July 10, 2009 11:00

Haunted sessions for Conor Oberst, My Morning Jacket's Monsters Of Folk

Monsters Of Folk say they had spectral visits in Malibu

Monsters Of Folk – the supergroup featuring Conor Oberst and Mike Mogie of Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket's Jim James and M Ward – have claimed that sessions for their debut album were haunted by ghosts.

The foursome are set to release their self-titled album, due out September 15 – with James explaining that they had some spectral visitors during sessions at Malibu's Shangri-La studios.

"Before it was a studio, back in the '30s, it was a bordello," he told NME.COM, speaking of the studio that has hosted legends including Neil Young and Bob Dylan in the past.

He added: "You can feel some of the scary, sad ghosts of the brothel. M [Ward] actually saw one. He was freaked out, he didn't want to be in that room for a while. You feel a lot of ghosts there but most of them feel pretty friendly."

Conor Oberst spoke more about the recording sessions for the album, explaining the concept of the set-up.

"The only rule we made was that we only wanted the four of us to play on it," he explained. "There were no extra hired guns, no drummers… we took turns playing drums and bass and experimenting."

For the full interview with Oberst and James see the new issue of NME, out now.