Love Ghost
American alt-rock teenage band Love Ghost released their new single “Scarlett Letter” on March 26th.
Produced by Eric Lilavois (Saint Motel, Surfer Blood), “Scarlett Letter” touches on violist Mya Greene’s misdiagnosis of autism.
“The lyrics to this song were inspired by a personal experience which I felt reflected a current trend and deserved social commentary. This experience was the degrading, devastating, and humiliating experience of receiving and living with a misdiagnosis of having autism while growing up, which drastically altered my educational path, as well as the expectations of those closest to me regarding my ability to ultimately acquire independence, and opened the floodgates for lots of stigmatization” reveals Greene.
Formed by Finn Bell (Vocals, keys, guitar), Mya Greene (Viola), Ryan Stevens (Bass) and Samson Young(Drums), the Los Angeles band will be releasing their upcoming album in spring 2018.
Introduce the band. Where are you from?
Hello, We are Love Ghost and we are from Los Angeles, California.
How did you guys meet? When did you decide to form Love Ghost?
It’s actually a strange story as it was a conjunction of different realities such as me (Finnegan) and Mya being family friends, I met Ryan from a mutual friend and I met Sammy from the School of Rock.
What’s the story behind your band’s name?
We were basically all out of band names and I found that at this particular time in my life (about three years ago) the two most prominent subjects that my mind was dabbling in was Love and Death. So i proposed that we be called “Love Death” upon uttering that I realized it was the most ridiculous thing that came out of my larynx, so I suggested “Love Ghost”. The band agreed that would be not a terrible option.
How would you define your sound?
It’s a hard alternative rock with lot’s of influences from Grunge, Jazz and Classical.
Do you remember your first live performance together? How was it like? What lessons did you learn from that first experience?
I mean the lineup is completely different now, but our first show was at Genghis Kahn, in Fairfax District in Hollywood. I’d like to say that it was pretty awkward. I learned to compress the amounts of tunings so there wasn’t a 2 minute tuning break between each song.
Your new single "Scarlett Letter” deals with an important message. What made you want to write about this particular topic?
I mean, I didn’t write the lyrics for this particular song, however it is something close to me. Being diagnosed with depression and attention deficit disorder (ADD) at an early age definitely stigmatized me and made me feel like a pariah. However, as I got older I figured out that my journey wasn’t unique, the feeling of being different is very regulated in this society, it’s everywhere around me. I think the universality of this song is what speaks to me. The fact that I have my labels that the world has given me and that has shaped my worldview and the views that the world has of me.
What do you want people to feel when listening to this record?
I don’t know if I have a particular emotion that I would want people to feel, I think that I just want to make music that I’m genuinely proud of and people can interpret it in any way that they want.
You worked with Eric Lilavois on this record. How was it like to work with him?
I loved working with Eric, he was incredibly receptive to us manifesting our ideas sonically. He broke it down starting with our roots, such as why we got into music in the first place, our musical influences even down to our Myers Briggs personality types and our personal role in the band’s dynamic. Not just our instrumentation but what we bring to the band, such as being the experimental factor, the stability, the compass, etc.
Listen to “Scarlett Letter” here.
In your opinion, what makes a good band?
In my opinion being in a band is just about making good music. It’s as simple as that. It’s about writing things that you know about, not just things that are contemporary popular such as girls or cars.
What do you want to accomplish as a band?
I want to write really great music that i’m proud of.
What do you like the most about songwriting? What do you like to write about?
Songwriting for me was always a release, my head can drive me crazy and ruminate and spin around certain memories or ideas until it feels suffocating. My songwriting is therapeutic to me, it’s the release of negative energy. What I love about song writing is that it helps me make sense of my place in the world. It helps me discover who I am and finalize my opinions on things.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
I write about things that are personal to me, it’s about what my thoughts and life look like in that specific period of time.
What message do you want to deliver to the world?
I think that there’s a lot of messages i would like to deliver to the world, the finality of that statement kinda scares me. I think that i’d like to leave this world with having people get the freedom to draw their own conclusions about our music.
In your opinion, what would make the world a better place?
So many things would change the world for better, I think that if there was no rape in the world it would be a better place, sexual abuse or abuse in general in such an awful cycle and so many people fall into it, running around in a hamster wheel of getting hurt and hurting others. If that cycle could end I think they’re be a lot more smiling in the world. Including from me.
Any upcoming projects?
Yes! I’m writing many music videos and working with animators on music videos for the songs.
What’s your purpose?
Our purpose is to write really fucking good music.
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