Wax Artistic: Ghosts of the Great Lakes: 3/2/10 Interview

     Traipsing into a smoke-filled dive, I'm flagged down by Ghosts of the Great Lakes' Benny West, who is accompanied by bandmates Jeff Goodman and Ben Bojanich (as well as Their Teeth Will Be Of Lions' Derek Feltner and his lady, in a serendipitous twist of fate); "Cupid's Shuffle" is blasting at a tacky volume; a squadron of rough-looking, first-week-of-the-month partiers "shuffle" accordingly.
     Over Magic Hat #9, Kamikazes, and awkwardly large plates of nachos, we rap for awhile about La Dispute, Dead Scene Radio's next album, the NOISE! Convention, and Teeth's upcoming album release show (Goodman: "We've been trying to get on a show with SpaceLift for years! Well, for a year...") while we beat around the bush at the real reason we're there: to discuss Ghosts of the Great Lakes' new lineup, new perspective, and most of all, their new release, "Erasing You."

     Having replaced their original bass player (Mike Snyder, currently of Guardian Devil) and drummer (Dane McClarren, currently of Aploid and various other experimental percussion-oriented music projects), Ghosts have been spending time laying low from the Kalamazoo scene, concentrating on finding their stride as a mostly-new band.
     The Ghosts seem to agree that the new rhythm section contributes to a very different overall sound for the band. Their drummer is a newcomer on the Kalamazoo scene, Jesse Blankenship, a studio drummer from Minnesota with a degree in percussion. "Jesse is a lot more 'rock' [than McClarren]" says Goodman, Ghosts' guitarist. "Dane had a lot more jam and hip-hop influences. Jesse is a great 'broad' drummer... he's solid."
     Goodman continued that new bassist Ben Bojanich is "more complex" than their original bass player, and that Snyder's playing was "more straightforward," allowing for the complexity of Bojanich's style to lend a noticeable freshness to Ghosts' formerly austere sound. "I'm really a guitar player," says Bojanich, who is heavily influenced by Joy Division, Modest Mouse's Johnny Mars, and, most of all The Cure. "The Cure is a big deal to me," he says. "They are the Bob Dylan of their genre."
     Though Bojanich is considerably younger than the rest of the crew ("He's the Young Buck to our 3 6 Mafia"), he's settled into the crew with no problems. Bojanich remembers an immediate click between himself and Blankenship musically: "Jesse and I locked in fast," he said. And while Goodman and West, who have been playing together since extremely-short-lived 2008 Kalamazoo band Designer Virus, seem to miss, in certain ways, their former bandmates and their contributions, they seem excited about the new direction the band has taken. "We're the strongest we've ever been," says West.

     At this point we're screaming at one another to communicate over the horrific metal that the bar is blasting, at this reasonable hour of a week night. West has had enough. He flags down our waitress: "Dude..." he says. "I'm so young. But seriously. Turn this shit down." West, dripping with quintessential frontman charisma, does not seem the least bit surprised when she immediately complies, lowering the music to a more tolerable volume. Known for his "diva" antics, such as storming off a stage at Corner Bar after sound issues, West has gained notoriety throughout the local music community. For him, though, it's about high expectations: "I honestly only care about technicality, and the quality of our music," he says. "We're not competitive with other bands, we're competitive with ourselves."
     And though they maintain that their main drive is self satisfaction, and that they don't condone Battles of the Bands or other such band competitions for "novelty prizes and that kind of shit" that facilitate hostility between members of music communities, they do seem to be feeling the pressures of the competition within the Kalamazoo scene. "At every show we play, we try to be the best band there," says Goodman. Admirers of local bands-- Their Teeth Will Be of Lions, and especially of Immigrant Blue-- Ghosts do also have their share of scene rivals: "Other bands hate us," says West. "We are the most hated band in Kalamazoo. I feed off of it. I love it."

     This unique take on the brotherhood, if you will, that could/ should/ sometimes does exist between local bands takes a backseat to Ghosts of the Great Lakes' tendency to look at the proverbial Big Picture: themselves as part of a the current music industry in general. In the April 2009 issue of Revue, Ghosts' first album, "The Death of the Party" was featured, at which time it was hailed as a "resurrection of the album," and West speculated on an ever-growing controversy to post-Napster generation radioheads: the diminishing of the album, in favor of iTunes-ready singles padded by meaningless filler. West adamantly opposes this trend, opting instead for its counterpoint: the concept album (which both "The Death of the Party" and "Erasing You" are proclaimed to be); West waxes artistic on the subject at length during our interview, revealing that the track "Dear Billy" on the upcoming record is a call-out on one of West's idols, Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan, for selling out to single-culture.
     In discussion of what to expect on the next record, West yanks up the hood on his black sweatshirt, takes a swig from a bottle of Heineken, and, moments later, says it all: "Fashion, dude. It's fuckin' fashion." Fashion and graphic design have been at the heart of Ghosts' image since they first hit the scene late 2008. Referring to the designer duds, high-end gear, stylish promotional strategy and glitzy album artwork for which the band has become known, Goodman states "It's not just about the music, it's the whole vibe." Bojanich agrees immediately, adding that Ghosts' image-oriented presence is "about professionalism."
     With their propensity to leave no detail ignored, we might already know what to expect from Ghosts of the Great Lakes' new release. Still... what of the epic tale of city life, drug addiction, and doomed love that was told in "Death of the Party?" (which seemed to change slightly from interview to interview). What of the unnamed protagonist mentioned in the Revue feature? West assures that "'Erasing You' is an accompaniment to 'The Death of the Party.' It fills in the blanks in the album and takes it past its ending point [the instrumental 'London']."
     One thing we know for sure about "Erasing You:" its track list, posted prematurely on the band's MySpace blog. I mentioned this in my last post, and I couldn't help but bring it up in the interview: "I knew that was coming!" said West. He continued to explain that to "some people," it was important to know the next part of the self-proclaimed cliff-hanger that was "The Death of the Party;" furthermore, they weren't concerned about taking away suspense for the album release, maintaining that their fans appreciated the information: "Anyone who's ever called me in the middle of the night crying because they listened to 'Souls' appreciates that. It fuckin' matters to people."
     Whether or not you cried listening to "Souls," you can be sure that "Erasing You" will pick us up right where we left off: a glamorous big-city escapade: addiction, heartache and "fashion" galore. 

     Around eleven pm, the bar cranks back up the prison-core metal. "Is this Mindless Self Indulgence?" asks Goodman good-naturedly. "Whatever it is, it's fucking my face," counters West.
     On that note...

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Ghosts of the Great Lakes will release their second full-length, "Erasing You" June 16th, 2010 at Papa Pete's.