Q&A: Spirit Ghost’s ‘Ordinary People’ is a Gritty, Surf-Rock Letter to the Working Class
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
TEN YEARS AGO SPIRIT GHOST WAS A ONE-MAN OPERATION IN A RHODE ISLAN BEDROOM - born out of Alex Whitelaw’s desire to create without waiting for permission or a schedule. Since then, the project has evolved into a fully realized, genre-bending band that masterfully weaves '60s surf-rock and garage grit with the raw, modern anxieties of the working class. It’s a sound that feels both nostalgic and urgent, nodding to the past while being firmly rooted in the survival of the present.
Following the release of his latest album, Ordinary People, we sat down with Whitelaw to peel back the layers of a decade-long evolution. We discussed the transition from solo bedroom demos to a fully polished studio record, the deep-seated catharsis of processing pandemic-era burnout and why the most vital music today isn't coming from the elite; it's being carved out in the small, stolen moments of a forty-hour work week.
LUNA: Spirit Ghost started as a bedroom project in Rhode Island specifically so you wouldn't have to wait on anyone else’s schedule. Now that you’re a full band releasing a studio album, do you ever miss that total "solitary control," or has the collaboration changed your songwriting for the better?
SPIRIT GHOST: I still have solitary control, it is a project that I am adamant about always doing all of the songwriting for because I don't ever want to be beholden to someone else's vision, or time, or life decisions. It has taken me years to shape my own voice and vision in a way that I find satisfying and I think giving that up now would be a mistake. The live band is the live band, and Corey and Joey sometimes do their live parts on the records, or help with sections, but those will always be heavily influenced by the demos that I've laid out. The exception to this on the new record is "Showtune" which Joey wrote all the music for and I just did the melody and lyrics. I do love having people who can help me see the vision out, but ultimately, I like to have control for this project's foundation.
LUNA: Ordinary People is being described as your most cohesive work to date. After a decade of evolving the Spirit Ghost sound, what was the specific "anchor" or theme that kept these eleven songs tied together during the writing process?
SPIRIT GHOST: I don't really know, I think this is my first effort writing songs since the pandemic and in that time I went through a lot of personal changes, I hated music for a while, I pivoted my focus for two years away from it and on Graphic Design and Video production instead, and I think when I came back to music I realized that I still loved it, or that I loved it again, and that was a very nice feeling. I also think lyrically I just developed a more confident sense of talking about what I want to talk about. I think for a theme I just started being able to talk about my family more and how I grew up and realized that resonates with people beyond me. I honestly would think about my childhood in Massachusetts growing up, and think "damn, some of ya'll don't know what it's like to grow up freezing in your house because you can't afford oil anymore that month, or then sweating bullets in your room in Summer because an AC is too expensive to run." I just wanted to talk about that, I guess.
LUNA: You’ve mentioned that this album deals with processing the "pandemic years" and the personal changes that followed. Was there a specific song on the record that felt the most difficult, or the most cathartic, to finally finish?
SPIRIT GHOST: “Bonjour: felt the most cathartic, I think there was a period in the pandemic where I couldn't go to work because I would just wake up crying, or I would be in the parking lot of my job having a panic attack about going in (I worked at a grocery store through the entirety of the pandemic), my social dynamics had also drastically changed and I was processing that as well. I just kept trying to push everything away and act like everything was normal and would tell myself to get over it and muscle through it, but ultimately I was coming undone everyday till I would exhaust myself enough to be able to sleep. I had a moment where I called to see if I could check myself into an inpatient facility, but found out I could never afford such a luxury as mental health crisis intervention. I just felt very sad and alone and I wrote "Bonjour", I guess, as a reflection of that time.
LUNA: Your sound is a really unique blend of '60s surf-rock, garage, and even some bossa nova and country influences. On Ordinary People, is there a specific "non-rock" influence that people might be surprised to hear tucked away in the arrangements?
SPIRIT GHOST: I don't know, I honestly listen to so much stuff and subconsciously tuck it away that I don't know if there is anything I can think of specifically, especially as far as non rock influences. I listened to a lot of the Fat White Family while writing this and Deerhunter and Randy Newman, but honestly I wrote this album over the course of two or three years, so there's a lot kicking around in there.
LUNA: You recently signed with Happen Twice for this release. How has partnering with an Austin-based label influenced your reach or the way you’re thinking about the "Spirit Ghost" brand as you move into this new era?
SPIRIT GHOST: It's just nice to have help for once. I am a big believer in just make and release stuff and assume no one is gonna give a shit or help, but when someone finally does offer to help, it's fucking huge. It's nice to have another person who is pushing for your music as hard as you are and who feels as invested in it being heard as you are.
LUNA: Looking back at Satan’s Hands or Skeleton Surf Rider, what do you think is the biggest "growing pain" you outgrew between those releases and this new one?
SPIRIT GHOST: I have a million bad things to say about Satan's Hands, but ultimately the main growing pain is just trying to shake out whatever early missteps you may make and to focus on what is next rather than keep revisiting the same old thing. I think Satan's Hands exists as a 19-year-old trying to be wise beyond his years—I personally cringe at those songs. Skeleton Surf Rider, I will defend as being where I feel like I actually understood what kind of music I wanted to make. It feels like the actual first record I should have made and everything before that was just practice runs to develop some sense of style or voice. I think now I am in a place where I can simplify and be more specific about how I want things to sound.
LUNA: Which track means the most to you and why?
SPIRIT GHOST: "Ordinary People" means a lot to me, I think because I liked the concept behind it the most, which is why I named the album after it. I think the working lower classes aren't celebrated enough, especially in this country, for how much we are able to do with so little. I have an ethos at the moment where I really don't give a fuck what you make if you come from money, you aren't special to me, you've been handed a golden ticket and you better be able to fucking make good on it. I want to hear someone who is working 40 hours a week's record that they recorded in their miniscule moments of down time.
I am just tired of being inundated with rich people on reality TV shows or celebrities' opinions. I think my thing currently is, even well-meaning rich people genuinely don't understand how it feels to be told you can't afford your life-saving inhaler, or your insulin, so they're never gonna understand this rage that is bubbling up. I think I have struggled to understand this reaction of "stay calm, stuff will work itself out" when your reality is my rent was due last week and I can barely breathe because I'm so stressed about where the money is gonna come from. I also think I want everyone who is not in this elite rich class of people to understand that these greedy rich fucks are the problem, not immigrants, not refugees, not trans people, and not any other marginalized group, it is the rich and entitled who make our lives miserable and hard to stomach. They are the reason rent is going up, we can't afford health care, or groceries, or utility bills, they do not love you, they don't care if you live or die and they are definitely not your friends. They ruin everything, and our collective rage should be channeled solely on them.
LUNA: If Ordinary People was the soundtrack to a specific '60s cult film, which one would it be and why?
SPIRIT GHOST: I would probably like it to be the soundtrack to Eyes Without a Face, I don't know why, probably because I just watched it recently, but I think it would be cool to be attached to that movie.
LUNA: What is the one thing you want a first-time listener to take away from the album after they hear the final notes of "Bonjour"?
SPIRIT GHOST: I guess that if you're really down, and you feel like no one else has felt that way before, that someone else has, and will understand, and you can turn it around and you can make something out of whatever pain you're feeling at the moment, even if it feels like that isn't the case and that you may never feel normal again, just keep waking up, you will be alright.
