Holy Ghost!, definitely real

Back in 2009, when they toured Australia, New York's Holy Ghost! were mysterious – and anonymous – DJ/producers, affiliated with DFA Records and beloved by bloggers. Today they're a bona fide crossover band, their synth-pop aired in US chain stores like Victoria's Secret. Holy Ghost! have even modelled for a Tommy Hilfiger Denim campaign.

Now, nearly a year on from their eponymous debut, Holy Ghost! are returning to play Future Music Festival 2012. And, says frontman Alex Frankel, he and cohort Nick Millhiser are hoping that this tour fans will sing along. "We toured a bit before the record came out. We did opening tours for LCD Soundsystem and Chromeo and we came to Australia and played Parklife – and all without a record out. Some of the shows were good, but a lot of times people just didn't know the songs. It was good practice for us, but it feels a lot better now that the record has come out... We have people actually knowing the words – or knowing the movement of the songs and stuff – so it's different and better... It seems like people have a closer relationship with us, and with the music, and it makes for better shows."

Holy Ghost! have an old association with DFA's James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy – even though their background lies, not in punk or disco, but hip-hop. Indeed, Alex and Nick were previously in the alt hip-hop Automato, an indie N*E*R*D. They'd formed the group as teens in 1995, signing to EMI. Alex played keys and guitar, with Nick on drums and "triggers". The DFA co-founders produced their 2004 album, now a lost classic. Soon after, Automato splintered, its six members disillusioned by the major label experience. Alex and Nick began experimenting with synths – and making neo '80s Italo disco. As Holy Ghost!, they first released Hold On via DFA in late 2007, following with I Will Come Back (Arthur Baker cameo-ed in a New Order-inspired video, which Mountain Dew's innovative Green Label Sound funded). Holy Ghost! proffered an EP, Static On The Wire, the year prior to their album. Along the way, they remixed everyone from MGMT to Cut Copy to Mark Ronson & The Business Intl (the sublime Somebody To Love Me, featuring Boy George). They also assembled a band.

Holy Ghost! are already at least halfway through a second album, which they intend to complete ahead of FMF. "Alex and I both really have no interest in being as precious and taking as much time as we did on the last record," Nick divulges. "I don't think it necessarily yielded a better result at all (Alex laughs). So I think we're trying to just get in the habit of working faster and being less precious." If Holy Ghost! took several years, it was because the pair produced the music themselves for the first time – they were still learning the ropes. What's more, they wanted to develop their songwriting (the standard of which sufficiently impressed '70s yacht rocker and Doobie Brother Michael McDonald to sing on Some Children). Alex believes that Holy Ghost!'s next outing will be more focussed. "I don't wanna sound arrogant, but I definitely feel more confident and good about our ability to just do something and it not be this massive struggle to write a song – which it was for a long time. There are songs on the record that I have demos for from 2005! I don't think we're in that place anymore, where we'll be struggling so much. Hopefully, it'll be just more light-hearted."

At FMF, Holy Ghost! will no doubt be hanging out with their mates Friendly Fires. (They once issued a special single with the Brits, Holy Ghost! covering their On Board, and Friendly Fires Hold On.) Alex is clamouring to catch Frank Ocean. "I'm very, very excited – that's something that I definitely wanna check out. I'm gonna try to meet him and tell him how much I like him." Holy Ghost! may not be generally enamoured with what passes as contemporary 'urban' music, but they admire its trippier practitioners, such as Ocean, preferring them to the in-vogue dubstep contingent. (In fact, Holy Ghost!'s new material will have a stronger hip-hop emphasis.)

Perhaps Odd Future's resident soulster will check out Holy Ghost!'s show, in turn, the band having "fine-tuned" it since Parklife. "I think we finally got to a place where it's as we wanted it, or envisioned it, and we can just play – and Nick doesn't have to play drums anymore, so that's good," Alex says. Holy Ghost! will join the likes of Murphy and Pat Mahoney, Hercules And Love Affair, and The Juan MacLean on FMF's DFA stage. "I really think it's gonna be great," Nick enthuses. "Whenever we've done these sorts of things in the past – like, with other people on DFA, where we get our own tent – it's always been awesome. We're all friends, we all get along, [and] we all love each other's music, but our music also works together very nicely. It always ends up being a really good time for us and everybody playing – and seemingly for everybody in the crowd... So expect a long day of sweet tunes and dancing."

CATCH HOLY GHOST! ON THE DFA STAGE @ FUTURE MUSIC FESTIVAL