Games

Casper The Ghost on gaming, music, LA and their new track

The sensation duo Casper The Ghost is about to stream at Red Bull Gaming Sphere while releasing their newest track 'The Box'. We talked to the duo about gaming, music and a lot more. Check it out!

Written by Joakim Henningson

9 min readPublished on 26.04.2022 · 10:54 UTC

Voted 'Framtidens Artist' on P3, about to move to LA and just about to release a new track - Casper The Ghost is on the move. The cousins from Järvsö, Casper Brodin and Victor Hillbom, began their music careers in hip hop and trap before moving on to alternative rock - always experimenting and trying new sounds. They are also huge gamers and play a variety of genres. On April 28, they'll go to Red Bull Gaming Sphere in Stockholm to stream - you can watch it all HERE - and release their new single 'The Box'. We had a chat with the boys about gaming, esports, music, their beginnings and a lot more! Enjoy! 👇

How did you get into gaming?

C: We were just talking about it now. It was actually Victor's big brother that got us into gaming when we were kids. He was playing various games, some of which we really got into.

V: He showed us how to download Counter-Strike and helped us set up our Steam accounts and all that. Actually, way, way back he bought a Nintendo 64 - Casper, do you remember? - and that was our first glimpse into the world of gaming.

C: But it was Counter-Strike 1.6 that really hit us. It was the first game that we would sit inside and just play, hour after hour.

V: Before that though, me and my brother played GoldenEye on the Nintendo 64! I remember that we fought a lot when playing haha. He's older than me and was a much better player, so yeah, sometimes it got a little frustrating.

C: Oh, I remember Halo as well! It was so good. We played a lot of 1v1s against each other on the first Xbox.

We'll play all kinds of games. I'll set up a few custom ARAM games and invite people to join us. Counter-Strike, Fortnite, yeah, all kinds of different games. It's all about having fun!
Casper on which games they'll play on the Sphere

Which games do you play the most now and what's your favorite genre?

V: Nowadays, I think that me and Casper don't play the same type of games. I'm really into single player story mode type of games. Zelda, Red Dead Redemption, Skyrim - those kinds of story driven, not competitive, adventure types.

C: I really love competition, so I'm all about multiplayer. I need to compete. So, I play all kinds of different multiplayer games. Right now, I'm really into League of Legends. And Super Smash Bros. I think that Smash is my favorite game right now, actually. I'm terrible at it, but it's so damn fun! Historically though, it's League and CS that I've played the most. I used to play World of Warcraft as well, but it wasn't competitive enough, so I got bored haha. So to sum it up, 5v5 is my jam.

V: I used to play a lot of 5v5s as well. CS, League and all that. But now, I'm more about cozy it up with a good single player mode. I'm currently really into Red Dead Redemption.

C: My roommate is playing a lot of Elden Ring right now. Sometimes, I watch when he plays and he gets f*cking nuts haha. I've actually gotten quite invested when he plays, so when he beats a hard boss we're both screaming and celebrating haha.

Do you follow any esports?

C: I used to watch all of the CS:GO Majors, or all of the big CS competitions, really. Now, I'm only watching the big League of Legends competitions. LEC every weekend, I'm going to watch the MSI. I'm definitely Worlds later on. So yeah, it's all about Leagues for me right now. I love it! I'm excited about the new patch going into MSI. I think it will favor G2's playstyle.

Have games ever inspired some of your music?

V: Way back, when I played CS 1.6, me and a friend used to gib a lot. My friend was a major Basshunter fan. So, while we were playing, we listened to Basshunter and Any Radio. After a while we started to produce our own music. I was about twelve at the time. Back then, I was prodding mostly trance and techno.

C: For me, it was during my Call of Duty years. I was watching a lot of FaZe Clan videos. They produced Best Of and Illcams videos which were accompanied by amazing hip hop music that I really got into. I think that has inspired me how I create and write music. I think it's more about the embedded music in the gaming culture rather than any particular game that has inspired me.

Red Bull Gaming Sphere Stockholm
© Adrian Berggren

We've actually never been there, but we've heard from a lot of friends that it's awesome. So we are really excited to go there and hang out!
Casper on Red Bull Gaming Sphere

How and why did you decide to become artists?

V: It all started during the gib sessions when I was twelve. I dreamt about becoming a famous DJ, a House music producer. And then, as Casper is my cousin and we've always been close, he joined when I was prodding and came up with his own ideas. Since Casper wanted to rap, we began making hip hop music.

C: Exactly, I loved hip hop and started to compete in rap battles at school in the eight grade. Me and Victor started to produce a few songs, just for fun. And then I was hooked. That's how it all started.

V: We come from a family of musicians. Almost everyone of us works with music in some way or the other. Producers, vocalists, you name it. We got music in our blood. It came very naturally.

C: I think the desire to make music came earlier for you, Victor. When I grew up I was more of a sports guy. I played a lot of football and hockey. So it wasn't until I was maybe 15, or 16, when I switched from sports to music, because I simply enjoyed it more, when I felt I wanted to create my own music.

Victor from Casper The Ghost
© Oskar Sandström

We love to be up here. The peace of mind really lights the spark of creativity. It enables us to make better music.
Victor on their studio in Järvsö

You have over 200.000 monthly listeners on Spotify - why do you think people love your music?

V: I hope they like us because we do something different. Something people haven't heard before. We're trying to do our own thing and create our own sound.

C: I feel that in the North, and in Europe, we're trying to do something new. Something that no one does. And I think that people enjoy that and like the exclusivity of it. It's a little bit like "Those who know, they know" you know? We do something different and new. It's always been important for us to go our own way and do our own thing. We don't go down a path just because others do it. Either you love us or hate us, I don't give a damn. I'm just happy if someone likes what we do.

You went to LA a while ago - tell us about it?

V: We had a great time over there! We rented a house and we worked with a lot of different artists and musicians. Everyday we woke up and immediately went to our studio and hung out all day long, met with fun and interesting people and made music.

C: It felt like we made 2-3 new songs everyday! It was a lot of work. We also filmed a music video in the desert together with our friend Frankie. We went to a concert at The Roxy. Traveled around, met with new people and tried to make as much music as we could. It was great!

Do you think you'll move over there in the future?

C: Definitely. I want to move there as soon as possible! Our music, what we do, simply works better over there. We made more collaborations and relations in LA over the two times we stayed there than what we've made in the last four years in Sweden. I think that Americans generally like us more than Swedes. Our texts are in English, so it might be logical. So yeah, we want to push our music in the States a lot more.

Casper from Casper The Ghost
© Oskar Sandström

We're always trying to reinvent ourselves and get better. So, I think the track is a testimony to ourselves that we're developing and are always open to experimentation. Thinking outside the box.
Victor on their new single 'The Box'

Was it always a certainty that you would create music together? How did you decide to create the duo Casper The Ghost?

C: It was never a certainty that I would become a musician. Victor was the one that knew early on that he wanted a career in music and, at the time, I just thought his decision to become a DJ was cool and wanted to support him as much as I could. Then something clicked; after the rap battles I had in school I got more and more interested in creating something and made a couple of hip hop tracks with Victor, just for fun, and made them public. When we hit 1 million views, we knew we had something going. That's when we decided to go for it and created Casper The Ghost.

V: I didn't even like hip hop when we first started. Or trap. I mean, I liked listening to it, but I preferred prodding house music. But that all changed after a couple of tracks. And I guess it went pretty well after that haha!

What motivates you?

C: Our fans are definitely one of our biggest motivations. They are everything to us. Another huge motivation is the strive to always be better. I'm never satisfied. Everything can always get a little better.

V: It's like, you release a song and immediately go on to the next one, wanting to do it even better, even more sick. Win over yourself all the time. Improve after every track.

C: Exactly, compete against yourself. Learn, improve, try new things and get better and better. To see how far you can go. To prove to yourself if you're capable enough to reach your dreams. And to do that together with Victor. We've always done everything together. Our biggest motivation is probably to reach our dreams together.

C: Our fans also give us so much love. They're crazy. Wonderful. We hope that they feel that we're giving back all the love. We have the best fanbase in the world!

What would you do if you weren't artists?

C: I would've played football, I think. Or started a company. I've always had the drive to do my own thing, to go my own way. That's always been important to me.

V: Probably something creative. I've always enjoyed being creative. Maybe a graphic designer or something like that. Or a carpenter haha, I've always enjoyed that as well!

What's next for Casper The Ghost and where do you see yourselves in the future?

V: In America, playing on Coachella!

C: Yeah, as I see it we're going to America as soon as possible. Making music. And then travel around the world on tour. Doing our thing. Making better music, doing better concerts. That's the goal!