A. Swayze & The Ghosts have announced a new album, 'Let's Live a Life Better Than This'
The band have also shared a new single and video, 'He Is Dead'.
A. Swayze & The Ghosts have announced their second studio album 'Let's Live a Life Better Than This', set for release on 25th October. The band have also shared a new single and video, 'He Is Dead'.
Frontman Andrew Swayze spoke about the writing process for 'He Is Dead', saying, "The lyrics for 'He Is Dead' came to me like a bolt from the heavens. I was playing around with a loop I made from one of Ben's demos that had a guitar progression on top of a LinnDrum groove. I hit record and the entire first verse came out immediately - that's often how I write lyrics: ad-lib and allow whatever melodies and words bubble out of my subconscious. It's only recently that I've allowed myself to keep them rather than overthink it. Interestingly, I've found that the meaning of these ramblings often becomes apparent later on in the process. There's something mystical about that to me."
Swayze also directed, filmed, and edited the music video for 'He Is Dead'. He described the process: "We shot the music video in a couple of hours before we had to arrive at a soundcheck. It was still light out, so we had to board up every window in my rental, and Cora kept wandering into the shots as we filmed ourselves watching television. The process was actually quite meditative: sitting in silence watching the same nonsense scenes over and over. I suppose that's exactly what a lot of us spend our time doing throughout our lives, but without the meditation and without noticing."
Frontman Andrew Swayze spoke about the writing process for 'He Is Dead', saying, "The lyrics for 'He Is Dead' came to me like a bolt from the heavens. I was playing around with a loop I made from one of Ben's demos that had a guitar progression on top of a LinnDrum groove. I hit record and the entire first verse came out immediately - that's often how I write lyrics: ad-lib and allow whatever melodies and words bubble out of my subconscious. It's only recently that I've allowed myself to keep them rather than overthink it. Interestingly, I've found that the meaning of these ramblings often becomes apparent later on in the process. There's something mystical about that to me."
Swayze also directed, filmed, and edited the music video for 'He Is Dead'. He described the process: "We shot the music video in a couple of hours before we had to arrive at a soundcheck. It was still light out, so we had to board up every window in my rental, and Cora kept wandering into the shots as we filmed ourselves watching television. The process was actually quite meditative: sitting in silence watching the same nonsense scenes over and over. I suppose that's exactly what a lot of us spend our time doing throughout our lives, but without the meditation and without noticing."
'Let's Live a Life Better Than This' was written over four years between Melbourne and various locations across Tasmania. The album marks the band's first self-produced effort and was mixed by Andy Savours. They moved away from their previous "band-in-a-room" method to writing during the production process, partly due to losing their rehearsal space. This change allowed for more experimentation and a broader range of influences, including techno, electro, hardcore, trap, and black metal.
Swayze reflected on the band's journey and the album's creation, saying, "To us, the two are intertwined – without one, the other would cease to have existed. We started as a fierce, self-destructive garage-punk band, reeling from their career being derailed by covid, to a thoughtful and artistically liberated group held together by love and respect for one another."
Swayze reflected on the band's journey and the album's creation, saying, "To us, the two are intertwined – without one, the other would cease to have existed. We started as a fierce, self-destructive garage-punk band, reeling from their career being derailed by covid, to a thoughtful and artistically liberated group held together by love and respect for one another."