there are special bacteria in Lake Baikal that will eat anything – even a dead human body. So if you want to make a body disappear, you have the best chance of getting away with murder there. So I put the coffins in Siberia. I mean, Copia could have come up with that idea. I added a sound feature to two of those coffins. My favorite Papa (II), who is almost half-buried, plays my favorite song Whitch Image when you push the coffin just a little deeper into the soil. While I gave Papa III his supposed favorite instrument on top of his coffin: the yellow kazoo. When pressed, the haunting sound of a kazooan Ghuleh echoes through the forest.

From the top of the World

Just like with the coffins, I wasn’t sure where to insert Papa Nihil. He had to be part of a Ghost Gig Globe if everyone else was in it, but where? He first performed in Sweden, I think, and that was already filled to the brim. As he performed at the Copia concerts with his sax solo for Miasma , I got the idea of the Everest. When I was traveling around the world with a friend and we were planning our itinerary, he told me that if we go to Nepal, we also have to go to Everest, where one has to play an epic guitar solo. Yes, I was traveling with a lunatic. His explanation was that great solos have to be played on the roof of the world – and that’s Everest. Well, that sounded almost logical to me, and the thought came up when I was thinking about the sax solo. So in my Ghost world, Papa Nil is playing his epic solo on the roof of the world. The blue-faced yeti there in the shadow of the mountain though…. well, fantasy went wild with me, I guess….