Interview with Ghoul Nine

1. What’s your name?

I prefer to not give too much information just for privacy’s sake, but also because I’m going through a bit of an identity thing. My first name is Jose.

2. Where are you from?

I was born in Mexico and came to the US at age five. Raised in South Texas close to the border, I never truly felt like I left Mexico until I lived in Austin.

3. How old are you?
26

4 .When did you start making music

I suppose my whole life, really. I’ve always had an affinity for music, instruments, and just sound in general. I remember writing little dumb songs when I was a kid about like my crushes and stuff growing up haha and I used to be in a deathcore band as a teenager, those were fun times. As far as my current project, I’ve been working on this music since about late 2021. I wrote the hook for my song “Waiting” at 15, I revisited it one day after binging Thursday’s Full Collapse and finished it in the following days, which was the first full song I wrote under this project.

5. How serious are you about your career?

Quite serious. Music is something I’m quite passionate about. I love experimenting and hearing new ideas. I would love to have my music featured in TV and movies, especially horror movies, maybe even some acting. I wrote one about As Above, So Below (one of my favorite movies of all time) and I’m really excited to see where that goes.

6. Have you ever thought about quitting music?

A couple times. After that deathcore band broke up my senior year of high school, I took a pretty long hiatus from music to focus on school, and I kinda lost my momentum to join another band. I would write a song here or there, but nothing like I’ve been doing recently. I definitely did during that hiatus, but I always find myself coming back to it

7. Who inspires you the most?

Vic Fuentes from Pierce The Veil is probably my biggest inspiration since middle school. He wrote A Flair For The Dramatic (one of my favorite albums of all time) essentially by himself and it has some of the most experimental guitar playing and sounds I have ever heard in this genre. I’ve really enjoyed watching him develop as an artist. There’s not a single project he’s been involved in that I haven’t liked. He’s a great guitar player, singer, songwriter, and lyricist. Aside from that, he looks like he could be my cousin haha it’s honestly kinda nice being able to see yourself in your favorite musicians. There weren’t very latino musicians in that genre to look up to back when I was in school, PTV made that like their whole thing and I absolutely loved it; my culture/heritage is very important to me.

8.What got you into making music?
It’s always kinda been around, I had a lot of musical toys as a kid and I have family who play. My grandpa has always been very supportive and even gave me his keyboard, which I still have. My cousin was my guitar teacher at one point, and two other ones taught me how to play drums. But a real watershed moment was discovering Green Day at age nine, and then asking my parents for a guitar for Christmas that same year. I remember really wanting to be Billie Joe Armstrong so bad haha. But recently, the new wave of alternative/emo and artists (mostly nothing,nowhere and KennyHoopla) inspired me to get back into it.

9.Who is your favorite producer?
That’s an interesting one. Joey Sturgis is one of my favorites along with Glenn Fricker, total opposites, I know, but I feel keeping influences diverse definitely helps in the creative process. The worst thing I did as a young musician was limit myself. I also really love nothing, nowhere’s production, he’s extremely talented and not afraid to experiment

10. What is one of your best songs/beats?
Well, it’s not out yet, but my favorite song that I’ve written is probably Don’t Go. It was a tough and emotional one to write as well, it’s very near and dear to me. It’s about someone I loved deeply (and still do); teetering on the indecision of letting them go because you don’t want to keep on hurting them and wanting to stay with them. The bridge in the breakdown is just pure anguish; I just picture us lying on our living room floor, drained and defeated, like we did when we ended our relationship, wondering if we made the right decision.

11. Are you signed to a record or label?
Not at the moment, no

12. Have you ever performed?
Not under this project, not just yet. But I would like to in the near future.

13. Who would you most likely collaborate with?
nothing, nowhere, KennyHoopla, or Lil Lotus would be awesome.Travis [Barker], if you’re reading this, be my drummer haha

14. If you could open for any artist who would it be?
Bring Me The Horizon or Pierce The Veil

15. What’s next for you?
I would like to release my debut EP some time in December, which isn’t gonna include many of the songs I’ve already written, aside from two. Once that’s out, I’ll probably start playing shows and getting this project off living on the internet, and if the universe allows it, a full length. I’m honestly excited to see what the future holds and to meet cool people along the way.