Who are they?
Sometimes-masked Northern Albertan psych deconstructionists and the newest jewelled fragment in the Flemish Eye label’s kaleidoscopic crown. Their self-titled second album, their first for Flemish Eye, drops Tuesday (March 9) in advance of their appearances at CMW’s Alberta showcase and a Criminal Records in-store (March 12, 7:30pm). Founded by singer/guitarist/namesake Shane Ghostkeeper and drummer-singer Sarah Houle, who are orbited by guitarist Jay Crocker, bassist Scott Munroe and synth player Brad Hawkins, the group have a delightful time playing against indie-folk type with arpeggiated picking and lysergic noise that alternately invites and defies comparison. (We’d suggest early Talking Heads via Jennifer Gentle, or Pavement at their most John Fahey–leaning if we really believed that’d cut it — but we don’t.)
Where do they come from?
Literally, Ghostkeeper and Houle are from High Level, Alberta. Spiritually, Ghostkeeper draws inspiration from his Metis upbringing, a musical grounding in old-time and ’70s-era country music, a teenage fascination with Robert Johnson and, later, an inspiring run-in with Pavement’s Terror Twilight and at least one hit of LSD.
“My two uncles played in country cover bands — natural musicians with strong ears,” says Ghostkeeper. “They’d tried to teach me guitar when I was 16 but told me I was tone-deaf. They were right, I think. But it was the opposite of discouraging for me — it totally set me on my own course. It wasn’t meant to be for me to make traditional music, and I wasn’t that interested anyway. It didn’t really matter because I didn’t even know how to tune my guitar. Eventually I learned, but I’ve never been a jammer.”
The band’s intent was as fully formed as Ghostkeeper himself by the time they moved to Calgary some six years ago. “Maximum evolution in our songwriting is our priority.”
He also credits Houle’s painting as a key directive. “She brings all the visual ideas to the band and it’s very influential on the music we make.”
What do they want to do with their life?
Having found a place alongside fellow Calgarians and labelmates Chad VanGaalen and Women, Ghostkeeper observe a policy of unity through diversity. “The only thing we have in common [with Women and VanGaalen] is that we’re on such different tangents. That’s what we shoot for,” Ghostkeeper says.
“Trying to not be a cliché is a big part of our writing intent. The music community across the board is so saturated with power chords — we refuse to play them. I try to make phrases with the guitar instead of strumming or chugging. My big challenge is that I write a song and I can’t play and sing it for a few months. It’s an intentional challenge: every song has got to be something I can’t play yet.”
Where do they keep the ghosts?
Right next to their amazing built-in band lore, which is actually printed on Ghostkeeper’s birth certificate. “Ghostkeeper is a loose English translation for an old Cree name meaning medicine man,” he says.
“We have a long line of medicine men in our lineage. Another version [of the story behind my name] is that my dad’s great-grandpa was the graveyard caretaker on a Metis settlement north of Edmonton called Kathleen. His nickname was Ghostkeeper, so his kids took that on as a legal last name. These are the different stories I grew up with.”