Spirit Ghost dresses lyrical vulnerability up with infectious psych rock in third LP “Ordinary People”

As the ice melts around Boston, local group Spirit Ghost prepares to launch into their own dizzying psych rock rebirth with the release of Ordinary People on March 27th. The project, their third full-length offering, is an amalgamation of past work with a sharper edge. 

“It’s mind control,” the first track refrains, a hypnotic introduction to the world of Alex Whitelaw, the frontman of Spirit Ghost. Along with Joey Distasio (guitar), Sarah Addi (keys/aux percussion/vocals), Harley Spring (bass), and Corey Camara (drums), the five-piece act brings the listener further down the rabbit hole, alternating between the mid-tempo groove of “Dancer” with tongue-in-cheek cynicism (“hate your husband and love your neighbor”) and the indie-film-soundtrack-ready “Teeth Like a Dog.” 

We caught up with Alex to discuss the project’s evolution, notable influences, and cross-country DIY scenes. 

Yellow Light Mag: This is your first release off Happen Twice, after signing with the label. How has it been working with a team for roll-out?

Alex Whitelaw: It has been really nice. In the past I have always handled everything myself, compiling emails for college radio stations, blogs, venues, etc… and sending emails into the void for countless hours. It has been nice to be able to offload some of the workload to Chandler at Happen Twice, he’s been a big help in organizing the release details so I can focus more on the visual side of things. 

YLM: “I don’t feel like hanging out when I’m barely even hanging in,” cuts deep in “Dancer.” What’s your songwriting process like?

AW: I honestly don’t know if I have a set way of doing things. With that song I just kept playing that first chord and humming what became the melody. Sometimes I write about external things, but mostly I am someone with a lot of paranoia and OCD and sometimes I can exhaust myself before I even get out of bed. I kind of liked writing about that and how I actually feel. Sometimes through metaphor and sometimes literally just asking to be held because I’m scared and alone. I also think it’s fine to admit to being a coward sometimes. I don’t know though, every song is different.

YLM: How do you modernize the psych/garage sound? Any notable influences?

AW: I think it all just comes down to lyrics, but I don’t even know if that’s true. I think really I’m just ripping off Ray Davies and Dave Davies or Randy Newman, people who have already done what I’m doing but a million times better. 

YLM: “Dumb Eyed” has a haunting sound, almost a palpable sense of unrest with echoing vocals and keyboard riffs. Is the feeling intentional (perhaps fitting with the project name)?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRDLbzPCB-0

AW: I think I wrote that song thinking it was going to be fun, and then I started doing my old trick of making the lyrics about self loathing and restlessness, and feeling like I always need to be doing something to improve myself. I don’t know that I can ever intend a feeling in a song. I don’t possess that kind of forethought. 

YLM: You used to be Providence-based. How has that DIY community helped to shape this project over the years? 

AW: I’m actually Boston based now, but I don’t know, growing up it kind of never felt like I fit in with anyone else doing music. And kind of always felt like I was on the outside looking in. Which has probably helped to shape me to some degree. I think the DIY scene here right now is the strongest it's been in years and there’s a lot of cool bands around. I honestly credit my time in Austin a lot for helping me develop and shape this project and myself as a musician. I think it was validating to go there and feel a little more at home.

YLM: There’s an interview in The Luna Collective where you mentioned that you were reassessing the role you’d have in Spirit Ghost moving forward. Has this feeling changed since 2023? 

AW: I don’t entirely remember what I said, but if I had to guess, no. I was pretty depressed and apathetic about music at that time. The pandemic really took it out of me, and I felt kind of lost and hopeless. I think I felt like I had been grinding for years and had made this thing I was really proud of and I think only a small group of people actually heard it. It also just felt like all my hard work fell apart and personal relationships fell apart. I feel a kind of skeptical optimism at the moment, which is about as good as it gets for me. 

YLM: Continuing that thought, Spirit Ghost spanned years of your twenties. What was the evolution of the project like? Do you feel like you grew up with it?

AW: I do. I don’t come from a musical family, or a family of artists, or anything like that. My dad was a letter carrier for the USPS and my mom worked at Dairy Mart when I was young before she became a nurse. So for me, it’s been about can I do this, at all? And I think I keep trying to prove to myself that I can. I think I keep trying to find new ways to push it a little further and I think I’ve gotten better as a songwriter as each release has happened. 

I think that’s all I really care about when it comes to music, and it feels nice to keep proving to myself that I can write songs. Any external validation is cool, but ultimately I’m still just trying to be a me that my 16 year old self would idolize. 

YLM: Any yellow lights in your life at the moment? 

AW: I think maybe with music again, it’s tempting to push it at the moment, but I think I’ve operated over the past two years with the same kind of attitude I had when I started, I just care that I like doing it again. I don’t really care about anything else.

Catch Spirit Ghost this week at SXSW in Austin, TX.

Album release shows:

4/3 Warehouse XI in Somerville, MA with Fortuna 500 and Ravi Shavi

4/4 Berlin in New York, NY with Balaclava and Jewelry

Ordinary People is available across streaming platforms on March 27th.