Add Good Ghost to the list of electro-pop acts from the Blackgrass soundscape east of Toronto, a list that includes Lyon, Kaska, Programm and Havens. The Oshawa-based Good Ghost were originally a folk two piece called Lady & The Giant but Katie Munshaw and Charlie Spencer soon tired of the genre’s restraints. Spencer’s brothers were added, Alex on guitar, Mack on bass.
“The folk thing was becoming less fun,” says Spencer. “We wanted to do more complicated things and two voices and a guitar is somewhat limiting. So it made sense to add the two other minds.”
The complexity stems from a collective love of old jazz cuts, poet Sylvia Plath and intelligent but accessible lyricists such as Coner Obersest of Bright Eyes and Lorde.
“She says such grand things with minimalist words,” says Munshaw.
The two also cite Alvvays, Bahamas and Brave Shores as sonic kin. That sonic kinship is a very stylish, clean sound, a sound that has a neatness to it and a sound that is centred in Toronto but also comes in for the U.K says Munshaw.
Spencer says the band is drawn to Toronto’s indie scene and not just for the shiny happy music. There is a sense of all-togetherness he says about the city that gave rise to Broken Social Scene and Metric as well as labels Arts & Crafts and Paper Bag Records.
“Oshawa is very much a folk scene, and country rock roots and it’s tough to break in. I feel a kinship with Toronto bands. Its a different scene. When you see local Toronto bands out at other Toronto bands’ shows its very encouraging to me. It shows it is a very established scene and there is a lot of camaraderie which you don’t see so much in other places,” he says.
Seeing other bands in other places is new to the recent high school grads (they’ve given themselves a year off to try and make music work) and seeing live what they have heard on a record has underlined the importance of making live work for them too.
“When we build songs we sometimes say crap we have to play this live,” says Munshaw.
“If it can’t be accurately replicated or even a good enough version of it live I think it takes away from the artist as a whole,” says Spencer.
So expect the whole Ghost live and on record, and expect their neatpop to just get better and better.