Goth synth-pop duo Ghost Twin readies for first full-length album release

Synth-pop duo Ghost Twin are getting ready to release their first full-length album, three years after the couple decided to bring their own brand of dark, brooding electronic music to Winnipeg stages.

On Plastic Heart, fans will get more of the sound they love from the band's first EP, but this time, with cranked production values.

Jaimz and Karen Asmundson started writing the album in 2015, and after two failed attempts at securing funding to make it, finally got somewhere.

"On the third try, [Michael P. Falk], who is the co-producer and engineer, said, 'What songs are you submitting?' and it turned out we were submitting the weirdest songs, that nobody was getting, so we submitted all the really pop-y stuff and then we got the money [from FACTOR and Manitoba Film and Music]," said Jaimz.

The album was produced by Maya Postepski, who has worked with two major sources of inspiration for Ghost Twin: Austra and Tr/st.

Getting Postepski on the project was a "bucket list" item for the couple, Karen said, especially in a scene with few similar-sounding acts.

"Sometimes people don't get it, but more often than not, I think it's relatable and people are interested in what we make," said Karen. "We've been building a good following."

Still, the band plays almost exclusively mixed bills, and even their release show on Friday ventures outside the goth synth-pop world with sets from Poemss (made up of Venetian Snares and Joanne Pollock) and InnocentGun.

Having few peers hasn't kept them off major shows or stages though, Karen said.

"The scene here is so warm and supportive. People are not so interested in pigeonholing and making it 'This is your genre and you only play with musicians who sound the same,'" she said, adding a set at the Rainbow Trout Music Festival goes down as her all-time favourite.

The band always has a visual component to shows — usually projected, moving images, and the night of the Rainbow Trout set, the images were projected alongside a spectacular and unexpected aurora borealis.

A fan climbing the stage and eventually falling onto it added to what was "a new experience" for the band, Jaimz said.

Their upcoming tour will get a new set of projections with a similar aesthetic.

The pair have more than a decade of filmmaking experience, including a short film in 2009 that got so much attention it took them to Cannes. 

"We made one really silly film together called Goths on the Bus. That was stupidly successful," said Jaimz. "I still kind of feel ashamed that that's the most successful film I've ever made."

But for fans of the "really silly" Goths on the Bus, there's a bit of a callback in their upcoming music video. It's set in a gym for goths. 

Ghost Twin will debut their new album Plastic Heart Friday night at The Good Will, and after that, they're on a short eastern and central Canadian tour.