Tobias Forge, frontman for the heavy metal outfit Ghost, explained that one of the popular characters he performs on stage,  Cardinal Copia, will likely return on the band’s next album. Copia was prominently featured for live shows before the band’s last album release Prequelle.

“Right now, if everything goes according to plan, we’re hoping for Cardi to be strong enough and cool enough to possibly do something that none of the previous ones have done, and that’s basically to do two cycles,” Forge explained in an interview with The Music Podcast.

Forge explained that it took a while for him to warm up to the character, which has grown in popularity. “Not even I liked him to begin with. But now I can’t wait to see him hopefully accomplish these things and I really look forward to possibly seeing him in the skull paint and real papal attire,” Forge explained.

This character was made to replace the famous Papa Emiritus character, which Forge wore throughout the first three Ghost albums. Their latest release Prequelle, won Grammy awards, during the last iteration of the awards show.

“It’s a great honor — very, very joyous,” says Forge, in an interview with Billboard. “You’d think that anyone who experienced being nominated and winning one maybe wouldn’t care so much about getting another one, but I can really vouch that is not the case. I have felt tremendously overjoyed with the first nomination and then it completely blew my mind when I won it last time. And now when I got nominated again, it definitely feels like tremendous.”

For this latest release Forge will no longer have the anonymity that he had for the previous records, where his name was unknown. This upcoming project, which was announced last month, will be the first where Forge will operate with a fair amount of celebrity.

“I got to spend a few years, at least, working undercover, having the luxury of being somewhat anonymous, or masked,” Forge further elaborated. “I’ve definitely felt the joy of being able to go in and out of being a celebrity, which I do like a lot. Sometimes you get reminded that you cannot escape from it; That’s the sort of thing I have to quickly sort of get used to, but I am not in any way saying it’s painful or anything. It’s not.”

With this new album the artist has featured a newfound confidence for the album, and he remains excited for what the future project will hold. A good amount of it is currently finished and is currently going through the recording process.

“Luckily this time around I feel very certain as to what I want to do,” Forge elucidated. “I have tons of bits and pieces and stuff written, and I know that once I really start working that there’s going to be a record which feels very inspired. The dramaturgic nature of the records and the stories are getting more and more intertwined nowadays, which I like. It’s almost like working with a series, I guess; You have your characters and you can still fuck with them and add new things and take things away. You can do whatever you want, which is always enticing from a creative standpoint.”

Photo Credit: Ekaterina Gorbacheva