Ghost frontman Tobias Forge discussed his plans for phone-free concerts in an interview with Audacy Music.
“It’s an experiment. And to be perfectly honest, my 16-year-old daughter was very, very, very, very skeptical of this idea,” Forge said. “And then she was, like, ‘No one’s gonna buy a ticket.'”
“I don’t know. I have no idea what people [will do],” he continued. “I just know one thing, and that is that over the years it’s gone absolutely insane.”
“If you have 10,000 people at a concert and 8,000 of them are holding a phone, there’s something deeply disconnected,” Forge explained. “And, obviously, this implies that I had this conversation with my daughter, but we talk about a lot of things and we speak openly about things.”
“That’s like having an intimate moment with someone and that person would just take out the phone like that,” he added. “‘Oh, hold on. I’m just gonna take a photo.’ I know some people do that.”
The ongoing debate about phone usage during live performances continues to evolve. Forge’s daughter represents the younger concert-goers’ perspective on this matter.
Artists across the music industry are increasingly embracing phone-free concerts to create more immersive live experiences.
Blabbermouth reports that Ghost’s phone-free initiative focuses on enhancing the concert experience rather than controlling copyright issues.
The band tested this approach during their feature film debut, ‘Rite Here Rite Now.’ Impericon Magazine noted strong audience engagement throughout the phone-free filming sessions.
Several prominent artists have already pioneered this approach. Jack White and Alicia Keys successfully implemented Yondr pouches at their shows to encourage genuine audience engagement.
This shift in live performance culture challenges both artists and audiences. It aims to revive the unmediated connection that defined concert experiences before the smartphone era.
