Just in time for Halloween, Praga Khan and Zak Bagans’ collaborative album titled NecroFusion will be released on October 23.
Interview by G.L. Giles
Praga Khan is well-known in the music world for his outrageously delightful contributions in the controversially beguiling Belgian-American post-industrial/techno band Lords of Acid. In the NecroFusion album, Khan brought his musical expertise, along with Zak Bagans’ eerie recordings (gathered from his work as a paranormal investigator on Travel Channel’s #1-rated program, Ghost Adventures), to the table—and they ended up creating something that has to be heard to be believed!
Love your music—ever since the Lords of Acid Lust album was released in 1991. I’ve probably listened to that album well over a thousand times, so it’s truly great to be interviewing you for Target Audience Magazine! How did the collaboration with Zak Bagans on the NecroFusion album come about?
I’ve been a fan of Ghost Adventures for awhile. I watched most of the episodes on the tour bus – very relaxing after a performance. During one of our nightly drives, my manager told me that Zak Bagans was a Lords of Acid fan so we got in touch with Zak and asked him if he would be interested in performing some guest vocals on the Lords of Acid album. Much to my surprise, he said “yes!” When I started to work with Zak we clicked immediately. When he came up with the idea to record an album with EVPs, I was both surprised and excited. I had absolutely no idea what to expect. When he sent me the audio files that he had recorded with his Spirit Box and I listened to them, I really freaked out.
The track titled “Room 20” is eerie, yet wonderfully exciting at the same time, as David Strickland’s spirit is intelligently responding to Zak Bagans (via EVP/audio messages). Have you been on any ghost hunting investigations with Zak Bagans?
No, not yet, but that would be so awesome. Or maybe we could invite Zak to do some ghost hunting in our studio in Belgium. Actually, a lot of strange stuff happened during the making of NecroFusion: audio files disappeared, the computer crashed daily, my sound technician got really sick a few days after the start of the album and ended up in the hospital. But the strangest thing of all was that the cat who practically lived at our studio simply refused to enter the building while we were working on Zak’s album.
What do you think makes Bagans’ SB7 Spirit Box so effective?
The SB7 Spirit Box is a very powerful device built to achieve communication with the dead. The SB7 is designed by two electrical engineers for Zak exclusively. When Zak sent me the audio files that he had recorded with his device and I listened to the tracks, I was blown away over the quality of the recordings. I just couldn’t believe my ears; it freaked the shit out of me. They actually succeeded in recording voices from the dead. In the 1920s Thomas Edison invented a machine he believed would record voices from the dead. He never succeeded with doing so. Mr. Edison did, however, believe it was possible. Well, almost 100 years later, the SB7 proved him right.
While I like all ten of the tracks on the NecroFusion album, I really loved the dubstep in “Demonator.” What made you decide on using reverberant sound, etc. on that track?
It just felt the right thing to do to go along with the “Mommy” EVP. That scream still freaks the shit out of me…
Why was making an industrial, dubstep and rock album fitting for the spirits’ EVPs?
When I’m composing a song I’m not thinking about genres, as it feels more like letting things go their way without forcing them. The fact that every song was based on a ghost adventure story was very inspiring for me.
It’s like spirits of the deceased have new life through the emotively powerful vehicle of music. Do you plan on collaborating with Zak Bagans on any other albums of this kind?
Working on this album was one great experience from start to finish. Personally, I think NecroFusion is a very strong album and I really hope that it will live up to its expectations! For me, it was a privilege to work with Zak. He knows more about music than you can possibly imagine; his influence was subliminal. Zak brought out the best in me, and I would love to have future musical collaborations with him. I think we make a great team.
What do you have in the pipeline for 2013?
I’m about to finish the recordings for the new Praga Khan album which hopefully will be released early next year, and my management is working on a US live tour for Lords of Acid. Next summer I’ll be playing festivals with the Praga Khan live band in Europe. So there’s a lot of amazing things in the pipeline for 2013. Looking forward to a crazy year!
