With sonic landscapes, purposeful lyrics, and compelling melodies, socialghosts is a Los Angeles indie rock trio.
The band's current music repertoire has been entirely self-produced, written, recorded, and mixed. A collaboration between songwriters Connor Daniel (Vocals/Guitar/Bass), Sean Embrey-Stine (Vocals/Keys), and Dhruva Krishna (Drums/Guitar), the band has seen mass success without the help of a backing label.
Blending stylistic influences like The Band CAMINO, The 1975, and The Maine with the iconic sounds of The Beatles and The Beach Boys, socialghosts breathes new life into their music with a unique approach.
Taking in the colossal impact of socialghosts' most recent single, "Puzzle in the Dark," we're fully absorbed in the pop/rock-style vibes that have us up and out of our seats. The repetition of the buoyant guitar riffs has us immersed in a whirlwind of nostalgia as the comfort emanated from this key musical component tours us through the new wave of music that socialghosts bring to us.
Paired with rhythm you can't shake and the enormous percussion patterns captured, the instrumentation strikes up feel-good energy that you won't want to leave your side.
We admire the versatility that comes to us in the form of lead vocals on this record. We get to embrace the unique talents of this trio as the alluring timbres sweep you up into a soundscape that feeds your inner pop-punk desires. The buttery croons come to harmonize, and at the very end, we're left with the sweetly unraveled essence of what we like to call: great songwriting.
"Puzzle in the Dark" is everything we could imagine from a revival of some of the best years of our life. socialghosts' excel at leaving you wanting more, and to that, we patiently wait for what's next to come.
Welcome to BuzzMusic, socialghosts. We love your latest single, "Puzzle in the Dark." Can you please tour us through the inspiration that brought this song to fruition
Thank you for having us! Puzzle in the Dark was actually one of the first song ideas we had as a band - I recall us actually jamming an early version of it at our first-ever rehearsal. Musically, the original chorus was way more heavy rock style; we felt that it just wasn't right. We opted for a more danceable vibe for the chorus while making the rest of the song pure alternative indie-pop. Lyrically, the original theme of the song is saying something in a conversation that gets taken out of context, resulting in an awkward encounter/situation, but in retrospect, the lyrics actually describe the feelings one can experience in a multitude of situations. The final result of this song is something that we feel really represents us as a band.
What did the creative process entail when crafting this hit? Do you usually take this approach to the songs you release?
Creatively, it started with the guitar riffs heard in the intro section and we built from there. The piano part against the melodic picking guitar was a perfect combination and allowed for all of the other musical elements to sit comfortably over them. As far as vocal melodies are concerned, we really just bounced lyric ideas and melody ideas back and forth via our group text and then would jam it out in person to settle on a particular part. We spent many sessions over zoom during the height of the pandemic and then in person once things opened up a bit more to hammer out the finer details of the song - we tracked parts as we wrote them. It was a lengthy process but totally worth it. We take a unique approach to each song, but generally speaking, it's music first, then lyrics/vocal melodies.
In a song structured like "Puzzle in the Dark," what is the main message you hope is taken away from this piece?
We just hope that at minimum, people find this song catchy and enjoyable. We hope that folks can relate to the lyrics in some way or another to help get them through whatever it is they're going through.
What's your mission statement as a band? Have you found the band's evolution to fit in this statement, or has it changed over time?
That's a deep question! We don't necessarily have a "mission statement" other than that we love making music and we make music that we would want to listen to. We write what we are feeling at a certain point in time and try to be as authentic as possible. That said, we are open-minded and always want to push musical boundaries, expand our comfort zone, etc.
What's next for you? We have something special planned for February but it's a surprise! Looking beyond that, we have a new single dropping in March and our first show on April 2nd at Molly Malones in West Hollywood, CA so we are stoked about that. 2022 is definitely a year where we will be dropping lots of new music and content.