Interview by Rebecca Mae
Welcome to All Or Nothing, Domenic! How have you been?
I have been pretty well, been living the same day the past few months as most people
have.
Your newest single, “Save Graves” has such an interesting video! What inspired the cartoon style?
I have always been a film history buff, and I always found the early 20th century really aesthetically pleasing in film and animation. Animation is always dependent on how
appealing the character is, and it's very difficult to create something new with animation
and have it stick; so we decided to base it off of old “Silly Symphony" character designs
for the aesthetic. I'm also a huge Cuphead fan and this is one of the only chances I'll ever
get to do this in life. Yolo y’know?
What was the inspiration for the sound of “Save Graves”?
The song was mainly an accident really. I needed a bass before I headed out to Los Angeles to produce the songs we have been working on. I originally wanted a Hofnerviolin bass since I'm a Beatle fan. As soon as I ordered from Sweetwater they went out of stock and I was waiting for them to get restocked, and eventually Hofner just straight up stopped making basses and I was left with a day or so to find a bass to track with. I just scurried to make a quick decision and got a bass right when I was supposed to be heading out. I was packing with the bass on a strap and I was just walking around with it and playing gibberish and I just randomly played the opening bassline of the song and it immediately stuck with me. I had to quickly track it and I just kept going back to it between packing and I built the song up from there. I then took it to Eric Palmquist, and we laid down a lot of synth work on it. We wanted it
to sound like it came out of the late 70’s so we used a Prophet synth and actually borrowed a guitar and amp from Josh Klinghoffer of Red Hot Chili Peppers (thank you Josh).
Does Ghost Club aim to have a strong artistic presence in music, similar to the conceptual and interactive albums of Twenty One Pilots?
It’s a really cool thing to see concept albums and albums that have world building and their own lore behind it. My brain just doesn't fire on enough cylinders for that to be a reality at this time. I'm just going try to keep making songs and maybe someday if I find out what 2+2 is and find out why 6 is afraid of 7 I will give it a swing. Just going keep working on it in the meantime.
What are some dream collaborations of yours, whether its music, production, or art?
For me, I'm not too much of a fan of features because I hate impeding and wouldn't want to barge in on someone else's project or creative vision, but I love meeting producers. Producers are some of the most underrated human beings in existence considering they put the entire audible end of the music industry on their shoulders. I don't really have any particular in mind considering I had a really good synergy with Eric Palmquist, and when there's good creative energy you want to keep that going, but I'm always open to working with anyone interested because it's always nice to see how other people work.
How did you come across Federico Bressan, the artist behind the “Save Graves” music video?
I just decided to go onto Instagram and look through the #animator hashtag. I found
something that I liked and eventually reached out to him. The animation community is a
very supportive and tight knit community and it was cool to see everything come together the way it did.
The Ghost Club is a fairly new project. Have you always been making music with the intent to do it professionally?
Until late 2018, I wasn’t making music at all. I was a film student and just decided one night that I wanted to make music. Some force came over me and since that night, it has been the only thing really on my mind. I'm still trying to figure everything out and I'm more or less stumbling through this all.
You have worked with some incredible producers, including Matt Squire and Eric Palmquist. Do you think they helped you shape your sound?
They are completely responsible for the sound. Without them there would not be The Ghost Club. The world of audio engineering itself is an incredibly complicated one, and on top of that a producer must be right brain oriented and they have to have that artistic flair inside of them. If there were no producers, there wouldn't be music. Thanks Matt and Eric. You guys are rad.
Who are some of your greatest musical influences?
Huge Springsteen fan. That’s actually what converted me to wanting to be a musician. I saw him live in concert and thought “That guy literally gets to do that every day and gets to make people the way I'm feeling right now”. And I want to be able to do what he did to me to others, even if it is in the smallest portion there is. If I can make one person feel the way that guy made me feel that night, my life will come full circle. Sonically speaking I am really vibing with Dayglow, The 1975’s second album, and IDKHOW. It always changes though. I am very indecisive and never really like sticking around one thing in particular. I am hoping that this can keep creativity going.