Grinning Ghosts

Formed in 2013 the Grinning Ghosts set out to be the Velvet Underground of the 90’s. Thomas and Daryl attended the same elementary school where they were instructed in music by a man that played an ewok in Return of the Jedi (1983). They have multiple releases with Burger Records and have opened for Together Pangea, Plague Vendor, Peach Kelli Pop, Jurassic Shark, and Post Life. Grinning Ghosts have toured extensively, playing festivals like SXSW. They are currently releasing a series of EPs followed by a full length album. 

"The story of this LP’s creation is the story of a labored, painful process; it being largely the result of compromises and disappointments accrued over the course of at least three years, but really much longer than that, I think. Perhaps this even stretches the entire friendships of us who’ve made it.

Most all the songs included in the album’s final track listing (Funeral and Don’t Want Me being the only exceptions, I believe) were songs that were floating around at the time we released our first record, “Yesterday, Tomorrow” in 2015. We had a pool of songs leftover and left off of that record—songs that didn’t fit in for whatever reason, and that we could not see fitting in with our perceived future—but still, they were songs we liked. And so, it was decided that before moving onto our ambitious second record (and the accompanying development in aesthetic and perspective that this would surely necessitate), we should record and put out some of these stockpiled songs while it still sort of made sense for us to put them out. Three years later this has somewhat come to pass. 

It is not inaccurate to say that Youth on the Rack is an album of b-sides. From a pool of about 50 songs written before Yesterday (all of us being songwriters), and a couple written after, we selected and recorded approximately 33 songs. It took approximately three week-long-clusters of recording sessions (more or less) spaced out over two years to complete this. Studio time was intermittent due to lack of money and scheduling problems. These issues were further compounded by complications in our personal and interpersonal relationships. 

Since the early days of the album’s planing, I thought of Youth as a triple album with a loose concept tying it together. This proved to become more true in the process of its completion as the record grew to become more about us, in addition to all the prior meanings it had been imbued with. Its songs were selected, sequenced, and recorded with that in mind. And with the hope that the entire thing would work together to convey a larger sentiment, and that the sum total of its parts would be greater than any individual component."

Youth on the Rack is fundamentally a break up album. Breaking up with girlfriends. Breaking up with rock and roll. Breaking up the band. Breaking up as friends. Breaking up as self.
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Instagram: @thegrinningghosts
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