An Interview with Ghost of the Mill
Ghost of the Mill is an electrifying original hard rock band out of Philadelphia, carving out their own path with a powerful combination of dual lead guitarists and vocalists. Since their formation in 2018, they’ve been steadily growing their local following and performing alongside national and regional touring acts. In this interview, the band gives us a glimpse into their creative process, musical inspirations, and their determination to push boundaries with their music.
Hey, thanks for chatting with us. Tell us a little about yourself.
We are an original hard rock/guitar rock band out of Philly. We operate off of the time-tested formula of the four-piece band – two guitarists, who trade off on leads, bass, and drums. We also feature two lead vocalists (our bassist and one of the guitarists), creating variability in our sound.
We formed in 2018 and over the past six years we have built a strong local following and have elevated the types of venues we play. Our sweet spot has been opening for national and regional touring bands in small concert venues. We’ve made solid progress and are at a point where we want to expand our listener and fan base.
Who or what inspired you to start making music? And, when did you start?
We began writing as a band from day 1 as we were all aligned with the goal of creating original music. Our inspiration comes from the feeling we get when we create a new song that moves the audience. It’s hard to put into words. We don’t set out to write songs we think people we like – we focus on riffs and melodies that we feel good about, and the rest takes care of itself. We know this is the hardest route, but it’s the most rewarding.
What is your biggest challenge as an artist?
Expanding our listening base. In the era of streaming it’s never been easier to get your music out there, but it’s also never been harder to break through. We’re lucky to have a strong local following and the biggest challenge is to expand our exposure nationally and internationally.
What is your favorite project or single you have released?
We’ve had a blast recording all of the songs we’ve released so far. The recording process is its own animal. We hooked up with a great producer and sound engineer, Wayne Becker from Westwires USA in Allentown PA. He really gets what we’re about and he specializes in creating that organic, live vibe that works so well for us.
The last single we released, Sun Dome, was pretty cool. The riff is straightforward and the lyrics were inspired by a cool story by Ray Bradbury “The Long Rain”, which is about a planet relentlessly soaked with rain with only one refuge – the Sun Dome. We actually used an old Sci film based on “The Long Rain”. The era of the film has its limitations on explaining the effects of a drenched planet. Nonetheless, with our song underneath the film it gets Bradbury’s vision across in a charming way – at least we feel it does.Wrap it all together and you got a certified GOTM single!
Who are your inspirations? What artists or bands are you listening to?
Our inspirations are bands like Thin Lizzy, QOTSA, Free, Sabbath, etc. Really any great hard rock band with screaming vocals and great guitars. That’s where we live. While a lot of our influences come from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s there are some great current bands in this arena that are making it happen.
What’s the process behind working on a song like?
Our formula for writing is that usually one of us comes in with a loose structure – sometimes it’s just a riff. From there we all add our ideas. We have a rule that all ideas are worth chasing, so if someone throws something out, we try it. Sometimes it sticks, others it doesn’t but we are better off for the process of welcoming all ideas. Everyone of our songs starts with the music – then the melody and lyrics come last. There are cases when we write songs rather quickly, and there have been cases when it’s taken a year for a song to fully form. The constant is that we all have input and it works.
Tell me about your upcoming music and what inspired you to create it!
The song we are set to release is one of our earliest originals – written in 2019 – called “Speed Kills”. This song started with a Zeppelin-style heavy riff. We wrote the verse and chorus pretty quickly, but we knew something was missing. We then wrote a break – the middle 8 as John Lennon called it – which builds up to the guitar lead and there you have it. All that was left was to write a melody and lyrics. One of us had some lyrics lying around about driving fast and all the parts that you need to make a car rip. It’s kind of an homage to “I’m In Love With My Car” and “Highway Star” though the song has its own unique style.
What are your plans for the rest of the year and beyond?
Short term, we hope that this new single expands our listening base and exposure. We have another single waiting in the wings and we’re going to hit the studio soon to record three more songs for release next year. We’ve made some headway playing some cool venues over the past few years and we want to build on that. Ultimately, we want to continue to write songs we believe in and that resonate with our fans.
Have any shoutouts?
Wayne Becker at Westwires USA, recorded, produced, and engineered all of our tracks. Raquel Digati who designed our logo and does the artwork for all of our singles, Julia Kender who handles our social media. And the biggest shoutout goes to the “Ghost Tribe” – our fans who support and inspire us.
As Ghost of The Mill looks to the future, they are eager to expand their reach and connect with a wider audience. The band is poised for exciting growth. With the support of their loyal “Ghost Tribe” fan base and a passion for crafting meaningful, hard-hitting music, Ghost of The Mill is ready to make its mark far beyond the Philly music scene. Tune in to the band’s music on Spotify or wherever you stream music.